Byte

The molding was easy. They had step-by-step instructions and video instructions where you have the two different materials. You mix them together by hand and press them in the mold. They gave you a couple of sets just in case you made a mistake with one to get the best impressions possible. Once they got the impressions, they reached out to show you a video of what your treatment plan was going to be. You could see where your teeth were and see the process of the movement and it changes and see where your teeth were going to wind up being at the end. In that process, there were some things that I didn't really care for. They sent the first couple of models and they refined them until they got to a place where I was going to be satisfied with at the end of treatment.

I got my aligners sometime in 2020. It was when the pandemic first started and I was working from home at that point. I initially was going to go with the daytime aligners where you wear them during the day and then take them out if you're going to eat or drink anything besides water. I anticipated that I was going to be going back into the office at some point. My husband said, "Hey, if you're gonna do this, why don't you go ahead and get the more expensive aligners that allow you to wear them at night versus being back in the office, germs on your hands, putting your hands in and out of your mouth to insert or remove the aligners. Just get the 10-hour ones, the nighttime ones that are thicker." That's what I did.

At that point, it was pretty easy. I would put them on at night for 10 consecutive hours, take them out after that, and go on with my day. Depending on what time I put them in, there might be some overlap during the daytime hours where I would actually have to wear them at work for a couple of hours, but that was not a big deal.

So far, there's the only part that I have not really been happy with and it's just my teeth. They have been resistant to moving. It was initially supposed to be a one-year process from start to finish. Unfortunately for me, that has not been the case. I have followed Byte's instructions to the letter and they have a really good system where they check in with you periodically and require you to send in progress pics. In addition to the progress pics, they ask you for feedback. "Hey, how are you? Are you satisfied? Are you noticing any pain? How are your aligners fitting?" In the process of going through all that, I've had to backtrack a few times. Initially, you're supposed to wear the trays for a week and then switch them out. I was doing that. My teeth were initially moving but then they stopped moving.

I was following their instructions and at that point, I didn't know the whole thing about the air gaps or the spaces between where the aligner is and where your teeth are. Your teeth are supposed to be fitting into the aligners with minimal or no air gaps before you move on to the next step. I didn't understand that part. Once it got to a certain point, they said, "Yeah, send us pictures and your best-fitting aligners." They would tell me, "Hey, you know what? Your teeth aren't moving. So, we need you to go back to this tray." I had to do that a few times. There was even another time where they said, "Hey, you know what? Let's start with a new set of impressions." I did that. They sent me refinement trays a couple of times. Byte has been there and they've been really supportive. They're great with their instructions. Maybe it's just my skeleton makeup, the way my teeth are, or because I'm older and my teeth are more resistant to moving.

I've had to start over a few times. With this most recent time, I've actually had to do the impressions in addition to the initial time two more times just to refine things as far as where I'm at for my teeth to be able to be more receptive to moving. I had a set of 15 aligners. I was right at the end and going to go on to getting my retainers. But then, at that questionnaire, I found it was odd. Usually once you've been in the aligners for three or four days, the soreness that you notice goes away. The soreness is normal because the teeth are moving and shifting. But here I am at day 10 of the final tray and my teeth are still sore.

When I answered their questionnaire, they said, "Okay, hold on a minute." At that point, I didn't want to order my retainers when I knew things weren't exactly fitting correctly. Now, it's taken a little bit longer. I'm in a set of aligners for a month at a time. I was at step 15 and now I'm all the way back at step five. I'm having to wear the step five aligners for an entire month before I go on to the next step. This process began in May of 2020 and here it is September of 2023. I thought I was gonna be done with this at this point years ago.

Byte has been great and they stayed on top of my progress. It's not really my fault because I'm doing everything that Byte has told me to do. It's just that it's taken more time and my teeth are just resistant to moving. I really don't want to be back at step five and in each aligner tray for a month but if that's what it takes for me to have the outcome that I desire when I started this process in the first place, then that's what it takes. It would just be a total waste of time if I stopped it at this point. Right now, I am in the aligner trays for 12 to 14 hours a day.

It's a little more disruptive throughout my day because what I do is I put the timer on my phone for 14 hours and I put them in at night as early as I can before I go to bed. That's 12 to 14 hours so there's really not any way to prevent it from overlapping into my daytime hours. I take them out and stop my clock to have my coffee, to eat my breakfast, brush my teeth, or floss. After that, I put them back in and restart my clock. It's a lot more cumbersome now than it was when I first started out.

