Who's done online teeth straightening?

[MademoisellePraline]

Has anyone used any of the online tooth straightening aligners? I had Invisalign ten years ago, my helpful dentist didn't tell me I would need to permanently wear the last set as maintenance, so I binned them, and naturally a lot of my teeth have slipped back. That was £4k back then.

There are now a load of companies online that do the same thing, remotely, ie you take the impressions yourself and they produce the resulting aligners you need.

Has anyone actually used any of them? Of course some will be scams, it's the nature of the beast, but some must be legit and provide a good service? Any experience with the one to use, or indeed one to avoid would be gratefully received.

With Invisalign you should have a retainer, not use the last set of aligners. You also don’t have to wear them all day - my daughter wears her retainer at night only.

I genuinely wouldn’t recommend online though. But there are other brands available in orthodontists that don’t cost as much and do exactly the same thing , and some have added benefits.

Go to a proper dentist or I fear you will waste your time again

Oh wow. No I was never given that.

Fat chance ten years on, and it wouldn't work with my teeth now anyway. But how frustrating that they didn't give me the complete treatment.

No, don’t do it. My orthodontist explained why - at least go to a real one first & you will understand why the online ones are scammers!

I know your question was whether anyone had gone down the online route but I really wouldn’t recommend it. You can’t start moving teeth around willy nilly without being physically checked. I currently have aligners via my dentist and I get checked every two weeks when I receive my next tray. Before I even started treatment, I had two X-rays 6 months apart to check that my gum bones could withstand the aligners moving my teeth about as I had a slight recession on one side. The last thing you want is to lose teeth! I know it’s expensive but don’t cut corners with this.

I used Smile Direct during COVID times. I think they've since gone bust. More than a grand but it simply avoided tricky root filled teeth so was not a good finish. I started to get loose teeth and couldn't get an actual dentist to speak to so stopped out of fear I'd lose a tooth. I've since had fixed ceramic braces and now all sorted.