Smile Direct Club Progress Update (Post 4 of 4)

Alrighty, so I have three other posts on my Smile Direct Club experience, and this is the final one. This will be my updated progress post.

I will start with the older info, then show you my newest progress towards the bottom (feel free to scroll there if you want), with helpful info on the refinements process (as it is currently) in between.

Recap: Started With Crooked Teeth

As you can read in my prior posts, I had braces as a teenager but did not wear my retainers and my teeth went crooked again. Here’s where I started before my 6 month plan (sorry I don’t havea better pic).

Refinements: 1st set

I have been through my initial 6 month journey, which you can read here, and I have given you lots of tips & tricks to make your own journey successful here.

I am starting this post in my Refinement stage, which means that although I was overall happy with my teeth movement progress, I had one rogue tooth that I needed to still move. It was my #1 problem tooth in the beginning.

Sorry if that is too much of a view into my mouth innards.  I just feel like it helps to show you what I’m looking at.

Please note that this post is not sponsored by Smile Direct Club (SDC) and the opinions are completely and honestly mine. There may also be affiliate links in this post, you can read my disclosure info at the bottom of this page.

How to Request Refinements from Smile Direct Club

Get in touch with them. I chose to contact their Facebook page, as I had read in a Facebook SDC group that they were really great over FB messenger.

The group was right. The person was very helpful, attentive and patient, even after they had to give me several options for appointment times because I could not make my mind up.

There were appointments available the next day, but I could not do it that day.

If you need to contact them, you can also call their customer service number, or chat them directly on their website. I have had good experiences with both, some people have not.

Refinements Scan

My scan at my local Smile Shop was quick and easy, very similar to my initial scan.

The SDC rep asked me what my concerns were and typed them into their system via ipad, scanned my teeth, took photos with the company ipad, gave me a few goodies (floss, lip balm, smile stretcher, and a bag), and sent me on my way.

She said it would take up to two weeks to get evaluated by the dental team, and then another 4-6 weeks to receive the aligners once/if I was approved.

In reality, it took 2 days to get approved, and 2.5 weeks from my scan to receive the aligners. SWEET!!

Reviewing My Aligners: Refinements #1

In my previous post, I talked about reviewing all of my aligners when I received them, and I did that again with my refinements.

Note that they did come in a bubble envelope mailer with an outtie tool, directions, and very little else. A little disappointing, but I expected that since it was a popular subject in the (unofficial, not sponsored) Facebook group.

I also marked the refinements bags with an ‘R’ so I wouldn’t get them confused with my previous aligners, since I kept them in my purple box with the others.

I will be totally honest. I was disappointed with what I saw in my trays.

I looked at my problem tooth all the way through the progression of them, and the last tray didn’t really seem to have it moved very much at all.

So, to figure out what changes they were making, I went to my Smile Plan on my SDC dashboard, which you get when you open an account. That video is below.

What I noticed on this video was that they were actually moving some molars on both sides to make the canine teeth not look like they jutted out as much.

Although I had noticed this, I was more or less already happy with what I had with those teeth.

However, I did decided to keep this set, and use them, as this would further improve my smile.

But, as I wrote in my first post about how to get started with SDC, one thing that was clear when reading user’s reviews, you have to be your own advocate and keep communication open with SDC in case anything goes wrong or you’re not happy with your results.

What I Will Do Next

Therefore, that is exactly my plan – get through these 2 months of aligners, and then contact them and tell them they still didn’t address the one tooth, which has plenty of room to move forward.

Also at my next scan, (and this may have been my downfall), I will check the rep’s remarks for what they say improvements should be. In my initial scan, she asked me to review the remarks and she had left out my two major teeth that needed moving, so we added. **inserteyeroll.

At my refinements scan, she didn’t ask me to review them and I was to sheepish to ask. But next time, no way. I also noticed she wasn’t quite as thorough as the first girl who scanned my teeth, but the aligners fit like a glove, so clearly that wasn’t a problem.

So, off I go into aligner land for two more months. I will update this post as I go.

If you’re reading this, all I’ll say is, (and I’ve said this many times before), my journey has not been perfect, but for the price, spending a few extra minutes every so often working with the SDC team is totally worth it.

Refinements: 2nd set (hopefully last)

I wanted to give you a quick update, I will fill in a little more in the next few days as I have time.

Here was my progress after my first set of refinements. Not terrible, but not where I wanted to be, particularly with that second tooth on the left (the right side in my mouth).

I went through the second refinements scan, pretty much the exact same as described above.

I received my refinements three and a half weeks after my smile scan appointment (appointment was Aug 8th, received aligners on Sep 2nd.)

I checked them all (as I advised in this post), and they were all in good order. And it appeared that my one tooth was going to be in the right location, woohoo!!

So, now we wear aligners and wait on progress. Patiently but eagerly.

Here is my progress after the first month of refinements (beginning of October)

and pictures from today (a few days after the prior picture).

(Sorry it’s a little less out of focus, I took it on the fly after work and wanted to get it up so you could see it.)

I won’t update every day with pictures, but wanted to give you the very most updated info I have. And I think I am really seeing that tooth move and it’s looking great!!

Get Started with Smile Direct Club today!

If you are ready to get your teeth tight and right, click here to input your email to get your discount!

If you have questions that I can help with, leave them in the Comments section below. I’d love to hear from you!!

As always, Thanks for being here, and God bless!!