Wearing the aligners was an ongoing topic for us

The orthodontist recommended removable aligners, so we went with them because they seemed to be the most practical, clean and aesthetically pleasing option.

And I think it's easier for kids to take care of their teeth with aligners. Food is more likely to get stuck if they have fixed brackets and wires on their teeth. And aligners definitely look nicer.

But it was important to me that the aligners were just as effective as fixed braces, otherwise we wouldn’t have gone with them.

Those advantages also come at a price, though. Statutory health insurers don’t cover the costs of aligners in Germany, and it's pretty expensive overall: The orthodontist estimated that it would cost 4,000 to 5,000 Euros in total. But we've already spent more than 6,000 Euros and aren't finished yet. I'll bring that up at the next check-up.

The problem was that Leila didn’t always regularly wear the aligners. And then the next ones didn’t fit properly. New ones had to be ordered from the States. But I'm still surprised because at first they said that doing that wouldn’t cost more.

There were some phases when she didn’t regularly wear the aligners even though we reminded her all the time. And they sometimes hurt her, particularly when she was going to sleep and at night. Her mucous membranes were also oversensitive, with bleeding gums, irritations and sores. But the treatment generally isn't painful.

I'm very happy with the outcome. You can already see that things have improved a lot. You can still see her overbite, but the gap is much smaller.