audrey Ganus was late for her SmileDirectClub appointment on Monday, so she called from the car to let a receptionist know she might show up five minutes after her appointment time. When she heard an automated voicemail saying the company had closed and was no longer offering services, she assumed the phone number had changed. She had received a confirmation email just two days in advance. But when she arrived at the office, she saw that the doors were locked, the lights were off and items were “strewn everywhere” inside, as if the employees had left in a hurry.
Things got worse when Ganus, who is 22 and lives in Palm Harbor, Florida, tried to log into her patient portal. “I had to have a record of everything: my braces, 3D scans of my teeth, progress reports,” Ganus said. “There's nothing. Now I don't even have any proof that my smile has ever been straightened. No other doctor is willing to help me without that proof, so the only way I can get help is if I start all over again and clean my teeth get it straightened out for three, four, or five thousand dollars. SmileDirectClub left me no choice, and I'm starting to panic a little.”
Ganus is one of more than two million customers who have turned to SmileDirectClub over the past decade, seeking tooth aligners advertised as faster and cheaper than braces. Like countless others, she has been left in the lurch after the company ceased operations last week following its bankruptcy filing in September.
In a statement on its website, SmileDirectClub apologized to customers and said it had “made the incredibly difficult decision to wind down its global operations with immediate effect.” Customer service would no longer be available, including the so-called “lifetime smile guarantee,” which promised unlimited customer service support even after someone finished their aligner treatment.
That promise was one of the main reasons Ganus says she chose the company in the first place. “I was supposed to have 24/7 care, but that was taken away from me,” she said.
In its statement, SmileDirectClub wrote that customers on payment plans were expected to “continue to make all monthly payments until full payment is made per the terms of our SmilePay program,” despite no longer receiving care or products from the brand . The aligners were sold online or in-store for $1,850 each, making SmileDirectClub an attractive choice for lower-income or uninsured customers who may not be able to afford braces, which can be costly between $3,000 and $10,000.
“I think it's inconsiderate and messed up that they're keeping people in the dark,” Ganus said. “People don't just have money to throw around, and teeth matter.”
Rebekah Reynolds, a 29-year-old from Oklahoma, paid the full $2,000 for her aligners in October. Two days later she learned that the company had filed for bankruptcy. “I thought, 'Okay, that doesn't mean the business is closed; this has just been a weird year for businesses,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds says she never received any notice from SmileDirectClub about the closure. “I found out because some of my TikTok followers started tagging me in videos and asking me what I was going to do,” she said. “Then I looked it up and discovered it. Things like that surprise me.”
Some customers have said that they only joined SmileDirectClub because of intensive, recent marketing campaigns. Kat Fernandez, a 37-year-old from South Texas, said she recently made a purchase after receiving a “really enticing” promo for the brand's aligners for the retail price of $995.
“There was a letter from the CEO himself saying it was a discount just for me, which I knew was BS,” Fernandez said. “Anyway, the deal was too good to be true, so I pulled the trigger on November 3. I did the impression process, sent them off and waited, but then I woke up and saw that it's no longer a business.”
Fernandez had paid the full amount using her HSA funds, and she is now trying to dispute the charges. “I didn't think a big company like this would ruin everyone overnight,” she said. “It infuriates me to know that they were aggressively pursuing (customers) so close to when they were going to withdraw. I feel ripped off and cheated.”
Before the SmileDirectClub closed, he had to deal with countless criticism of orthodontists, submitted to the American Academy of Orthodontists (AAO). complaints with 36 state dental boards alleging specific violations of regulations and law. “The AAO has long believed that it is in the best interest of the public to have orthodontic treatment performed under the direct, ongoing supervision of a licensed orthodontist,” the organization wrote in a news release. “Orthodontic treatment is a professional service and a complex medical process, not a product or device.”
In 2019, the AAO said that if aligners are not properly monitored by dentists, problems such as tooth and gum loss and altered bites can occur – sometimes not immediately, but over time.
A 2020 New York Times research found that the brand “worked to limit information about customer satisfaction,” by requiring some customers to sign non-disclosure agreements before receiving refunds, banning them from talking about their experiences, and requiring them to post negative posts about SmileDirect on social media to delete. The company also sued several state dental boards for imposing regulations that would make it more difficult to operate the SmileDirectClub.
Despite challenges, the company grew to an estimated valuation of $8.9 billion and was courted, according to the newspaper celebrity endorsements from Queer Eye's Jonathan Van Ness and Love Island host Arielle Vandenberg. For some customers, it felt like the only way to tap into what a SmileDirectClub press release called the “transformational power of a smile.”
But now users have less to smile about. “I don't have the ability to finance Invisalign,” Ganus said. “This was a device that worked for lower-income families or people who couldn't afford to pay $5,000 to $8,000 for orthodontics. This harms millions of people.”