What Went Wrong At SmileDirectClub?

“I’m midway through my treatment with SmileDirectClub, and I found out that the company filed for bankruptcy when my boyfriend sent me a screenshot of a Tweet,” Kirsty tells Refinery29. “They offer a ‘lifetime guarantee’ and are supposed to support you through the entire process — but now they’re just gone. No email to customers, no reimbursement. I had no idea. I feel abandoned.”

Kirsty is one of two million people worldwide who put their trust in SmileDirectClub, a company that helped people straighten their teeth at home using custom-fitted aligners. The premise was simple: Customers received an “impression kit” through the post, containing putty and a tooth tray to capture impressions of their teeth. These were mailed back to the company, which would cast them and send them back as clear, plastic aligners. At approximately £1500 (which is around $2,799 AUD), SmileDirectClub was a snip of the price of Invisalign, a dentist-run, clear aligner service that can cost up to £5000 or $9,330 AUD. 

With costs rising left and right, it’s little wonder that SmileDirectClub piqued the interest of those keen to straighten their teeth cheaply. After all, ads for the business were ubiquitous. Its tagline, “Get a smile you love for up to 60% less than braces”, beamed down from electronic billboards in various cities like London and New York, while commercials flooded television channels. The company was reportedly once valued at approximately $8.9 billion USD, but despite the glossy advertising, it failed to turn a profit. In 2022, SmileDirectClub reported a loss of $86.4 million, and in September 2023, it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, subsequently closing down its global operations. 

Lawyer and consumer expert Dean Dunham tells R29 that Chapter 11 is a form of bankruptcy in the United States, where SmileDirectClub is based. It involves the reorganisation of a debtor’s business affairs, debts and assets in the hope that it will then be able to survive. However, SmileDirectClub reportedly failed to find a partner to keep the company operating. In a statement on SmileDirectClub’s website, the brand wrote that aligner treatment is no longer available, nor is customer care support. Its lifetime guarantee also no longer exists; orders which hadn’t shipped were cancelled, and those paying through the brand’s SmilePay finance program are still expected to “make all monthly payments until payment has been made in full”. Thousands of customers have since been deserted and are quite literally paying the price for the company’s collapse. 

Initially, Kirsty’s experience with SmileDirectClub had been positive: “I actually only contacted them on the 4th December this year, as I’m three aligners from the end of my treatment, but I’m not sure it’s going as planned,” says Kirsty. She adds that her calls were always answered quickly and she was connected to a dentist on behalf of the company, who emailed back and told her that she was on track. “Unbeknown to me, they were about to announce bankruptcy,” says Kirsty, who was due to receive her final retainers. She is now unable to order them. 

Affordability is why Kirsty settled on SmileDirectClub over Invisalign: “I paid a sum upfront, and then they offered 12-month financing for the rest, which I’m paying currently,” says Kirsty. Kirsty now has no guarantee that her retainers will work, but even more frustratingly, she is out of pocket. What has shocked her the most, though, is that SmileDirectClub’s bankruptcy filing occurred several months ago. “It doesn’t tell new customers that,” says Kirsty. “When you sign up for a ‘lifetime guarantee’, you would hope to have some trust in the company and that it won’t just be taken away. It’s been handled terribly.”

The disappointment came as no surprise to dentists and orthodontists, many of whom have tried ardently to caution patients against online dental services like SmileDirectClub, citing specifically their inadequate results and serious teeth complications. “I’ve been warning people about SmileDirectClub for years,” says Dr Joyce Kahng, a cosmetic dentist in Costa Mesa, California. “I believe most dentists were in alignment about SmileDirectClub. We all saw it as unsafe,” says Dr Kahng. Anecdotally, Dr Stephen Dodd, a UK-based cosmetic dentist at Ringway Dental, says that his team has treated countless patients who had previously used online aligner companies and were unhappy with their teeth. Dr Dodd says that the “blanket approach” of most at-home aligner services can be detrimental, particularly if the customer is a complex case, for example, they have significant teeth overcrowding or missing teeth. 

