Aligners in Munich: Clear Braces for Adults

Moving teeth with aligners works for crowding, gaps, rotated front teeth, and many types of malocclusions. Even if your teeth have shifted slightly since a previous treatment, aligners are often the gentler way to correct the issue. What an aligner can do for your teeth depends on the diagnosis, not on your personal preference. The key factors are the position of the root, the available bone space, and the type of movement required: Tilting a tooth is easier than moving it along with its root or rotating it around its own axis. That’s why two front tooth gaps that look identical don’t necessarily mean they’ll require the same treatment approach. Relapses following treatment during adolescence are the most common reason for seeking treatment. As orthodontists, we also provide these corrective treatments for patients in Bogenhausen and Arabellapark, because front tooth correction can be planned with eight to ten weeks between checkups.

One group benefits in particular. People who play a wind instrument find the aligner much easier to use than fixed braces because it doesn't press against the inside of the lip and doesn't interfere with their embouchure.

So much for suitability. It has its limitations, and we'd rather address those during the initial consultation than during the planning meeting.

We do not use aligners for extensive prosthetic restorations. Crowns and bridges do not provide sufficient stability for the aligner, and attachments do not adhere as well to ceramic as they do to enamel.

The one true contraindication is a pronounced, skeletal deep bite. In such cases, the lingual technique is superior, and we say so openly rather than trying to treat it with aligners.

For teenagers, we only treat them with aligners at the express request of their parents. The aligners are effective only as long as they are worn, and compliance is too unreliable in this age group. For teenagers, fixed braces are generally the more reliable option.

One of the drawbacks of aligners is precisely this reliance on your cooperation. If you don’t wear the aligner often enough, treatment will take longer—and no one will notice this sooner than you. On top of that, there’s an adjustment period of one to two weeks during which your speech may sound strange and the aligner may feel tight. Both of these issues will pass, and we’ll let you know about them in advance. An orthodontic aligner simply isn’t a device that works without your cooperation.

If you read about people’s experiences with clear aligners online, these are the two topics that come up most often. Such reports are isolated cases; your diagnosis is what matters most. A common misconception concerns the aligner itself: It is not a retainer but an active device, and it is intentionally designed to fit snugly. Anyone weighing the disadvantages of clear aligners against those of fixed braces should therefore not pit comfort against comfort, but rather cooperation against visibility. Dr. Pfeil, an orthodontist in Munich, will tell you which of these applies to your specific case after your diagnosis.

SPARK and rails manufactured in-house

We work exclusively with a single manufacturer’s system: SPARK by Ormco. Dr. Dominik Pfeil, D.D.S., an orthodontist in Munich and a specialist in orthodontics, is the sole practitioner here and holds the highest user status awarded by the manufacturer for SPARK. In our view, truly mastering a single system makes more sense than offering three side by side, because every planning software has its own limitations—and you can only understand those through experience. How well aligner therapy ultimately turns out depends less on the manufacturer than on the planning.

On top of that, there’s something that’s rare in Munich: We also manufacture the aligners ourselves. We scan them, design them in OnyxCeph, and print them on a Formlabs large-format printer—sixteen models per print run—all in-house. We use these in-house aligners for three purposes:

• Front tooth corrections on a "three-by-three" basis, that is, on the six front teeth
• Relapse, when the teeth have shifted again after a retainer breaks
• Finishing touches after treatment with fixed braces, when there are still minor details to address

In these cases, in-house production is faster because there’s no need to go through a manufacturer. What would otherwise take weeks can then be done in days. This means that a lost rail usually won’t require a second trip.

At Ortholoft, treatment doesn’t start with a dental impression. The digital dental impression is created using an intraoral scan, which takes about three minutes. Each individual clear aligner—that is, each transparent dental tray—is later fabricated from this scan. There’s no impression material involved here. We don’t even have the trays for that in-house. Braces without an impression are therefore not a special case for us, but rather the standard, and the digital dental impression is more accurate for aligner planning anyway.

We’ll meet three times before treatment begins. During the initial consultation, we’ll discuss your concerns, examine you, and take a digital dental impression; if indicated, the initial diagnostic evaluation will follow immediately so you won’t have to come in a second time for the results. One to two weeks later, we’ll have a treatment planning meeting where we’ll go over the OnyxCeph simulation together. This is a planning tool and not a guarantee; it shows the intended sequence of movements. At the third appointment, we’ll place the attachments and provide you with your first aligner.

After that, you’ll change the aligner yourself every ten days, and follow-up appointments are scheduled every eight to ten weeks. If, at the end of the treatment, some teeth are still not properly aligned, a refinement phase with a new set of aligners will follow, and this is typically included in our treatment package.

At ortholoft, aligner treatment lasts an average of about twelve months. For minor corrections to the front teeth, it can be significantly shorter; for complex cases, it can take longer. An aligner for adults does not take any longer than one for teenagers; the bone simply responds a little more slowly. We’ll let you know how long you’ll need to wear your aligners after the initial evaluation, not before.

