My Smile Direct Club Experience (So Far)

I received my first 3 sets of aligners on Friday, October 28th. I was super excited, and I put them in at bedtime. The top fit great, but the bottoms didn't quite seat on the right side. So I waited it out until Sunday, thinking they just needed time to adjust to my teeth and that they'd seat fully by the end of the weekend. Well, they still didn't seat properly by Sunday afternoon, so I checked my treatment plan to see where the nuisance may be, and I realized that my treatment plan has one of my lower teeth shown to be much shorter than it really is, so my aligners are improperly fitted over that tooth. Therefore, there is NO way my aligners are going to fit, unless my tooth magically shrinks to fit the aligner, right?

Well I contacted Smile Direct Club via email over the weekend, then called them on Monday. They told me I probably just hadn't seated my aligner correctly, then asked me to send several photos to look at the aligners and my teeth, so I sent those in immediately. I just received an answer back from them, stating that my photos were observed and everything is fine and I just need to keep using my chewies to seat my aligners and continue with treatment as is.

There is NO way I will be putting those aligners on my bottom teeth since they have a tooth incorrectly formed in my treatment plan. I have expressed my concerns with that to them (just replied to their email). I'll let you know what comes of this situation. Ugh, I don't want to keep dragging out treatment.

So my first 3 sets of aligners were delivered yesterday (yay!).

Inside my first shipment was a set of "chewies" aligner seaters, a removal tool, my aligner case (purple! score!), an emery board to file down sharp edges, my first 3 sets of aligners, and the bonus whitening treatment.

First trays: I decided to put them in at bedtime, as I've seen recommended by many other SDC members. The top tray fit beautifully; it snapped in, and was a little hard to take off the first time, but I didn't need the tool to get it out. The bottom fit pretty well *I thought,* but after using the chewie to try and seat it, I realized my right bottom side is loose. I originally thought this was due to a post-SDC impression filling I had done on my back molar (which I contacted SDC about before having it done and they told me it wouldn't be a problem since it was only one small procedure), but after I got a closer look, I realized one of my front teeth on the right side wasn't lined up correctly with the tray. So I contacted SDC through email since it was about 10pm, and haven't heard back yet. After wearing the trays all night, the bottom still looks as though it's not lined up properly, but it's not fitting quite so loose. I don't know if it's starting to seat on my teeth due to suction, or if I'm just being optimistic because I'm bummed I might have to wait for a new set of bottom trays to be created :(

Anyway, so far so good. My teeth don't hurt, but when I take the aligners out to eat, I can definitely already feel a difference. My bite seems to have shifted ever so slightly, so when I bite down, my teeth hit spots they're unfamiliar with. More specifically, my left hind teeth seem to be hitting a different spot than what they're used to, and I checked my treatment plan out again today just to compare the change for tray 1, and those are the teeth that are being moved with this tray. Yes! It's already working; I'm pretty excited! Let's just hope my bottom tray issue gets resolved ASAP to minimize wait time for my treatment plan.

My aligners have finally shipped! I am so very excited! The initial process takes quite a while, so to know that I'll actually start my treatment this week is an amazing feeling. Unfortunately, the email that told me my aligners have shipped didn't contain a tracking number, so I can't tediously stalk them on their way to my doorstep. Bummer. I emailed customer service and requested a tracking number but haven't heard back yet. I expect I'll have tracking by the end of the day. Anyway, I just wanted to post this update for those of you following to give you a timeline reference. I started this journey September 14th, and my aligners shipped October 26th. If you're even mildly interested in this treatment, I highly recommend starting asap to minimize your waiting time :) My experience so far has been one of the quicker ones since I didn't put off taking my impressions or photos, I literally took each as soon as they were requested, and I was approved the first time around :) I'm very thankful for that. Anyway, that's the latest update.