SmileDirectClub Shutdown Leaves Customers With No Support for Their Ongoing Treatment

Rebekka Reynolds, 29, was only two months into her teeth aligning treatment with SmileDirectClub when the company announced its closure last week.

“I didn’t see an email. I didn’t get any notification on my app that this was happening. I found out that the company was going under because I had a bunch of comments on my TikTok,” Reynolds told Verywell.

The sudden closure of SmileDirectClub has stunned many customers like Reynolds, leaving them with little information on how to proceed with their treatment.

“If anything goes wrong in the second half of my treatment, I’m not going to be able to contact them and ask for replacements or adjustments,” Reynolds said.

Since launching in 2014, SmileDirectClub has positioned itself as an affordable oral care company by selling clear teeth aligners that were marketed as cheaper and faster alternatives to braces. The company has drawn criticism and safety concerns from medical organizations about its “direct-to-consumer” approach.

Clear dental aligners, like those offered by SmileDirectClub and Invisalign, use pressure to straighten teeth slowly. Patients use a new aligner every one to three weeks, and the entire treatment takes at least a few months.

Although SmileDirectClub had some physical locations, most of its services were offered online. Customers could receive custom-made aligners by mail after sending in their dental impressions, and they could get virtual check-ins with a doctor.

However, since its shutdown, the company has offered no further support for its existing customers. If you’re a SmileDirectClub customer, here’s what you need to know.

What Should Existing Customers Do?

On an FAQ page, SmileDirectClub encourages existing customers to contact their treating doctor or local dentist.

“For those customers who are in the middle of treatment, we would recommend stopping the aligner progression and holding in the current aligner. Then, seek care from a licensed dentist, or preferably, an orthodontist,” Shin-Jung Hsieh, DDS, MS, a board-certified orthodontist and clinical assistant professor in the College of Dentistry at The Ohio State University, told Verywell in an email.

As a response to the SmileDirectClub collapse, some orthodontists are offering free consultations.

“Orthodontic treatment is more than simply straightening the teeth. It’s a medical procedure and requires proper diagnosis, a viable treatment plan, and monitored execution. The one and only piece of advice is, don’t attempt it without professional guidance,” Hsieh said.

If you’re going to a consultation, you should bring all accessible records and any questions about your primary concern, Hsieh added. You can also expect the orthodontist to take new radiographic images, casts, or digital scans of your teeth.

Having some recent records may save you some money at the orthodontist’s office. However, you may no longer be able to access the 3D scans of your teeth on the SmileDirectClub app, according to Reynolds, who paid $2,200 for her entire treatment upfront.

Should You Switch to Another Online Aligner Company?

Other oral care companies similar to SmileDirectClub, like Byte and AlignerCo, also offer mail-order teeth straightening treatments. OrthoFX, which received FDA approval for its aligners recently, says SmileDirectClub customers can “seamlessly switch” to its hybrid plan that includes in-person and remote provider visits.

However, the American Dental Association (ADA) advises against using direct-to-consumer dental aligners “because of the potential for irreversible harm to individuals, who are treated as ‘customers’ rather than as patients.”

“Under virtually all states’ laws and as is reflected in ADA Policy, the dentist is ultimately responsible for the patient’s care and is the only individual licensed and qualified to accept responsibility,” the ADA said in a statement.

Joseph Mullen, DDS, MS, an orthodontist and lecturer at the UCLA School of Dentistry Section of Orthodontics, said he would urge anyone using at-home aligners to visit a local orthodontist for a check-in to “make sure that their bite, gums, bones, and teeth are in a healthy spot to continue orthodontic treatment.”

People using SmileDirectClub aligners reported broken teeth, nerve damage, and pain even before the company’s shutdown. Aligner treatment pushes crooked teeth forward to create enough space for them to line up, but poorly supervised treatment can go wrong very quickly, according to Mullen.

“I have seen cases where patients have literally extracted their own teeth by pushing them so far forward that they lost all bone support. And having your teeth fall out—that’s literally the stuff of nightmares,” Mullen told Verywell in an email.

Some people could have straight teeth from at-home treatment with little to no negative consequences, Mullen added. But he would always ask someone who’s considering these affordable aligners this question: “Will the convenience and cheaper price tag be worth it if something goes wrong?”