Byte

While I was waiting for my impressions to be reviewed, I saw ads for Byte and decided to look into it. Straight away I liked the night option. I love to drink coffee and tea and I couldn't myself not drinking them during the day. I also would have found it difficult to brush my teeth at lunch since I'm a teacher and have to eat my students and can't leave them by themselves even for a few minutes.

I ordered the impression kit and received it very quickly. Everything was very well explain and the directions were easy to follow. I took the photos and my impressions and sent them back. Within a few days I had a treatment plan laid out with. some images showing the progress week after week and how my teeth would look in the end. I still had to decide between day and night and sent texts back and forth to my customer service assistant who was very helpful and responded very quickly to all my questions. I decided to go for the night option despite it being a little more expensive because it seemed more convenient to me. I was able to set up a payment plan and received my aligners shortly after.

The box that contains the aligners is very sturdy and each aligner is individually packed. There is also some BrightByte (foam that cleans the aligners and whitens the teeth) and an HyperByte (vibrating instrument that helps put the aligners in place correctly). The instructions are very clear: the aligners need to be worn for at least 10 hours and the HyperByte needs to be used for a minimum of 10 minutes everyday. I started using the aligners the day I received them, at first they were a little uncomfortable but the HyperByte helps putting them in place properly and they don't really hurt.

I am now a few months into my treatment and I can already see the difference. I like that the Byte Team reaches out regularly and gives me personalized advice. For example, they told me to go back to previous bottom aligners since my bottom teeth were not where they were supposed to be. Overall I feel I made the right choice by choosing Byte and I can't wait to see the final result!

On aligner #9 I realized that there was an air gap between that tooth and the aligner, and after sending photos to Byte customer service, they asked me to send photos with previous sets of aligners on, and I ended up reverting back to #7. Since then, I've been wearing bottom aligners on a different schedule (10 nights per aligner) compared with the top (7 nights per aligner). The Hyperbyte tool helps, but I found that purchasing and using 'aligner chewies' on Amazon - although not specifically recommended by Byte - helped more in my case (along with hyperbyte). The shape and rigidity of the hyperbyte didn't allow it to help with the aligner fit in an area with a slanted, crowded tooth, like aligner chewies could. I've been using them both. It was a bit of trial and error on my part.

It's important to ensure that your teeth are tracking with aligners (with no major air gaps) before you switch to the next week's set. One minor complaint is that I reached out to Byte the night I switched to aligner #13 on the top (which is what they said to do), so that they can then mail you your second aligner set (#16 onward; they only send the first 15 at first). They initially said they could not send me the second aligner set until I was up to week 13 on the bottom too. This didn't make any sense -- due to reverting back in time, and due to the longer schedule (10 night/aligner) on the bottom, I wouldn't be caught up on the bottom for about 2 months. Meanwhile, I only had 16 aligners total in my treatment plan on the bottom (there was only one more to send) and 29 on the top.

It took a few rounds of emails for me to get them to agree to send the second round of aligners, and even then, I still didn't get them until one week after I should have started week #16 on the top (so my treatment plan was delayed a week). Not a huge deal -- and overall I am satisfied. The lower cost (compared with Invisalign), the flexibility to not have appointments, the moderately responsive customer service (usually takes 2-3 days to hear back, sometimes longer), and results I've seen so far (my teeth are actually getting straighter!) would make me recommend Byte.

I recommend the Byte at night product even though it will make the treatment plan longer and is slightly more expensive. It is unrealistic to actually wear the aligner all day every day (except while eating), although I know some people manage. Drinking sparkling water, coffee, snacking, going out to eat, etc. is all so much more complicated if you have to wear it all day. I've found that my teeth have been moving mainly on track, even though I have only been wearing them at night.

While my unruly canine is still not completely level with my other canine (getting it completely flush would require a more involved dental procedure), it's positioned much better than it used to be and I'm no longer afraid to smile and show my pearly whites! I do wish that the staff was quicker to respond, sometimes it would take more than a week before I received a reply to my questions, but I understand this is a consequence of being understaffed due to COVID and thus I won't knock down the rating for it. Despite the delays, Byte stood by their guarantee and sent me additional aligners outside of the original treatment plan until I was happy with the results.

I did complete a ‘check-in’ where I took more photos, but was then informed that the pictures and process was only for my own reference after the alignment timeframe. You would think that there would be an official check-in before completion of the alignment journey with personnel, ensuring that my teeth should be where they are supposed to be at this point in time. Perhaps they follow-up upon completion, and I suppose I still have some time to find out.