Failures of at-home aligners can include not ending up with straight teeth, but they could be much more catastrophic, says Dr Kahng, one of which is posterior open bites. “These are cases that end up without any contact on their molars when they bite down; molars are crucial to a stable bite.” This can lead to temporomandibular disorder (TMD), a condition affecting jaw movement. It can also accelerate wear on the front teeth if they take the brunt of chewing forces, says Dr Kahng. While teeth may appear straighter initially, the occlusion causes significant issues in the long run, including cracked teeth, mobility problems and other conditions where teeth may need to be extracted. Given these problems, she says it is questionable that there were actually dentists overseeing at-home aligner cases. “They were technically approving them,” she says, “but the degree to which they were involved is a blurred line.” She reports that many of her colleagues who chose to speak up about SmileDirectClub were met with cease and desist letters. 

Interestingly, there are many positive testimonials for SmileDirectClub. Abbey tells R29 that she was assigned to a dentist but never spoke to them as there was no option to call them directly. “When I did call, I was put through to another dentist entirely,” says Abbey. “I’m not sure if they actually were a dentist, though.” That said, Abbey is happy with the result for the money she spent. “At the time, I couldn't afford the alternative [Invisalign], and my teeth weren't that ‘bad’,” says Abbey. She was pleased with SmileDirectClub’s customer service, and although the company wasn’t based in the UK, it was easy to get hold of, she says. For this reason, Abbey would have recommended SmileDirectClub to others had it not collapsed.

Similarly, Lizzy, who received treatment through SmileDirectClub’s PR team, tells R29 that she is happy with the results. Still, she thinks that her experience likely differed from many individuals who would have paid in full for the service. “I liked that SmileDirect had a nighttime plan instead of having to wear the aligners 24/7,” says Lizzy. Unfortunately, Lizzy’s decision to go with SmileDirectClub instead of her dentist surgery’s chosen brand, Invisalign, wasn’t received well. “My dentist got super pissed at me,” Lizzy recalls. Despite her dentist’s reaction, Lizzy says she conducted informal research online before committing to SmileDirectClub. Though she came across a handful of unsavoury reviews and bad press, she thought the free treatment would be worth the risk for a straighter smile. Other customers aren’t quite so lucky, though.

In 2020, The New York Times reported that SmileDirectClub had asked customers who were not satisfied with their results and subsequently requested refunds to sign non-disclosure agreements, preventing them from sharing negative reviews. Three years later, in June 2023, The New York Times reported that SmileDirectClub agreed to release customers from these NDAs as part of a settlement. It would allow 17,000 customers to share their complaints. Sure enough, a quick scroll through TikTok serves up dozens of disagreeable reviews. In many videos, former SmileDirectClub users report experiencing pain, discomfort and even chipped teeth.

Since folding, thousands of SmileDirectClub customers are left to pick up the pieces. Dr Dodd’s professional advice is to reach out to a trusted local dentist with experience in clear aligners — and do it fast, as it’s likely that demand will be high as a result of the collapse. If you’re UK based, Dr Dodds says that, unfortunately, National Health Service (NHS) dentists will not be able to help in this instance, and you’ll be expected to absorb the cost of any further treatment. If you’re based in the US and have a dental insurance provider, contact them for advice as soon as possible. 

In the meantime, Dr Dodd advises not switching to another online dental aligner service. “A concern of mine is that other online brace companies will want to capitalise on [the bankruptcy] news and prey on vulnerable patients,” he says. “You might be tempted because of cost factors, but I promise that in the long run, this is only going to cost you more.” With this in mind, Dr Dodd says that people are much better off seeing someone face-to-face for a proper assessment so that the correct treatment plan can be put in place. (It’s important to note that dentists and orthodontists make money from consultations.) Lastly, if you’ve just received your SmileDirectClub aligners, Dr Dodd suggests not using them. As per the brand’s website, you won't be able to contact a company expert if you encounter any problems. 

Dr Kahng believes that bypassing regular, in-person checkups means that at-home dental aligner “patients” are not patients at all — they are merely paying customers. “Patients are legally protected,” says Dr Kahng. “Customers are not.” To that end, Kirsty — like thousands of others — has no idea what her rights are. Though SmileDirectClub was based in the US, it operated worldwide, including the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Therefore, consumer laws and regulations are likely to differ across countries. Dunham, who is based in the UK, tells R29 that customers who had not received all they paid for will now be entitled to a refund, but there’s a catch. “Unfortunately, they will join a long queue as a ‘creditor’ and will only receive their money if funds are available to distribute, which is highly unlikely,” he says. 

