An
[David] Meet Andrew, Britnei, Imani,
and Chip.
Four people in search of a better smile.
This one is filming.
So put that in your pocket.
[David] They work for us.
I have had crowded teeth since I was about 21.
I never had straight teeth.
I have this gap tooth right here.
I think it's a little childish.
There are gaps in between my teeth.
-Hi. -How are you?
Good, how are you?
[David] They are heading in to check out SmileDirectClub.
[David] It sells plastic aligners for teeth
straightening.
[David] Just pop into their SmileShop,
get your teeth scanned or buy their kit online and send in
moulds of your teeth.
Your aligners will be custom-made for you.
[David] Then wait for the plastic aligners to land
in your mailbox.
Boom!
[David] SmileDirect says it has 1 million customers.
It's the cheaper option and your boy broke!
[David] And there are lots of happy fans online.
Literally three months in and my teeth have transformed
so much.
[David] The company's ads are everywhere.
Our aligners take teeth like these and transform
them into those.
[David] And with a thrifty pitch, they are tough to resist.
No braces, no monthly office visits.
No paying a fortune.
[David] In Canada, the aligners cost about $2,500.
About half the cost of regular braces.
If you can't afford to pay thousands of dollars for braces
then SmileDirectClub is definitely for you.
[David] But it seems not everyone is smiling.
I did not clean them.
[David] Like Michael Johnson in Dallas.
He now carries his teeth in a bag.
Thanks, he says, to SmileDirect.
These are the very first ones that you would have put in?
That's the very first one I put in.
It fits down there at the bottom of my teeth.
Can you see?
[David] That is it? -That's it.
[David] His treatment starts off well.
The first four or five months I was happy because the teeth
straightened out that had been crooked.
Okay, this is going to be pretty good,
you know?
[David] But after about six months...
That is when the tooth broke.
I mean, I know, that's when the--
[David] Your tooth broke?
My tooth broke.
What were you thinking at that moment?
I put it back in and it hurt really bad.
I was like no, this hurt my teeth.
I said, I'm stopping right now.
So, I stopped.
[David] But his teeth didn't stop breaking.
So if I'm looking in your mouth, where have you lost teeth?
Oh, yeah.
There, there...
How do you feel?
Quite frankly, I feel like I just made a bad judgement call
or I've chosen something without investigating a little
bit further, which is why I'm doing this.
[David] He says SmileDirect's orthodontic fix did not
work for him.
It may be good for some people but it was a bad experience
for me.
[David] And he's not alone.
We see over 2,000 complaints to the Better Business Bureau.
And hear from some Marketplace viewers too.
Back on hidden camera...
[David] Is it that easy?
[David] Orthodontics Professor Dr Hera Kim-Berman has a problem
with that approval rate.
Orthodontic treatment, period, is not for everybody.
I think there is great potential for wrong and harm to be done
for people who are not really informed.
[David] She runs the oldest graduate orthodontics program in
the world at the University of Michigan.
Would plastic aligners work for everybody in every case?
Not in every case.
It has to be selective cases.
[David] In your experience is it the majority of cases?
It is actually special cases.
Minority of the cases.
[David] What will happen with our testers?
[David] No dental exam.
No orthodontist.
[David] Sales staff use a smile stretcher and take photos to
send to doctors offsite.
[David] When customers get aligners they send in their own
snaps to SmileDirect every 90 days during treatment because
that's how the doctor monitors progress.
[David] Next up, a high-tech scan.
[David] 6,000 pictures a second with that wand.
[David] The scans are used to make a treatment plan.
[David] And a doctor registered in your province decides whether
to tweak and approve it or not.
Would you be comfortable treating someone this way?
With photos and with just a scan,
I would be very uncomfortable and hesitant.
I would insist on seeing the patient first.
We have to find out their health history and do a complete
examination to make sure which teeth have crowns,
which teeth have implants.
[David] Well, the testers do get asked that,
sort of.
[David] "We like nos in this place."
First of all, our questionnaires and health history should never
have a preselection.
Always empty.
And there should be some clarification if somebody says,
I don't know what these are.
Not just, we just like nos.
The customer is actually asking for information and they are not
getting it.
She is very dismissive.
It seems to be just a cursory thing they have to do to get to
that scan.
[David] Back in Dallas, Michael Johnson says he warned
SmileDirect about his teeth issues.
I knew I had a dark spot on the teeth in the back that fell out.
I said I didn't know if I'm going to qualify and
she said, you'll be fine.
You know, she was very reassuring.
[David] He is approved.
Months later when his teeth crack,
SmileDirectClub tells him the aligners do not usually cause
teeth to break.
They review their records and say some teeth had possible
decay and a fracture line.
If they found this I should have been disqualified.
[David] But SmileDirect tells him,
you signed a release stating you had had a dental exam.
These areas of concern should have been addressed with your
local dental provider.
What do our testers hear about visiting a dentist?
[David] But that is not what SmileDirect's consent form says.
