SmileDirectClub Reviews

I've kept getting emails of two different kinds. One was, "You haven't ordered your retainers yet." The other emails were, "You've been approved for your aligners. You need to do your impression kit," but I never got an impression kit. I replied to one of those and said, "I don't need a retainer yet. You guys said I was approved. I don't have an impression kit." Then, someone emailed and said, "Since you're an existing customer, you can order one for $29." Then when it said to go on to the app and order one, it cost me $59. They sent the impression kit. It took me 10 days instead of two days to get it back to them. As soon as they had received it, I started getting emails again telling me they were glad I was a new customer. I told them I was not a new customer.

I looked up a phone number and called somebody. I said, "There's a problem here. Y'all need to figure out I'm not a new customer and that I'm supposed to be getting touch-up aligners. I'm going on six weeks to eight weeks. I'm in my last aligner now. I'm supposed to have something going here." Finally, someone called me back. They told me my touch-up aligners would cost me $250. I said, "No one said anything about it costing any more. Tell me why." The rep said, "It's because you didn't complete your plan in the amount of time that you were supposed to." I said, "No one said anything about having to do that for the warranty to work." Whenever you check in using your aligners, it says, "If you've gotten off track, just let us know." If I'd forgotten to wear my aligner for one day, then I'd adjust the date to make sure I wore it for 14 days like they tell you to. He said, "I'll send you an email by the end of the day with a link to pay," which he didn't.

After four days, I still hadn't gotten an email. I called again and spoke to a lady who said, "This shouldn't have happened." I went ahead and gave her my card number over the phone. I paid her the 250, and she said, "I need to escalate this and make sure that you get taken care of because it shows that you owe more money." I said, "I don't want a whole new plan. I just need the touch-up aligners." Yesterday, I finally got the email that said, "Congratulations. Your touch-up aligners are being made. They should be finished in two or three days and they'll be on their way to you."

I went into a facility in High Point and they took 1,000 pictures. That was fine. The whole kit was then shipped to me. Wearing the product was fine. They tell you that you have to cut them - clip it then file it. But there were certain ones that were fine. I did one week and mine was the 24-hour thing. It was hard because you go eat and even if you slide them back in, you’re still not doing the 24 hours. The other thing was the product would suck the skin underneath my jaw. It’s just so weird. Because you got this soft thing in your mouth, you always have saliva and you always suck it. That was the negative part of it. It sucks my tongue too and it was sore for a while. I ended up with the right side and left side thing. When when I did that tongue thing, it made it hard when you want to eat.

The problem I'm having right now is the product didn't totally close my gap. My procedure first was to go and get the middle thing between my teeth taken out. The dentist didn't take the bone or the bristle out. He clipped the little meaty thing that's attached to the lip and attached to the gum. I got all that done before I even got the product, thinking that that would help.

My daughter got hers done. She said they did surgery and actually sliced the middle thing. She went on and got the metal braces. Mine is still fighting to separate. I told SmileDirectClub, “That's neither here nor there with you guys.” I still got number 15 in my mouth and I'm still wearing those. I reached out to the physical place and explained to them about the situation. The product did the straightening of the teeth but the gap is still there. It's smaller now. They told me to take three pictures and they would see whether or not I would qualify for the extension because the product didn't quite do a full job. I took three pictures of my mouth and I've not heard back from anybody. It's been over almost three weeks now.

I'm trying to hurry and get the rest of my dental work done. Until all of that is done, it doesn't make any sense to wear a retainer because the retainer would be just where the gap should be totally closed. That aside, I'd tell others to go to SmileDirectClub. I have a supervisor who has really crooked teeth. I told her, "If you can pay cash for it, ma’am, just swipe your ATM card. Save a little." If you do the payments, it's gonna be 1,500. You're looking to have $450 extra if you’re doing the small payments. A lot of people don't know that.

I wore the aligners a minimum of 10 hours every day. I follow directions very well. You're going to feel pressure on your teeth because something is in there jerking your teeth around. So that's to be expected. Nothing was so painful I couldn't live with it. The discomfort that occurred when you put a brand new set of aligners in is only for a couple of days and that was okay. It’s a good thing I know how to do nail filing. Because there was always one part of every aligner that was totally messed up and stuck out and stabbed me in the cheek. So I would have to take this little nail file and then this other little much more finer nail file and file it down. It was the back right corner of every upper aligner. But it took me a couple of times to get my nail file since I didn't get one in the original package. They sent me a regular nail file. But I bought a much finer graded one that made them so smooth.

