The Worst Experience of My Life - Thousands of Pounds Spent on Straight Teeth Direct, Followed by Thousands of Pounds on Corrective Management for Bone Loss After finishing my treatment, the results were so good that the company asked to use my picture as part of their marketing campaign. I declined. Beneath the ‘Before’ and ‘After’, I have permanent bone loss in my front teeth and I have to push them back in with my fingers. What is under the surface is more important than what something looks like. If you are considering using this company, please don’t. I have no invested interested in telling you this, I am simply someone who has experienced negligence with this company, an unethical behemoth dominating the media with shiny results. I would recommend consulting a dentist that you trust and having them explain the complexity of orthodontics to you. Please care for your adult teeth as they are the only ones that you get in this life. Summary of my case: I have been a customer of Straight Teeth Direct for years, and have screenshots and PDFs as evidence in the case of dispute. My first SmileBox was shipped 11.03.2021, when I was 22, and my treatment officially finished 09.02.2022. I then followed the maintenance retainer plan. I have permanent bone loss as a result of the company’s unsafe practice, which has resulted in developing permanently wobbly front teeth, despite being young and having a history of strong and healthy teeth up to the point of treatment. I consulted with lawyers who said I had a strong case, however they have been unable to contact the company. The issue: Since finishing treatment, my front teeth are wobbly and very weak. I cannot eat certain foods and it leads to discomfort as I have to manually push my teeth back into my gums with my fingers. I believed that this would stabilise with the maintenance plan, however this wasn’t the case. At the beginning of this year, I was incredibly concerned as the issue had not resolved. I visited a dentist in-person on 30.01.24 for a full check-up and X-rays. I showed her the pictures of my teeth before and after treatment with Straight Teeth Direct, and explained my dental health before and after treatment. The X-rays clearly displayed permanent bone loss and ligament damage. My moveable front teeth can clearly be felt. I have permanent, lifelong effects from the negligent and unsafe treatment. This involves further cost for dental work, although the bone loss cannot be cured or reversed. Expert opinion: The dentist said that healthy procedures were not followed. She read through the documentation, photo evidence and contract and gave me a through, competent explanation about the mistakes made from a dental and orthodontic perspective. It is a common misconception that UK dentists are against teledentistry because the competitive pricing puts them out of business. However, the truth is that dentistry is a very complex practice; UK dentists study for five years followed by two years of supervision. Safe, expert treatment is not comparable to an at-home aligner plan with an elusive international dentist via an app. Why I chose the company: If you Google the company, the reviews are glowing. ‘Clear braces at a fraction of the cost’ ‘Created by dentists, powered by technology’ ‘Our promise’. There is a review in The Independent, lending the company media credibility, when it is really one long and expensive advertisement. I was drawn to the company after their posts kept appearing on my social media feeds. Why I left this review: Since becoming aware of the severe failures in my treatment, I have contacted the company multiple times with no response. My lawyers have contacted the company multiple times with no response; they said: "the company has not responded to any of the correspondence we have sent by email or post." As a result of the company’s seemingly ‘uncontactable’ nature, I am leaving a public review. Why are there so many positive reviews of Straight Teeth Direct?: (1) Some people will not experience any adverse effects to the treatment. (2) Many people will have underlying adverse effects that they are not aware of, as they can only be seen on scans, and they have not had professional examinations years down the line to see the consequences. (3) People who have had negative experiences are not platformed. When I left a negative review on TrustPilot, the company reported me. TrustPilot reinstated my review and messaged me personally saying the review should never have been reported and they’re sorry for my experiences. When I reached out on the App to Straight Teeth Direct with a complaint, they disabled my user account. I cannot contact them by App, by email, by mail, or through lawyers. I reached out to someone on the Board of Directors who personally messaged the CEO to get in touch with me, this of course has not happened. I have now tried to contact them via LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube and of course have received no response. I will be reporting them to Trading Standards but am not hopeful about the outcome. The company, despite being registered to a London address and having the two co-CEOs based in the U.K., operates internationally especially in Portugal. This greatly reduces the chance of legal action being brought against them because any legal case would have to operate over multiple jurisdictions. Also, by being ‘uncontactable’, no complain procedure can be followed: these two aspects of the company makes it immune. Possible one of the most unethical companies with the shiniest marketing. Someone would have had to have a conversation “someone has complained on the App, what should I do?” “Delete her account”. Here’s to a lifetime of pushing my front teeth back into my gums with my fingers. Joyous. Attached is an X Ray