If you have been anywhere in Toronto lately, you’ve most likely seen some kind of Smile Direct Club advertising. Smile Direct Club promises a straighter smile at a price 60% cheaper than braces.
If you have considering to improve your smile or straight your teeth, you probably heard about different options such as Invisalign which is the leading provider of clear aligners or Smile Direct which is new to the industry with heavy marketing presence. The main question to make a decision as how to proceed with treatment would be the cost, safety and predictable outcome with each options.
Consultation
Smile Direct Club
Smile Direct does not provide any dental supervision rather than looking at your impressions through a remote dentist with lots of missing information needed for proper treatment planning. One example is that they can not assess your gum, bone or root conditions by only looking at your impression and scan, This can results in a very significant harms to root of teeth during tooth movement or gum issues prior or caused by “Do It Yourself” orthodontic movements. .
Invisalign
Invisalign is administered and supervised by a certified preferred Invisalign Provider in our Vancouver dental office with many years of experiences in both cosmetic and orthodontic treatments. We offer complimentary consultation to assess your teeth condition discuss the alternative treatments, possible complications or limitations and to establish an estimate of the length of treatment. We will determine if you are a good candidate, and whether there are issues to fix before treatment begins. Prior to start of treatment, we do further clinical check as well as checking teeth roots and bone density in order to eliminate any risk factor and to come up with the best design to move your teeth. Upon completion of design by our experienced Invisalign dentist in Vancouver, we will show you the 3D movement of your teeth allowing you to see the end results of your customizes case before start of treatment. This gives you an idea before you commit yourself to the treatment which is not available with Smile Direct Club.
Impressions
Smile Direct Club
Smile Direct sends you an impression kit to take a mold of your teeth done by yourself which then would be mailed to their head quarter. The accuracy of aligners made are directly depending on how perfect the impression is taken by you. Impression taken by individuals not trained as dentist can have lots of flaws which affect on aligners and ultimately the outcome of your treatment.
Invisalign
In our dental office in downtown Vancouver, we use double layer impressions, as well as photos combined with dental X-rays to obtain the most precise impression to manufacture Invisalign aligners. Our staff are trained for many years with lots of experiences to accomplish this task.
Treatments
Smile Direct Club
Smile Direct Club will send all of your aligners at once. You need to use each aligner before changing to the next one. There is no supervision during treatment and the only support you get is an operator over the phone.
Invisalign
When using Invisalign, we place little tooth-colored attachments to move your teeth. Included in your Invisalign treatment. These multi surface computer designed attachments are acting like a “door knob” to allow to move teeth in direction designed to ensure your Invisalign success. We supervise your teeth movements at any stage to perform any adjustment needed during treatment. In some cases during the course of teeth movements, teeth start to “stuck ” to each other. To prevent this, some adjustment between teeth like filing between teeth can be done to facilitate teeth movement. All of these are included in your Invisalign treatment.
Invisalign clear aligners are made of Custom scalloped aligners that hug your tooth better and are significantly thinner than any other aligners.
Severity Of Cases
Smile Direct Club
As Smile Direct Club can not use attachments and unable to provide teeth adjustment during treatment, they have limitation on what cases they can treat. Technically, Smile Direct Club is only able to treat only very basic cases successfully and not able to do more complex movements.
Invisalign
Our Vancouver Dentist in Yaletown has been treating Invisalign cases for many years. His advanced knowledge of combined cosmetic and othodontic treatment allows him to treat from easy to very complex cases in our office. He has treated numerous complex cases successfully which were rejected by his fellow orthodontist colleagues as braces only cases.
Cost
Smile Direct Club
Smile Direct Club advertises as a cheaper option to braces and Invisalign. As of today, they charge $2500 for their “Do It Yourself” treatment. While this pricing might be appealing to some, one should consider the risk and out come of treatment. In simple way, is it worth to do anything with your health and body, including movement of your teeth without a health care professional supervision?
Invisalign
The cost of Invisalign in our office is depending on the severity of your case and the amount of teeth movement needed which varies from one person to the other. It is interesting to know that the price of Invisalign treatment for less complex cases which can be treated by Smile Direct Club can be very close to their cost.
In conclusion, if you are looking to improve your smile using any clear aligner option, we recommend you to set up a complimentary Invisalign consultation with no obligation to know more about your case, time line and cost.
For those who has already started to move their teeth using Smile Direct Club and are not satisfy with their treatment, our dental office in downtown Vancouver offers discount for Invisalign treatment upon providing the proof of payment to Smile Direct Club.