Once I got it to file down, it was good for two weeks. But it happened the next time I put the new one in. So that was not a big problem. It’s a typical thing you have to deal with these. This is what's going to happen to every set no matter what company you use. I just learned to deal with that. The discomfort of moving my teeth around was not a problem either. This went on for 12 months because I only wore mine at night.

The first set of aligners they gave me was not proper. They did not fix my teeth. It was clear that there was a problem with number 24 being behind number 23 and number 25. When I went down and got them rescanned, they immediately recognized the issue and sent me four more months of aligners, which I just kept doing the same old deal. But then they were up last month, and I started putting the retainers in last month. So the retainers are now retaining my teeth and the proper alignment correct.

SmileDirect is great as long as everything goes as planned. They have a very well-defined marketing plan and medical plan. But as soon as something is not according to plan, they cannot handle it. They don't have any facility for handling anomalies. It took me five weeks to get a file. Then I finally realized you can go down to CVS and buy this file. I thought it was a special file. It was a regular nail file. But nobody told me that. The other thing is that it took me four tries to get my pictures loaded at the end of my first treatment and have somebody evaluate that. It took several weeks before my pictures got seen by the dentist and I got contacted about doing it again.

When you call SmileDirect, there are some menus you have to go through, but you can eventually get somebody. If they need to send you to the Smile team or the dental team, they'll do it right away. There are different types of problems with accounting, payments, delivery, and dental work. Everybody is so nice. They have their little marketing sit down perfectly where they make you feel good when you talk with them. All the young people are so cute. They do try and help you. I recommended SmileDirect to my sister. She actually went and got scans.

I really enjoyed the process. I enjoyed watching my teeth improve and understanding the physics of what they're doing with their aligners. It was cool. It was also fun talking to the dentist about it. My teeth are beautiful. Now, everything is all lined up nice and pretty. They did some adjustments to the relative height of my teeth too because now instead of my teeth crouching down where you can't see my bottom teeth at all, my top teeth sit a little bit higher so there's about half a centimeter of my bottom teeth actually visible. This looks so much better. I like the process of seeing on SmileDirect's site my old teeth and being able to go look at how they were going to move that. They send you a video and you can play it and watch your teeth move around on the video. It's so cool.

We had to get a second kit, which was kinda frustrating. My daughter was in school for dental hygiene and she had just done impressions at school. So, she was super excited to help with it and didn't read all the directions. She rolled all the putty, and put it in all the things because that was what they did at school. Then she went to put them in, and they were hardened. So, we had to get another kit. The kit was a lot like what they use at dental school, but it's a little different. So, it wasn't hard. It was just a matter of reading the directions and making sure that you do them one at a time. You roll the putty, put it in, and take the impression. But I would suggest that SmileDirect package them separately, instead of just giving the whole kit. They do have videos. There's plenty of support. You can contact them and chat with them at any time. It was just a matter of we didn't read the directions completely.

My son has finished the program and we saw results very quickly. He had some pain but nothing massive. It was not like getting your braces tightened. He's very happy. I'm very happy too. He looks great. We got the three-pack retainer because it was cheaper. But that lifetime guarantee they have is a little funky because you have to have a new retainer every six months or it's not guaranteed for life. They say it's $99 apiece, so that's a little misleading. But I understand where they're coming from because the retainers will wear out. But they're fine. We'll eventually have to order more, but we won't be buying them every six months. He wore the retainers for three weeks all the time, just like his aligners. So, he was used to doing it. It's just a thicker material, so they're a little bit stronger. After three weeks, he only wears them at night and he'll do that for the rest of his life.

When they send the kit, it includes the packets that say, “Hey, these are things that you can get. And you can get it really cheap.” There's something called a smile spa that we ended up buying for my daughter for her retainer. It's amazing. It's got UV light and ultrasonic. You can throw your retainers and aligners in there, push a button, and 10 minutes later, they're beautifully clean. I even bought one for my mom for her partial. They're fantastic. They get all the grossness off there that you can't get off with a toothbrush.