The aligners keeps me from snacking all day. If you eat something, I have to take them out, eat something then wait 20 minutes before I can brush my teeth and then put it back. It's a little embarrassing sometimes when you're in the restaurant and after you eat, you go and brush your teeth, and there are people around. But it is working for me. It's not interfering with my speech. I'm glad I did it.

Byte has a clinical team and you can ask questions. They respond very quickly. You can call, email or text. You check in once a month, and they ask you to take photographs. You don't have to stop everything and go to the dentist. You do it in your kitchen with your iPhone. You take pictures with the aligners on and the aligners off. They tell you, “It didn't move as much as we'd like. Keep them in for another week,” or, “You're great. You're good to go to the next one.” The advice is always right there. If you have a question, you're not alone. They're always available for you.

I know how it is when you have crooked teeth. It makes you very shy but it's something that is completely fixable now in private. That's the beauty of it. It's also not that expensive. They're always having coupons and lower prices. They have the whitener that you can put in the tray and it keeps your tray clean and your teeth white and bright. They have the Hyper Byte which is a big part of the treatment. You bite on it and it gives a little hum. It makes the teeth more amenable to shifting around a little bit which makes the process quicker. That's something that other ones don't have. It's a perfect system. I wish other people would do it.

Unfortunately, my calls with Byte always go back into a pool. On Monday, it might be a licensed person who's gonna help me and will request a picture of steps 1, 2, 3, and 4 so they can compare and see if there are any air gaps. Then I send them 1, 2, 3, and 4, and I have to wait three to four days before I get a response. Then I would get someone saying, “I have reviewed your photos. Can you do me a favor and follow the attached directions on trimming this and putting it in warm water to make it a little bit more pliable, then bite down on the doohickey and send us a new picture?” I do that, but then I have to wait three or four more days. They would tell me that my teeth look much better, and to keep wearing the vibrating doohickey you bite down on for five minutes. It helps shake everything into place and helps massage the teeth. There's nothing painful about the process. I'm getting all the support I want, but it could be better.

Byte keeps changing the app, but they expect you to take pictures of your own teeth. At times, they didn't give you the ability to switch the camera from front to back, so you couldn't see what you were taking a picture of and you had to get somebody else to take a picture. At one point, you could flip the camera, and they wanted you to get it so close that the camera couldn't focus on your teeth, so then you'd have to zoom out and then crop in.

Right now, I'm working with customer service on a weekly basis to say, “Ok, so is this how you want it now? And how long should I wear this?” But it's annoying that the app keeps telling me, “You need to check in.” So I checked in and took the pictures. The next day, I got an email and a reminder from the app, “You need to check in.” Then it'll be like you have to call customer service and say, “Look, can you get the app to leave me alone?” Or you have to tell them, “Hey, the app thinks I should be changing my aligner every week, but you guys told me two weeks. So can somebody please sync up the app?” The app is constantly changing so I know Byte is trying to make it better. They're just not succeeding in my eyes.

I'm doing the nighttime-only version so nobody ever sees me with them on during the day. The nighttime ones are a little bit thicker plastic. They're 3D printed forms. They're stronger. When I went to the dentist last time, they said, “Good God! Your gums are in great shape. They're looking great.” Overall, the process is taking much longer than I thought, but Byte continues to send me new molds to make new refinement aligners to keep working with me and I'm quite impressed with that.

Once you've mixed them together, they start to harden quickly. So, you have to roll them out, push them into that mold, then get them good and flat. Once you have them in the mold, you put your teeth in the mouth guard just like you would if you were trying to create an impression of your teeth. Then you push it up into your mouth or down onto your jaw then hold it there for three to five minutes. Once that three to five minutes is up and the putty is hardened enough, you can take it out without it messing up your impression.

In terms of following the instructions, this process was extremely easy to complete. But in terms of the feeling of having the impression kit in your mouth, there's really nothing you can do about that. Having the impression kit in your mouth wasn't super comfortable for five minutes. If there was a way to make the putty dry faster or even make it less uncomfortable, that could be an improvement. But it's probably one of those things that you can't.

