How Aalto Clear Aligners Are Made

Inside Our Sydney Manufacturing Facility

Most people who wear clear aligners never see where they come from.

A box arrives at your home, or you collect your aligners from your dentist, and that's usually the end of the story.

But you're wearing those aligners for around 20–22 hours a day. They're an important part of your treatment, so we think it's reasonable to know how they're made.

That's why we opened the doors to the Aalto manufacturing facility in Sydney and filmed the process from start to finish.

Here's what happens behind the scenes before an Aalto clear aligner reaches you.

It starts with a treatment plan

An aligner doesn't start with a machine.

It starts with a clinical assessment and a treatment plan.

Your teeth are assessed, scanned and planned according to the movements required for your individual treatment. Depending on the case, specialist orthodontic input may form part of the treatment-planning process, with your treating dentist reviewing and approving the plan.

Only once the treatment plan has been approved does manufacturing begin.

The manufacturing facility doesn't decide where your teeth should move.

Its job is to accurately produce the aligners required to deliver the approved plan.

From digital treatment plan to physical aligner

Your treatment consists of a sequence of stages.

Each stage represents a planned position of your teeth.

The manufacturing process turns those digital stages into physical models and then into individual aligners.

1. Your treatment plan becomes a 3D model

The digital treatment plan is used to create a physical model corresponding to each stage.

Each model represents the position your teeth are intended to reach at that point in treatment.

2. The aligner material is formed

A sheet of orthodontic material is formed over the corresponding model to create the shape of the aligner.

Aalto uses Zendura FLX, a multi-layer orthodontic material manufactured by Bay Materials.

Material selection is one part of the manufacturing process, alongside treatment planning, forming, cutting and quality control.

3. Each aligner is laser marked

The individual aligners are laser marked for identification and traceability.

This allows the aligner to be associated with the relevant treatment stage and patient information within the manufacturing process.

Traceability matters because a treatment can involve numerous aligners, and each one needs to correspond to the correct stage.

4. The aligner is precision cut

Once the material has been formed, the aligner is cut using automated machinery.

We don't rely on manually cutting each aligner.

The trim line is an important part of the finished appliance. Consistent automated cutting helps reduce variability and provides a repeatable manufacturing process.

5. The aligner is cleaned

After forming and cutting, the aligner is washed to remove manufacturing residue.

The aligner then progresses through the remaining quality-control process.

6. Quality checks

Each aligner is checked before it is packaged.

The manufacturing team checks the finished product against the requirements of the production process before it leaves the facility.

7. Packaging and delivery

Once the aligners have passed the necessary checks, they're packaged and prepared for delivery to the treating dental practice.

From there, they form part of your treatment journey.

What is Zendura FLX?

The material used to manufacture an aligner matters.

Aalto uses Zendura FLX, a multi-layer orthodontic material developed for clear aligner applications.

The manufacturer describes Zendura FLX as a material designed to combine flexibility, force delivery and durability.

For patients, the important point is that your aligners aren't simply generic pieces of plastic.

They're manufactured from a material selected specifically for orthodontic use and formed around the individual stages of your treatment plan.

Why precision matters

An aligner needs to fit closely around the planned tooth positions.

Manufacturing isn't about making something that simply looks like an aligner.

The physical appliance needs to correspond to the digital treatment plan from which it was produced.

Small variations in forming, cutting or finishing can affect the finished product, which is why consistency is important throughout the process.

Why don't we cut aligners by hand?

Manual cutting introduces another source of variability.

When you're producing a large number of individual aligners, consistency matters.

Automated precision cutting allows the trim line to be produced according to the manufacturing specifications rather than relying on a person manually cutting every tray.

It's not necessarily the most visible part of the process, but it's one of the details that matters when you're producing treatment appliances at scale.

Is every aligner made separately?

Each stage of your treatment corresponds to an individual aligner.

The production process therefore needs to maintain the connection between your treatment plan, the relevant model, the aligner produced from that model and the final packaging.

That's why identification and traceability are built into the manufacturing process.

Manufacturing is only one part of treatment

It's easy to focus on the physical aligner because that's what patients see.

But the manufacturing process is only one part of the overall treatment journey.

Before manufacturing, there is:

Assessment → scanning → treatment planning → clinical approval

Then comes:

Manufacturing → quality control → delivery

And during treatment:

Aligner wear → monitoring → clinical review → refinements where required → retention

Each part matters.

A perfectly manufactured aligner can't compensate for an inappropriate treatment plan, and a good treatment plan still needs to be manufactured accurately.

Why we're showing you the facility

Transparency matters.

When you put an Aalto aligner in your mouth, you're seeing the final result of a much bigger process.

There's clinical planning behind it, digital technology, manufacturing, quality control and a treating dental professional responsible for your care.

We think patients should be able to see that process.

That's why we chose to show you what happens behind the scenes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where are Aalto clear aligners made?

Aalto clear aligners are manufactured at Aalto's manufacturing facility in Sydney.

What material are Aalto aligners made from?

Aalto uses Zendura FLX, a multi-layer orthodontic material designed for clear aligner applications.

Are Aalto aligners cut by hand?

No. Aalto uses automated precision machinery to cut the aligners.

Does the manufacturing facility decide how my teeth move?

No. The facility manufactures aligners according to the approved treatment plan. Clinical decisions remain the responsibility of the treating dental professional.

How many aligners are manufactured for a treatment?

This varies depending on the individual treatment plan and the number of stages required.

The bottom line

Your clear aligners might look simple when you take them out of the box.

They're not.

Each tray represents a specific stage of a personalised treatment plan and has been manufactured to correspond with that stage.

From the digital model through to forming, precision cutting, identification, cleaning and quality control, every part of the process contributes to the finished appliance.

You see the aligner. There's a whole process behind it.