According to Dunham, UK customers may have an alternative route to getting their money back, depending on how and when they paid. “Those who paid with their debit or credit card within the past 120 days, could make a ‘chargeback’ claim,” he says. “If the payment was more than 120 days ago and you paid with a credit card, you can make a Section 75 claim, so long as you paid between £100 to £30,000 on your card.” Both the chargeback and Section 75 claims are made to the card issuer. “In both cases, you must be able to point to a breach of contract,” says Dunham. “Here, you can, as SmileDirect has failed to deliver the full service.” 

Dunham says there may also be hope for those who paid via a finance arrangement if they signed a “fixed sum loan agreement”. You can find out by asking the firm that provided you with the credit. “If you do have a fixed sum loan agreement you will be able to make a Section 75 claim in the same way as you can with a credit card, as the law — the Consumer Credit Act 1974 — provides for this,” says Dunham. A spokesperson for the Financial Ombudsman Service in the UK echoes Dunham’s advice to obtain a refund through your financial provider. If you don’t feel as though you have been treated fairly by them, the Ombudsman encourages you to contact its free, independent service so that it can investigate your complaint.

Unsurprisingly, SmileDirectClub isn’t the only teeth straightening company to go bust in recent years. Your Smile Direct, which operated throughout the UK, Europe and Australia, was dissolved in November 2019. Ellen tells Refinery29 that she was one of the customers the business abandoned when it crumbled. “Your Smile Direct didn’t even notify customers they were going out of business,” says Ellen. “It was only when I tried to email my account manager about the next steps that his automatic reply said they weren’t contactable anymore.” Ellen says that she received her treatment by financing through a private healthcare company. “They had obviously also been left in the lurch and were refusing to refund me,” says Ellen. “I had to go to the Ombudsman and prove that I hadn’t received the last portion of my treatment, so I shouldn’t have to pay for what that amounted to. It took almost a year to get it sorted.” 

Ellen says she is one of the lucky ones; the ombudsman would hear her case, but at the time, she was in a Facebook group with other customers struggling to claim a refund. “They had lost thousands of pounds with no sign of getting it back,” says Ellen. “Some were told by their finance companies that they had to keep paying their instalments or it would trash their credit score.” Ellen finds it hard to believe that there aren’t tighter regulations on how dental companies like this operate. “Your Smile Direct managed to get away without lots of press about them too, unlike SmileDirectClub,” laments Ellen. Following its insolvency, customers were directed to Alignerly, a company offering the same treatment, and reportedly registered at the same Dublin address. Refinery29 can’t find any online evidence suggesting Alignerly is currently operating as a business.

So what of other online teeth alignment services with similar business models to SmileDirectClub? Dr Dodd predicts that, eventually, they’ll cease to exist. The news about SmileDirectClub will likely put many people off going down the online route, says Dr Dodd, who envisions a return to in-clinic treatments, including dentist-approved Invisalign. Dr Kahng doesn’t personally have an issue with companies trying to innovate in this space. However, she stresses that they must do so with the patient's safety in mind. This would mean a doctor would need to be a more significant part of its business model, says Dr Kahng. Happily, some companies have started to partner with existing dental offices, like Candid, based in the US. “What I do hope is that the SmileDirectClub bankruptcy brings awareness to consumers so that they can make better decisions if they choose to move forward with DIY aligner companies,” says Dr Kahng. She surmises that SmileDirect spent “too much” to acquire their customers through marketing, and thanks to poor reported outcomes and customer service, she believes it was “overextended”. 

Dr Kahng advises those who still want to straighten their teeth through at-home services to do their due diligence. “As more copycat companies pop up, it’s important to look into each one individually and to understand what you are paying for,” she says. Without a dentist overseeing every step, what you are actually spending money on is simply a bunch of plastic trays, she adds. On the other hand, with professional involvement, you are paying for a result, says Dr Kahng. Even as a cosmetic dentist with training in Invisalign (a dentist-run company) Dr Kahng may refer cases to an orthodontist if they are out of her scope. This is the level of transparency that she would expect in a provider or an at-home service.  

Overall, the expert consensus is that, currently, the risks associated with online aligner companies may outweigh the benefits. You only get one set of teeth throughout your adult life, so whatever you do, look after them. You could pay dearly for it otherwise.