Invisalign in Houston, start to finish
Invisalign straightens your teeth with a series of clear, removable aligners instead of metal brackets. It is $3,500 here, the same as traditional braces, so the choice comes down to your bite rather than your budget. Treatment is planned by Dr. Bernard Boback, our Harvard trained orthodontist, at our Midtown Houston office.
Book a consultationWhat Invisalign Costs in Houston
$3,500. Traditional braces are also $3,500 and lingual braces are $8,000. Retainers after treatment are $250. One fee, quoted after the exam, covering the aligners, the attachments, your check-in visits and the refinements if your teeth do not track exactly to plan. Not a starting price that grows as you go. Orthodontic insurance benefits work differently from the rest of a dental plan. They usually carry a separate lifetime maximum rather than an annual one, and many plans set an age cutoff. Whether yours contributes at all depends entirely on your policy, so we verify your specific orthodontic benefit with your insurer before you start and give you your share in writing rather than estimating it. FSA and HSA funds cover orthodontic treatment, which is how a good number of our adult patients pay for it. Cherry, Affirm and Sunbit split the balance into monthly payments, and Affirm and Cherry offer 0% APR plans. Applying takes a few minutes and does not require a hard credit check to see your options. Full detail, including what changes the number, is in our Invisalign cost guide.
| Treatment | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Invisalign | $3,500 |
| Traditional braces | $3,500 |
| Lingual braces | $8,000 |
| Retainers after treatment | $250 |
How Invisalign Works
A tooth sits in a socket suspended by a ligament, and it can move. Each aligner is shaped slightly differently from your current bite, so it applies gentle continuous pressure. Bone is resorbed on the pressure side and rebuilt on the other, and the tooth migrates about a quarter of a millimeter per aligner. We take a digital scan, not a tray of putty. That scan goes into the planning software, where your orthodontist maps out where every tooth has to end up and in what order. You see the projected outcome before you agree to anything. The aligners arrive in two to three weeks. You change to the next set every one to two weeks at home and come in every six to ten weeks so we can check the teeth are tracking to plan. Most cases run 12 to 24 months. Minor corrections finish sooner. The number of aligners tells you more about your case than the number of months does, and we give you both at the consultation. More on the mechanics in our guide to how Invisalign works.
Who It Works For, and Who It Does Not
Invisalign handles crowding, spacing, relapse after childhood braces, and mild to moderate bite correction. Adults and teenagers both do well with it. Where it is harder or outside range: severe rotations, especially on round teeth like premolars; moving a tooth a long way vertically; large skeletal discrepancies where the jaws rather than the teeth are the problem; and complex cases needing extractions. The claim that clear aligners treat any case is marketing. Some of those situations become possible with attachments, elastics and a well built plan. Some do not, and traditional braces at the same $3,500 are simply the better mechanics. There is also a compliance question, and it is worth being honest with yourself about it. Aligners work only while they are in your mouth. If you know you will not wear them 20 to 22 hours a day, braces will finish your case better and we will tell you so at the consultation rather than after you have paid. We also treat the mouth before we move it. Active decay or gum inflammation gets handled first, because aligners only move teeth that have a solid foundation under them.
How to Choose an Invisalign Provider in Houston
Almost any dentist can order Invisalign. That is worth knowing, because the aligners are the same product everywhere and the difference between a good result and a mediocre one is the plan behind them. Five questions worth asking any Houston practice before you commit: • Who designs the treatment plan? The software proposes a sequence; a clinician decides it. Ask whether an orthodontist is doing that or whether it is being sent off and accepted as returned. • Are refinements included? Most cases need a second set of aligners to finish properly. Ask whether that is in the fee or billed later. • What do retainers cost, and are they included? A treatment quote without a retainer answer is incomplete. • What happens if the case stops tracking? Every honest provider has had this happen. Ask what the plan is. • What is the total, in writing, before you start? We answer all five at the consultation without being asked. Ours are: Dr. Boback plans every case, refinements are included, retainers are $250, a case that stops tracking gets rescanned and replanned at no additional charge, and you get the full number in writing.
What Happens at Your First Visit
The consultation is free and takes about 45 minutes. It starts with a straightforward exam. We check the health of your teeth and gums before anything else. If there is an active cavity or gum inflammation, we take care of that first. Then photographs, X rays and a digital scan of your bite. The scan feeds your plan, and you see how your teeth are projected to move, set by set, on screen while you are still in the chair. We talk through roughly how many aligners your case is likely to need, how often you would come in, and what daily life looks like once you start. Before you commit to anything you get the plan and the cost in writing, including what your specific insurance benefit does and does not cover once we have verified it. If we think braces would give you a better result, that is the visit where we say so.
Wearing Your Aligners Day to Day
Twenty to twenty two hours a day. In practice they stay in except when you eat, drink anything other than water, brush or floss. What happens below that is not that treatment slows proportionally. The aligners stop tracking, a gap opens between the plastic and the biting edge of a tooth, the next set will not seat, and you end up needing a new scan and a new set. That is how an 18 month case becomes a 30 month case. Take them out to eat, then brush before putting them back in. Coffee, tea and red wine stain the plastic if you drink through your trays, and sugar trapped against enamel for 22 hours a day causes cavities. Rinse them in cool water and brush them gently with a soft brush. Never hot water, a dishwasher or boiling, all of which warp the plastic permanently and ruin the fit. Carry the case. Aligners wrapped in a napkin get thrown away, and that is genuinely the most common way patients lose a set. One practical trick: change to a new aligner at bedtime rather than in the morning, so the tightest hours pass while you are asleep.
