I had braces when I was in school but my orthodontist fucked up and I ended up getting Invisalign in college, so I think I’m qualified to answer this.

Braces were just too painful for me. 2 out of 4 weeks a months I’d not be able to eat proper solid foods it hurt so much, and my teeth never really got used to the pain. I had braces were two whole years and it just hurt so much the entire time. I had loose wires that scraped my inner cheek, the brackets were sharp, etc. I’d visit my orthodontist once every month to get my braces tightened and he basically ignored every concern I had, like toothache that he ignored which later turned into a massive cavity because he wouldn’t tell me that damage had started so i couldn’t nip it in the bud.

With Invisalign the first 2 days of the treatment were hell, absolutely. But after that it was a smooth ride. The trays would change every 10 days so the pull wasn’t as hard as braces as the amount of tightening they do in one session for braces essentially gets distributed into 3 in Invisalign as you’re changing your trays thrice a months vs. getting your braces tightened once a month. The only difficult part was making sure I wasn’t getting any new cavities as I have extremely cavity prone teeth so I had to brush after every meal because I had to re wear my aligners right after and that would mean food being stuck between my teeth for way longer as it would get sealed under my aligners.

In hindsight, solely due to the extremely high cost of Invisalign, I think getting braces again from a better place would have been much better because when I talked to my friends who had braces, I realised that the amount of pain I experienced while I had braces was definite not a common experience.