Invisalign is a popular alternative to traditional braces and for good reason. With Invisalign, you don’t have to deal with bulky and highly visible tooth-adjustment apparatus. You can go about your daily life with minimal impact to your self-confidence. However, Invisalign can also be pretty expensive. On the bright side, there are a lot of factors that can influence that price, so if you can determine what impacts the price and how, you may be able to find a very affordable solution in your area. To help you do that, here’s a breakdown of Invisalign prices Los Angeles.

The Big Picture

If you don’t know what Invisalign is, it’s a brand of orthodontic aligners. Their big claim to fame is that they are transparent, making them practically invisible in your day-to-day life. They can be spotted if someone is up close and looking right into your mouth, but nobody is going to notice them when you’re just talking and smiling normally.

Invisalign Cost | Affordable Invisalign | Is Invisalign Worth it

Average Cost of Invisalign in Los Angeles

The bottom line is that Invisalign can cost anywhere from $3500 to $8500. This is a pretty massive range, so it’s pretty clear that a thrifty patient will want to spend around $4000 rather than more than twice that.

If you want to get a rough idea of where you stand currently, there are cost calculators out there that can help you. Invisalign themselves offer a cost calculator on their website that can give you a rough estimate of how much you would pay right now. Obviously, there are a ton of other factors to consider, but this can give you a good starting point.

Added Costs

Getting Invisalign is a pretty long process that involves a number of costly steps. Just getting a consultation can be a few hundred dollars, then you will need to have x-rays done to determine how your teeth growing. Those x-rays can cost anywhere from $20 to $250, plus you might need to get them done multiple times throughout the process to make sure progress is going well.

Beyond that, you may also need to get some extra treatment as well. Treatment with a retainer can quickly add up to hundreds of dollars. However, if you don’t need too much correction and want to save money, there are some specific solutions like Invisalign Express out there.

How to Find Affordable Invisalign

No matter what solution you choose, there are likely a few ways you can bring the price down to a more manageable level. However, there is one big problem that you need to be aware of early on: invisible braces are not usually seen as medically necessary. This plays a huge role in how much your insurance will contribute. They may be willing to chip in more for traditional braces than invisible braces, so keep that in mind.

Ways to Get Affordable Invisalign

• Insurance – Whether your dental insurance covers Invisalign will come down to who you have coverage with. Some providers can help you out with $1000-$1500 per year, whereas others might not be willing to help at all. If you’ve got a good plan, there may be a specific braces limit as high as $3500.
• Government programs – Covering Invisalign through government programs can be tricky, but it does happen sometimes. Medicare generally won’t help much, but Medicaid and CHIP might.
• Dental discount memberships – There are a number of providers of dental discount memberships, which function a little differently than insurance. Rather than capping their contributions, they cover a percentage of the bill with no limit on the actual amount. This can end up being more effective than insurance, but you also need to consider if the price of membership is worth it.
• Care Credit – Low monthly payments with Care Credit.

On top of that, you also want to take the standard steps of shopping around and comparing prices, negotiating, and even signing up for clinical trials. However, the most important step is making sure that you use your Invisalign correctly once you get it. Paying thousands for invisible braces is one thing, but paying a lot for nothing is far worse and that’s exactly what will happen if you misuse your Invisalign and need to have the procedure done again from the start.

Is Invisalign Worth It?

At the end of the day, Invisalign will still probably cost you upwards of $1000 dollars. That does sound like a lot, but the benefits can be tremendous as well. Over the course of years, the boost in self-confidence can be dramatic, with you saving plenty of stress you would have spent worrying about what your mouth looks like.

Furthermore, it’s important to not compare Invisalign with spending nothing, but rather with the price of traditional braces. If your teeth are in need of correction, then it probably needs to be done either way for the sake of your dental health. When examined from this angle, you aren’t spending thousands and thousands on getting invisible braces, but rather a few hundred extra on getting invisible braces over traditional, bulk, ugly metal braces.