Once I made the molds, they sent me my aligners. They send you everything that you need for the first 15 weeks, for your top and bottom sets of teeth. Day-to-day, I'll get up in the morning and I'll still have the aligners in from last night. I wear them 22 hours a day, so I wear them the entire time I'm asleep and anytime I'm not eating or drinking something that's not water. I will take them out anytime it's time for me to eat or drink or doing anything else that involves my mouth that you would not want them to get damaged or torn up. The way that Byte described them, they can be somewhat fragile and you don't want them to break and have to wait for more aligners to come in. It is a tight fit because it's moving your teeth around, but I wouldn’t say that it's uncomfortable to take off or put on. And anytime you take them out and eat or drink anything, you have to wash your mouth and make sure everything's clean before you put them back in.

I've been using it as an incentive to help me diet because it's not really worth it to take your aligners out to eat a bag of chips. You have to brush your teeth, drink a bunch of water, floss, then put them back in. It's not really worth it. And it's helped me a lot since I've lost some weight during this process. Naturally, my teeth are in pretty good shape, but I wanted the front four teeth on the bottom, my central lower teeth, to be a little bit more straight. Because the way that they are naturally, they didn't look as great as I would like it to, and I knew it could if I was to go through this process.

I've been using the BrightByte that came with the aligners and my teeth have significantly gotten whiter since using them. I always try to make sure that I follow the instructions of making sure that I brush my teeth first, floss, rinse the aligners out, make sure they're good and clean, then squirt some foam in both of them, even it out, make sure that it's got a good amount, and just pop them in. Whenever I pop them in, because the foam is white then it looks whiter immediately. But even once it's long dried out and the cleaner is no longer in my mouth, the teeth themselves have definitely been significantly whiter recently. It has helped my ability to feel confident whenever I smile.

I've had a great experience with Byte and I would recommend it to others. Recently, I had some dental work done where I had to have a dental crown put on one of my front teeth. When that dental crown came in, it didn't exactly match my old tooth as there are some differences. So, my top rows of aligners don't exactly fit currently and I have to get with the Byte help team to try to see if they can get me some new ones or do a new impression kit for the top so they can make molds that fit that new tooth. But other than that, it's been fantastic.

I'm on the nighttime routine. I just wear the aligners for 10 hours every night and I change them out every week. With my plan specifically, I have to go through 19 weeks. I'm about halfway through right now-ish. I brush my little aligners. Byte gives you a little whitening and cleaning foam you can put in them and then you just wear them. Usually, on the first night, because it's of the new set, they're pretty tight on your teeth. It's not uncomfortable. It's just different because it's like having something really tight on your teeth when you're not used to having something like that. But after the second or third day, your teeth are already fitting in them really well because they're shifting your teeth every week. It hasn't been bad for me. Braces are worse.

Byte is easy and painless. The customer service care team that you work with in the beginning is really nice and knowledgeable. They walked me through the whole process. There is comfort and ease in the whole process and getting to do it at home rather than having to constantly go to the orthodontist and having to worry about braces. Byte is just way more independent.

The first part of my process shifted my top teeth and the second part of my process is working more on my bottom, which is where the majority of my bite needed to be fixed. I've only been two or three weeks into my bottom bite. I've seen a shift and this is over a 19-week process. It is really slow but you'll be able to see the results. Plus the little tracker that you can look at and go from zero to the full. However many weeks you have to do it for is really fun to follow. It's pretty accurate with where your teeth are shifting in what week you are. It's like a 3D model thing to look through.

I'm almost done. I wasn't happy with where everything was at by the time I had finished the initial plan. So, Byte sent me another set, which I'm more than halfway through now, just to get everything set a bit better. They had two options. I could have them during the day. And they had to be in for at least 12 or 14 hours. Or I could do the night time option and they just have to be in for 10 hours. I keep them in while I sleep, a few hours before I go to sleep and an hour or two after I wake up, depending on when I put them in before I go to bed. But just 10 hours and overnight, but no eating or drinking with them.

At first, it was weird having the retainers on and I thought it was gonna bother me when I slept but I really didn't feel them at all. They first day or two, there was a little bit of discomfort because my teeth were moving. But after that, it's like I don't even notice that they're there. Also, it's been super easy going through and I have the app on my phone, which is real easy to follow. They do little follow-ups and I know that they're looking at the pictures that I submit, because if something's wrong and they can see it, they'd call me up and send me an email. It's been really great.

Finally, on 9/8 I sent a text. No response. I asked today, 9/11 via text for an update but so far I have not received one. Due to this lack of response I still have no idea if I am done with my treatment as my plan says, if I am even wearing the correct aligners, and have not ordered my retainers as my plan tells me to do. This is not the first time I had to spend weeks getting Byte's customer support to respond after I had an issue. My plan has taken months longer than planned due to this repeated lack of response.