"It's your responsibility to see a dentist within six months
"prior to starting SmileDirectClub aligners."
The scan cannot pick up those things like gum disease and
periodontal disease, implants and so forth.
[David] But a dentist and x-rays can,
and the consent form says you're certifying your regular dentist
checked for those issues.
On hidden camera, our consultations are almost over.
[David] What do you hear when you hear that?
There's a lot of uncertainty.
You don't know your doctor.
You don't know if you're going to be approved and you don't
know what the treatment plan but that's okay, just give us your
credit card number and trust us with that.
[David] For weeks we have been trying to show SmileDirect
video of what our testers experienced,
but they will not watch unless we agree to their terms.
We go back and forth, still no.
Then SmileDirect puts out a press release announcing changes
to some of the very things we have been asking about.
The consent form altered, to ensure customers understand
they should see their own dentist first.
More training for SmileDirect staff to be,
as the company says, consistent with its consent form.
They also say they think our report is one-sided.
As for Michael Johnson, SmileDirect says he was told to
go for a checkup.
Michael says nobody told him that.
[♪♪]
[David] 48 hours after our hidden camera,
our testers are approved for treatment.
We show the plans to Dr Hera Kim-Berman,
starting with Andrew.
If you look at him now, you can see that his bite is
really good.
[David] She says this plan would close his gap but it will also
pull back his upper teeth so that they hit his lower ones.
Does that make things worse?
It makes things worse.
[David] But if you're looking for a cheaper solution,
is this okay?
It's not okay, and the bite is going to be either traumatic or
he's not going to have a correct bite.
[David] We ask other two orthodontists to review
Andrew's plan.
Both say it could work, but all of them say it's tough to
tell the health of teeth and gums just from a scan.
[♪♪]
[David] We've sent four testers into four SmileShops to ask
about fixing their teeth with "no braces,
no monthly office visits and no paying a fortune".
Would it strike you that almost 100% of people would be able to
get an outliner that would work for them?
To be able to be treated using this one technique is kind of
hard to believe, actually.
[David] Time to dig into Britnei and Imani's plans.
First red flag for the doctor, Both scans miss some of
their teeth.
So when the aligner doesn't fit well,
this is the reason.
The scanning was not good.
[David] And that's not all.
She says Britnei's proposed treatment pushes out her crowded
upper teeth, potentially causing problems with eating
and speaking.
This is not acceptable because she will now have a lisp,
which she will be very cognizant of.
[David] Meanwhile, Imani's top teeth would be pulled inwards.
If you look they are bringing everything back but they can't
close all these.
[David] I see.
Because now they are hitting the lower and they can't go
any further.
[David] The doctor says these plastic aligners aren't going to
fix Imani's gaps.
There is a way for us to close all the gaps but that option was
not given to the patient so they cannot make an
informed decision.
[David] SmileDirect tells Chip his teeth aren't that bad.
[David] But this orthodontist sees something much
more serious.
His diagnosis is a severe malocclusion that is class
three, with a negative over-jet, underbite,
and severe crowding.
It is not appropriate and this patient should be not approved.
[David] She says his underbite will get worse and his bottom
teeth are being pushed out so far,
they risk falling out.
This is a case that will not be predictable using clear aligners
supervised by an experienced orthodontist,
but it is definitely dangerous for unsupervised direct to
consumer aligner treatment.
[David] Bottom line, Dr. Kim-Berman and two other
orthodontists say these three testers should never have
been approved.
The immediate come back of a company like SmileDirect will
be, people like you are threatened by them.
What do you make of that argument?
We've been around for a very long time,
and educated to deal with a series of problems from mild
to complex.
Our philosophy and our mission is to put our patients'
care first.
I don't necessarily see that happening here.
[David] We share the testers' treatment plans
with SmileDirect.
The company says Andrew is, "an ideal case for clear
aligner treatment".
But SmileDirect disagrees with the three orthodontists about
Britnei, Imani and Chip.
SmileDirect says they'll have straighter-looking smiles,
with some acceptable trade-offs.
They also say orthodontists have a conflict of interest because
SmileDirect's alternative is cheaper and popular,
And add only 1% of their customers complain
after treatment.
[♪♪]
[David] On customers' consent forms,
it says you've had a chance to talk to the doctor who approved
your plan.
That's what our testers are trying to do.
I'm just looking to speak with the dentist that approved
my plans?
Because I have some more questions.
Yes, please.
Is he or she unavailable today?
Is there a chance of doing that in the future?
[David] SmileDirect now says this isn't ideal.
Says there'll be a "dedicated email and phone number" so you
can reach your treating doctor.
Currently 13 minutes that we have been waiting.
[David] Our testers keep trying...
Fifteen minutes.
[David] End up leaving messages.
I'm hoping to speak with someone soon, thanks so much, bye.
[David] But Andrew gets through.
[David] And a week later he makes contact.
I have some more questions about my smile plan.
[David] He also says Andrew should consider other options.
[David] Advice our testers never heard in the SmileShops.