Smile Direct Club review

Nowadays, more and more of us are trying to achieve the perfect smile, whether that be with the best teeth whitening products or simply taking our oral health more seriously. As a result, DIY braces — where you get sent a series of clear trays, called ‘aligners’ — have had a surge in popularity, and one company claiming to be able to give you ‘straighter teeth in as little as four to six months’ is Smile Direct Club. You may have even seen their purple advert pop on your TV from time to time.

The teledentistry company launched in 2014 and provides customers with custom-made aligners to help them straighten their teeth from the comfort of their homes. No in-dentist visits are necessary and they claim the cost to be around 60 per cent less than traditional braces.

As someone who’s never been blessed with the most picture-perfect smile (at least on my bottom jaw), I was keen to give Smile Direct Club a go. Could they really straighten my teeth in less than a year? Or was it simply too good to be true? So in May 2022, I decided to put my teeth to the test and find out.

Testing Smile Direct Club

The first step with Smile Direct was getting my aligners made. For this you’re offered two choices, you can either get a 3D scan of your teeth at one of Smile Direct's smile shops or have an impression kit posted out to you. Sadly, I didn’t live close enough to any of the smile shops, so impression kit it was.

In the impression kit, you get four pots of purple and grey putty, four mouth trays and some delightful purple gloves — these are what you use to create the moulds for your aligners.

Although the instructions in the booklet were very straightforward to follow (and there’s even a video you can watch online) this was probably the most stressful part during my whole experience, as you do each step within a fixed amount of time. For example, you only have one minute to mix two coloured putties together to make one colour and put it in the tray, otherwise, it will set. Next, the tray needs to be placed in your mouth and kept there for two minutes and 30 seconds, pushing down evenly — during this step you will salivate like you never have before, don’t worry, it’s completely normal.

After that it’s pretty simple, you just take the tray out of your mouth and pop it in the box. You do this process twice on both your upper and lower teeth. I must say it was a very entertaining experience to do alongside my sister, but do try and compose yourself before you start, otherwise your impressions may not be good enough to create moulds from. Then just seal the box with the sticker that comes inside it and take it down to your local post office (the box already has pre-paid postage on it).

Sadly, due to so much laughing, my first set of aligners was rejected and I was quickly sent out another impression kit to do. The second time around I decided to do my impressions alone and, thankfully, this time they were accepted. I’d opted for nighttime aligners — which you wear at night for 10 hours — over daytime aligners — which you wear for 22 hours per day. Obviously, results are slower with the night-time aligners and can take up to a year. Whereas if you’re after something a little more speedy opt for the daytime ones, as these can give results in as little as four to six months, depending on the condition of your teeth.

Trying my aligners for the first time

My aligners arrived about two weeks after I’d sent off my impression kit, along with a case to keep them in and some lip balm — a nice touch. Before I popped them in I gave them a run under some lukewarm water for about two minutes, just to loosen them up. They were easy to pop in; I simply placed them on my teeth and gave them a gentle push down and voila!

The first night wasn’t the most comfortable night of sleep, as my aligners were pretty tight, but that was to be expected. The next morning when I took them out my teeth felt achy. But once I'd had some food and a cup of tea, they felt back to normal.

The reason I decided to go with the nighttime aligners was that I couldn’t commit to constantly having to take them out of my mouth for every hot drink that I had (tons) or snack that I ate (lots).

Every two weeks I’d get an email notification telling me it was time to pop in my new aligner. I also added it into my phone diary, but you also have the option to download the Smile Direct Club app, which will also be able to notify you. While on Smile Direct, each patient’s treatment is supervised virtually by a state-licensed dentist or orthodontist from start to finish. About a week after my aligners arrived, I recieved an email from one of their orthodontists checking everything was ok with my aligners, which it was. After that, I didn't hear anything from them until I needed to reach out to them myself, which suited me nicely.

Problems occur

By November, I was six months into my treatment and, so far, everything had been going great. Friends and family had commented how much straighter my teeth were looking, which was a great feeling. Then I popped in my new pair of aligners and found that they barely covered my gums. Pretty certain that this wasn’t right, I got in touch with the customer service team, who I would definitely give a ten out of ten to.

Within 24 hours I had a response and a date set up for a video call. The woman on the phone, Nikki, was lovely and told me to download an app called SightCall, which is what the video call takes place on. I don’t have great wifi where I live, so we struggled to get through on the video call for a few minutes, so definitely make sure this is something you have.

Nikki agreed the aligners weren’t fitting properly and that I’d need new ones, which meant only one thing…doing another dreaded impression kit. For me personally, the fact you don’t get to see a dentist in person is the biggest downfall of Smile Direct Club, because I found the impression kits such a hassle. Maybe it’s because my first kit got rejected, so it’s the fear that you’ll have to keep repeating it, but overall I feel as if an in-person visit would just be much quicker. When my new aligners arrived about a week later they fitted so much better and I had a check-in call with Nikki to check everything was ok, and she was happy too.

I thought that was the last of my aligner problems, but when I went to put in a new one at the end of February, I found I physically couldn’t. The bottom one was far too painful, whereas the top one would go down and then bounce off again. I got back in touch with the customer service team and booked another call with Nikki. She suggested I try running them under lukewarm water for two minutes again then, once they were in, to try biting down gently on a towel for a couple of minutes. Nothing worked. In all honesty, I probably could’ve got the bottom one on my teeth if I’d given it a hard push, but the pain wasn’t worth it.

When I got back on the phone to Nikki, she took some photos over the video call and arranged for new aligners to be made and shipped out to me, which I’m currently waiting for.

Final verdict

Although my treatment isn’t fully finished yet, and despite having to have my aligners remade for me twice, I do think Smile Direct Club is good and it’s made a significant difference to my bottom teeth especially.

For starters, there’s no denying Smile Direct Club is incredibly cheaper than traditional braces, which can cost up to £5,000. Whereas with Smile Direct, you can be looking at a single payment of £1639, or as little as £69.43 a month. In comparison to one of its main competitors, Invisalign, which can cost anywhere from £2,000 plus, again, it’s still cheaper. When you take this price into consideration and the fact Smile Direct works, it’s pretty good.

But there are two sides to a coin. While the price may be fantastic, Smile Direct isn’t for everyone who wants to improve their teeth. When my sister’s fiancé tried to go with Smile Direct, unfortunately, they told him his teeth were in too twisted to help him, so now he’s got traditional braces. So, while the price is great, Smile Direct can’t work miracles on all types of teeth.

The biggest thing for me was not being able to see a dentist in person. For some people, this will be a huge bonus, as they may be too busy during the day to be able to go to an appointment. However, for me personally, when problems occurred I would’ve just loved to have been able to jump in my car and get them sorted ASAP, rather than do another impression kit. That being said, if I had experienced absolutely no problems with my aligners maybe it would be different. Plus, as I’ve mentioned earlier, the customer service team were fantastic, as I think it should be if you’re not seeing anyone in person, and that made such a big difference when problems did occur.

So, would I recommend Smile Direct? Yes. Myself and others have noticed the difference it’s made to my teeth and that, in turn, has increased my confidence. Yes, I had a few niggles with certain aligners, as you’d get with normal braces, but these have been sorted as quickly as possible remotely. Arguably my treatment has taken longer than the expected 10 months and it's taken a year with just over a month away from completion but, again, there have been adjustments made along the way. Plus, despite the length of time, it's still cheaper than traditional braces. If you decide to give them a go, make sure you use the customer service team when you need to and have regular virtual check-ins. It will make you feel more confident about your treatment knowing everything is going right.