Attachments, Refinements and Check-in Visits
Most cases use attachments, small tooth colored bumps bonded to a few teeth to give the smooth plastic something to grip. They are the reason aligners can handle rotations and other harder movements, and they come off at the end. Anyone promising a completely invisible treatment with no attachments on a complex case is overselling. Some cases also need a small amount of space created between crowded teeth so those teeth have somewhere to move. The first day or two in a new set feels tight and sometimes a little sore. That pressure is the movement happening and it settles within 48 hours. Over the counter pain relief is enough for most people. Check-in visits are short. We confirm your teeth are tracking with the plan and hand you the next several sets to take home. There is nothing to tighten. Refinements are normal, not a failure. Toward the end of most cases we rescan and order a final short series to close out the details. It is included in your fee.
Retainers and Holding Your Result
Teeth do not stay where you put them. They drift back toward where they started, and the pull is strongest during the first year after treatment. Retainers are $250. Most patients wear them full time for a short stretch, then nights indefinitely. Some bites are better served by a thin wire bonded behind the front teeth, which removes the need to remember anything at all, and for someone who has already relapsed once that is usually the better answer. This is the step that decides whether you are still happy in five years. A large share of the adults who come to us about teeth shifting had orthodontic treatment as teenagers and stopped wearing their retainer. Retainers wear out and they get lost. Watch for cracks or a fit that has gone loose, and tell us early so we can replace one before your teeth have a chance to move.
Invisalign for Teens
Invisalign treats most of what braces treat in a teenager, and the teen version includes eruption tabs that leave room for molars still coming in, plus blue compliance indicators on each aligner that fade with wear so you can see at a glance whether they are actually being worn. The honest conversation with a teenage case is not about the technology. It is about whether this particular teenager will wear them 22 hours a day. Braces work whether or not anyone remembers them, and for some 14 year olds that is the deciding factor. We will give you a straight read on that at the consultation rather than selling you the more expensive option and hoping.
Booking Invisalign in Midtown Houston
Your treatment is planned and supervised by Dr. Bernard Boback, our orthodontist, who trained at Harvard. Orthodontics is his specialty rather than a service the practice also offers, and that matters most on the cases sitting at the edge of what aligners can do. Being multispecialty helps here too. If your gums need attention before treatment, our periodontist Dr. Shirin Farhadian handles it in the same building. If a tooth needs restoring first, that happens here as well. Nothing gets referred out and nothing waits three weeks for another office to call you back. We are at 106 W Gray Street in Midtown, between Downtown and the Texas Medical Center, with parking on site. We treat patients from Midtown, Montrose, River Oaks, the Heights, EaDo, the Museum District and across greater Houston. Saturday appointments run 9 to 3, which matters when treatment means occasional short visits over a year or more. The consultation is free and includes the scan. We can usually see you within a few days. Call (713) 322-7474 or book online. Spanish-speaking staff are available every day.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Invisalign cost in Houston?
Invisalign is $3,500 at Omega Dental Specialists in Midtown Houston, the same as traditional braces. Lingual braces are $8,000 and retainers after treatment are $250. The fee covers the aligners, attachments, check-in visits and refinements. We verify your orthodontic insurance benefit with your insurer before you start and give you your share in writing.
Is Invisalign more expensive than braces?
Not here. Both are $3,500 at Omega Dental Specialists, which is unusual and genuinely useful, because it means the decision comes down to your bite and your habits rather than your budget. Where a case can be treated either way, that choice is yours to make.
How long does Invisalign take?
Typically 12 to 24 months, though minor corrections finish sooner and complex cases run longer. The number of aligners tells you more than the number of months, since each one produces about a quarter of a millimeter of movement. Your timeline depends heavily on wear time: aligners worn under 20 hours a day extend treatment considerably rather than slightly.
Does Invisalign hurt?
The first day or two in each new aligner feels tight and the teeth are tender, which is the pressure producing the movement. It settles within about 48 hours and most patients need nothing stronger than ibuprofen. Changing aligners at bedtime means the tightest hours pass while you are asleep.
Can teenagers get Invisalign?
Yes. The teen version includes eruption tabs that allow for molars still coming in and blue compliance indicators that fade with wear, so wear time is visible rather than guessed at. The real question is not the technology but whether that particular teenager will wear them 20 to 22 hours a day. We give parents a straight read on that at the consultation.
What happens if my teeth stop tracking with the plan?
It happens, and it is almost always wear time rather than the plan. We rescan, replan and order a new series at no additional charge. Refinements toward the end of treatment are normal and included in your fee. Ask any provider you are considering what their policy is, because this is where quotes differ.
Where can I get Invisalign in Houston?
Omega Dental Specialists provides Invisalign at 106 W Gray Street in Midtown Houston, between Downtown and the Texas Medical Center, easily reached from Montrose, River Oaks, the Heights and the Museum District. Treatment is planned by Dr. Bernard Boback, our Harvard trained orthodontist. The consultation is free. Call (713) 322-7474.
Ready to talk it through?
The fastest way to a clear answer is a consultation. Call (713) 322-7474 or book online. Orthodontics in Houston