Why is Invisalign so expensive?

With Invisalign you’re paying for three things at once: a custom-manufactured medical device made in Align Technology’s lab, several months of a dentist’s planning and supervision, and the retainers that keep the result for life. All three cost the practice money to provide. The confusing part is that UK clinics quote anything from under £1,500 to over £5,000 for what’s often the same aligner system. Most of that gap has nothing to do with the plastic.

Below is where the money goes, why quotes vary so much, and how we got to our fixed prices of £1,495, £2,495 and £2,995.

• ✓  The lab fee. Every Invisalign case is manufactured to order by Align Technology from your 3D scan: the ClinCheck planning software, the SmartTrack material and every aligner in the series. The clinic pays Align a fee per case, which goes up with the size of the course. It’s the biggest single cost in any Invisalign price.
• ✓  The dentist’s time. A consultation, the design and approval of your ClinCheck plan, the fitting with attachments and any IPR, a review roughly every eight weeks for the length of treatment, and the fitting of retainers at the end. Over a nine-month case that adds up to a lot of chair time with a GDC-registered dentist.
• ✓  The equipment. An iTero scanner is a big purchase for a practice. It’s why you don’t need putty impressions, and why you can see a preview the same day.
• ✓  Refinements. Many cases need a short extra set of aligners at the end to finish one or two teeth. That’s another lab order and another visit.
• ✓  Retainers. Removable retainers and a fixed wire retainer, made and fitted at the end. Without them the teeth drift back, so we count them as part of the treatment.
• ✓  Running a dental practice. Premises, nurses, decontamination, indemnity, regulation and compliance. Those overheads sit behind every treatment a practice offers.

If the lab fee and the dentist’s time are broadly similar everywhere, why does one clinic quote £2,500 and another £5,500? Published central London prices for Invisalign typically run from £2,500 to £5,500. The gap comes from five things:

• ✓  Which Invisalign product. Invisalign Go and Go Plus cover the front teeth and premolars. Invisalign Comprehensive covers unlimited aligners and complex bites, usually with an orthodontist, and has a higher lab fee. So a Comprehensive quote and a Go quote aren’t for the same treatment.
• ✓  What’s in the quote. Some headline prices are for the aligners only, with retainers, refinements, whitening and even review visits added afterwards. Others, ours included, cover all of it. Compare the final bill, not the first number.
• ✓  Location. A clinic on a central London high street pays a very different rent from one in a suburb, and it shows on the price list.
• ✓  Who treats you. An orthodontist’s time is priced differently from a general dentist’s, and both are different from a chain where a sales consultant does the first appointment.
• ✓  Marketing. Some practices spend a lot on advertising and offers. That money comes back somewhere.

Toothi is in Edgware, at the top of the Northern line, not on a central London high street. We provide Invisalign Go and Go Plus, which cover the front-teeth cases most adults ask about. Complex cases that need full Invisalign with an orthodontist are referred on rather than priced in. Each package has one fixed price with everything already in it (see the table below), so nothing gets added after your scan. That’s what makes these prices possible, and why every patient pays the same.

Included in every Invisalign package: iTero 3D scan and ClinCheck · all review appointments · refinement aligners if needed · removable and fixed retainers · Airflow hygiene clean · Boutique teeth whitening. There are no add-ons. The full price list is on our fees page, and UK and London comparisons are in our Invisalign cost guide and London Invisalign prices compared.

Price on its own tells you very little. Still, if a quote is far below the rest, check a few things. Is it actual Invisalign from Align, or another aligner brand described loosely? Is the person treating you a GDC-registered dentist? Are reviews, refinements and retainers included, or will they appear on a later invoice? And are you seeing a dentist at the consultation, or a sales team? There’s more on this in is cheap Invisalign safe.

Any treatment over £250 can be spread over up to 10 months at 0% interest, or over up to 60 months at 12.9% APR representative (fixed). Finance is provided by Tabeo and is subject to status. Representative example (Invisalign Go Express only): £1,495 over 60 months = 12.9% APR fixed, £33.06 a month, cost of credit £488.71, total to pay back £1,983.71. This is the only monthly figure we publish. More in our monthly payments guide.

If you’re local to North London, our Invisalign in Edgware page explains the consultation, the iTero 3D scan and your package options.