The process for my daughter was good. We did the mold and send it in. It was easy. There was only one point where she had a stubborn tooth that wouldn't move and the things didn't seem to fit. The hardest part was she was at college and, since she is 18 years old now, she had to make all the changes to the account instead of me. That was difficult so I'm trying to help her out. You've got to call and you've got to do this. They won't give me the information which was okay, even though a little frustrating at times. I made her handle it. There was a delay because she gave her my Gmail. I set up the account initially. Then, she tried to give the information. I don't know if she gave wrong information or they couldn't find the account. So then, it caused the delay later on. She had to get something fixed because something wasn't fitting right and there was a tooth not moving. Then, somebody didn't put our order in correctly.

I finally had to call in and say I was Savannah to get it taken care of because I think she just had a bad rep. I said, "All right, that's enough. We got to get this taken care of now. I'm taking care of this." So, I did and I took care of it. The guy I talked to was amazing. He said, "I'm so sorry. They put the information in, but they missed a step. And because they missed a step, that's why you have gotten no information in the last month." So, that part of the process was not good. We did have a problem with the tooth not moving, and then the aligner not fitting. So then, whoever my daughter initially talked to didn't do the process correctly. Then, when she called again to try to follow up on it, that's when she couldn't get her account handled and they said they didn't see her account.

My daughter loved her aligners. Wearing them is fine but she likes the results. It's given her more confidence in her smile. The front tooth is straightened out. We are still in the process. It took us a while to get the process fixed because we did have a problem with not fitting the aligner. So, that one tooth that is behind moved a little, but not enough and it's not budging. So now, we're in the process of trying to go back and get it refitted. I did pay for some additional imprints for her teeth but she doesn't mind wearing them and she has seen there's visible changes and that makes all the difference because that's the whole reason why we did it. We're pleased and I'm willing to do the whole experience again.

I wasted countless hours and money, all for my teeth to have now shifted back to where they originally were. To their customer service, left is right and up is down. There is no reasoning with them and they will not uphold their side of the “lifetime smile guarantee”. I am happy to finally be free of dealing with their incompetence and I have made an appointment with a real dentist. I am hoping this review helps people not make the same mistake that I did.

Well here it is, almost 3 years to the day, and I give up. I requested a refund last round (May 2023) and was told they'd only refund me $170 because I'd had so many refits. I refused and decided to continue, and now I'm just done with it. My front top 2 teeth are NOT STRAIGHT. They still overlap and overall, I am not happy with my smile. Yes it is much better than when I started, but they've not accomplished straightening my teeth and are no longer answering emails or honoring any kind of so called warranty, stay far away. My teeth were not that complicated, but it didn't work for me and I'm out $1700 because they refuse to honor their guarantee or give me a full refund.

But the issue here comes from the so-called Lifetime Smile Guarantee and how ambiguous is the information they provide, creating a complete confusion for the users. Whenever you call or when someone from the company calls, you have questions and everything is "ok", "yes, of course" and "don't worry", and this and that. But not having evidence of these conversations, will be then turned against you.

Regarding the Lifetime Smile Guarantee, the company sells it as the best thing they offer right behind the low-price treatment compared to Invisalign. I'm pretty sure paying more for Invisalign and not having issues regarding guarantee could be way better. Smile Direct Club will find any way to void that Lifetime Smile Guarantee, either by making up excuses regarding treatment and by not informing users clearly. I asked for an aligner touch-up right about the end of my treatment while still wearing my last aligners, they were approved but informed me that I had to pay $300 because I was outside my Lifetime Smile Guarantee.

When contacting customer service regarding this issue, most of them were very rude, acted like if they were right next time every single day of my life during the treatment and basically just said it was my fault. Not even asking me for evidence of emails received or anything were I can show that I was either never informed or that was told that I would be able to do an aligner touch-up free of charge. Information about the Lifetime Smile Guarantee could be interpreted in so many ways, that it creates so much confusion for the user, and if you call to clear any doubts, their replies are that there won't be any problems and most of their words are ambiguous as well and are open to interpretation.

Some features are allowed within the app that tracks your progress and nowhere it notifies of any issues those features could bring to your treatment and/or your Lifetime Smile Guarantee. The importance of ordering the retainers or applying for an aligner touch-up before those retainers or a specific date, is not informed nor advice as some other stuff that is in fact optional like whitening kit, wax or anything else they sell on their store.

If it were up to me, I would really like to finish the treatment the right way, fixing any aligner problems I may have and probably continue with the retainers when my treatment and/or aligner touch-up are done, but as of now, I am planning to cancel and moving on. I would not recommend this company to anyone. I read the bad reviews before joining but still gave them the benefit of the doubt and now I am regretting it.