What really determines the duration is how long you wear the aligner. The aligner only works when it’s in your mouth, and you should wear it for most of the day and throughout the night. You should take it out when eating, drinking anything other than water, and brushing your teeth. Clean it with cold water; aligner cleaning tabs are sufficient once a week.

Aligner treatment rarely goes exactly as planned, and that’s normal. Teeth move at different rates, and bone responds differently from person to person, which is why we check at every follow-up appointment to see if the aligners still fit. If the treatment is falling behind schedule, we make adjustments instead of simply continuing through the series. That’s exactly what refinements are for.

There are eight to ten weeks between checkups, which amounts to six visits per year. This keeps the trip to the orthodontist manageable even for patients in Garching, Unterföhring, and Ismaning. Once the final retainer is in place, the retention phase begins. We use fixed retainers as standard—digitally planned via RetainerHub—and offer a two-year warranty on the retainers we fit. With consistent wear and annual checkups, the results remain stable over the long term.

Anyone who wants straight teeth immediately thinks of braces. Today, however, there are several ways to straighten teeth, and aligners are one of them. A dental aligner for straightening teeth works on the same biological principles as fixed braces, but with a different mechanism: It moves each tooth in many small steps, acting on the entire row of teeth at the same time. This is a planned sequence, not a one-time procedure. Straightening your teeth therefore means following each step exactly; otherwise, the next-but-one aligner won’t fit properly.

Strictly speaking, there’s no such thing as straight teeth without braces, because even a clear aligner is a type of brace. However, it is certainly possible to have straight teeth without fixed braces. Technically, this type of device is called a dental correction aligner; in Bavaria, we sometimes still hear it referred to as “tooth regulation.” Anyone who wants to straighten their teeth without it being noticeable almost always ends up choosing an aligner. As a modern type of braces without brackets, it requires no adhesive bonds on the teeth at all, apart from the attachments. It does not replace the diagnostic process; rather, it is the result of that process.

The choice between the two options is not merely a matter of personal preference. Fixed braces move the teeth more reliably and do not require patient cooperation. Clear aligners are more discreet and offer greater flexibility in daily life. The best option for each individual case is therefore determined by a diagnostic evaluation, which is performed by an orthodontist before the first aligner is made. As an alternative to fixed braces, aligners are a viable option in many cases, but not for very severe misalignments. Modern braces without brackets are therefore possible, but they are not necessarily the better choice in every case.

We’ve described the pros and cons in detail in the article “Aligners or Fixed Braces.” For adults whose jobs require a lot of speaking, clear aligners are the more practical option in most cases. Straight teeth are just as much of a goal for adults as they are for teenagers; it’s just that the path to achieving them is planned differently: Rotating a single front tooth often requires only a few aligners. This can be achieved at any age, and for most people, aligners are the more realistic alternative to fixed braces.

In Munich’s orthodontic practice, aligners are not a product sold by mail order, but rather a treatment that includes diagnosis, planning, and follow-up. Here is a complete overview of what is involved before the first aligner is fitted and throughout the entire treatment process:

• In-office photographs, lateral cephalometric X-rays, and panoramic X-rays, along with cephalometric analysis
• Planning in OnyxCeph, reviewed together during the planning meeting
• Attachments and Enamel Reduction by the Dentist
• Checkup every eight to ten weeks
• Refinements are typically included in the treatment package
• Same-day emergency appointment for a loose attachment or a broken splint
• Retainer, annual checkup, two-year warranty

An orthodontist in Munich designs aligners not based on a photo, but on a diagnostic evaluation. An online aligner test cannot do this because it cannot see the roots or the bone, and therefore cannot replace a consultation. At ortholoft, aligners are not a product category but a treatment path: a professional reviews the progress if tooth movement isn’t proceeding as planned. If you’ve already started aligner therapy and are unsure, we’d be happy to provide a second opinion. The services provided by a specialist in orthodontics in Munich don’t end with the last aligner: they include four professional teeth cleanings per year, refinements (usually included), and a two-year warranty on the retainer.

At your first appointment, you’ll discuss your concerns with Dr. Dominik Pfeil, an orthodontist in Munich, and we’ll examine your teeth. This is followed by an intraoral scan—no impressions required. You’ll receive a clear assessment of whether aligners are a good option for you, along with a clear recommendation on how to proceed. For those with public health insurance and for self-pay patients, the initial consultation is free of charge and comes with no obligation. The consultation itself lasts five to fifteen minutes, but we’ll set aside half an hour so there’s plenty of time to answer your questions. Please bring any relevant documents with you: current X-rays, the name of your dental practice, and records from any previous orthodontic treatment.

You can reach us by phone at 089 20001060 or online through our appointment scheduling system; our office is located at Nordendstraße 56. You can find an overview of all orthodontic treatments in Munich on our page for adults.