A thin teal horizon line with a small coral mark.Florida Smile Works
Linen field with a teal arc and a coral line.

Aligners

Orthodontic treatment corrects the position of teeth. A Cochrane Oral Health summary dated 31 August 2023 says it "is used to correct the position of teeth in adolescents and adults when they experience problems with their teeth and bite." Clear aligners are one kind of orthodontic appliance; fixed braces are another.

Education, not a dental practice. Florida Smile Works does not examine, diagnose, or treat.

Short answer

Plan for months, possibly years. That Cochrane summary says treatment "may range from several months to several years. However, most full orthodontic treatments take typically around 20 months." That is the summary's typical range, not a promise for any one person. Two add-on procedures meant to shorten treatment didn't hold up: the review "did not find a benefit from the use of light vibrational forces or photobiomodulation for the reduction of orthodontic treatment duration."

What a Florida reader should know

The summary describes the two kinds of appliance in its studies: "fixed braces (made up of brackets glued to the teeth and then connected by wires) and removable appliances, e.g. clear aligners, which are a set of clear plastic removable gum shields that fit closely over the teeth."

People in the studies were treated with either fixed appliances or removable aligners. What the review compared was the add-on procedures, vibration and photobiomodulation, not aligners against braces. It says: "Our certainty about the evidence is low to very low." The evidence is current up to September 2022.

A separate Cochrane summary, also dated 31 August 2023, is about what happens after braces: "Teeth can become crooked again after being straightened with orthodontic braces ('relapse')." On ways of holding teeth straight afterward, it says: "We cannot draw firm conclusions about any one approach to retention over another because we have little confidence in the evidence."

Both are research summaries. They are not Florida law and not a recommendation from Florida Smile Works. In Florida, you can verify a dentist's license on the Board of Dentistry's site.

What to do next

  1. Read the Cochrane summary on speeding up tooth movement.
  2. Read the Cochrane summary on retention after braces.
  3. Verify the license yourself with "Verify a License" on the Florida Board of Dentistry site or "License Verification" on the MQA search home. See Choose a dentist for more to check.
  4. Ask a licensed dentist the questions below.

Questions worth asking a licensed dentist

Sources