Whether it’s a fear of the dentist or the eye-watering costs, many people with crooked teeth are reluctant to seek straightening treatments.
But a new option has recently launched, which allows you to straighten your teeth without visiting the dentist once.
Straight Teeth Direct is the world’s first teeth straightening app, which digitises the whole dentist experience.
The system helps to straighten users’ teeth using invisible aligners, and at £1,350, is up to 70% cheaper than clinic prices.
Despite having had train-track braces as a teen, my teeth have shifted over the years, leaving me with some pretty obvious gaps, so I decided to test Straight Teeth Direct for myself.
While I was initially sceptical over the lack of interaction with a dentist face-to-face, I’ve been seriously impressed, and left feeling much more confident about my teeth.
Here’s everything you need to know about Straight Teeth Direct, including how the service works, and how it transformed my smile.
Initial consultation
The process started with an initial e-consultation, in which I submitted photos of my teeth from five angles (front-on, right side, left side, open down and open up), and explained how I wanted to change them.
Having downloaded the app, I explained that I wanted to focus on closing up the gaps in my lower teeth, and within a few hours received a reply explaining that this was possible.
Best of all, this initial consultation is entirely free, so if it does turn out that you aren’t suitable for the treatment, you won’t be out of pocket.
Impression kit
Once the dentist confirmed that I was suitable for treatment, I was sent an Impression Kit, which costs £42. Admittedly, this was one of the trickiest parts of the process.
Most people who have had any form of orthodontics will have had a teeth mould, and know that it’s not exactly the most comfortable experience. And it turns out doing the moulds on your own is even worse than at the dentist.
The impression kit contained a number of items, including six plastic trays (yes, you read that right - six), and several small tubs of putty.
For each of the six trays, I had to mix two balls of putty, form them into a sausage shape and press them into the tray, before carefully pressing my teeth into it.
I then had to keep this in my mouth for four painstaking minutes, making sure not to move my teeth and ruin the mould.
As you can imagine, this is easier said than done. Without going into too much gory detail, I’ll just say that it was essentially 24 minutes of gagging, and a lot of saliva!
After the first four moulds I sent photos back to the dentist via the app. Amazingly, I received a response in just 20 minutes, advising me to continue with the next two, as well as tips on how to improve the quality.
Thankfully, I managed to struggle through the final two moulds, and packaged them up, ready to be sent to the lab.
Straight Teeth Plan
Around two weeks after sending my moulds off to the lab, I received my Straight Teeth Plan, which contained a detailed breakdown of how my teeth were likely to change and a predicted timeline for treatment.
I was pleasantly surprised to hear that my treatment was expected to take just six months for my upper teeth and eight months for the lower teeth - a timeline that turned out to be pretty spot on!
Having reviewed the Straight Teeth Plan, I virtually signed that I was happy with the expectations.
At this stage, you can also decide which payment plan you would like to follow - a single payment of £1,350, three payments of £500 split over the treatment, or an upfront payment of £399, followed by eight monthly payments of £150.
Aligner design and comfort
My first StraightBox arrived around two weeks after I signed my Straight Teeth Plan, containing the first four sets of aligners, a black carry case and detailed advice for how to wear them.
The aligners are discreet transparent trays, which look like very thin mouth-guards. They sit snuggly against your teeth, and unless anyone is really studying your mouth, are basically invisible.
As with any form of braces, the aligners take some getting used to.
They’re made from a hard plastic, meaning the edges can be sharp and dig into your gums and tongue. A nail file became my best friend during the treatment, and definitely helped to soften the most pain-inducing edges.
Another side-effect was the lisp the aligners gave me for the first month or so of wearing them. While this was expected, it was irritating, and made me even more self-conscious of the new addition to my face.
As a teeth-grinder I also managed to crack the back of a few aligners, although this didn’t seem to make them any looser and so thankfully didn’t affect my progress.
However, had I actually broken or lost an aligner, Straight Teeth Direct would have replaced it for free. In contrast, typically other companies charge around £90 for replacement sets!
As with most new treatments I quickly got used to the aligners, and by the second month hardly noticed them at all.
App design and functionality
Every two weeks I was given a prompt by the dentist via the Straight Teeth Direct app to send photos of my teeth without the aligners, before being advised whether or not to change to the next pair.
The app is pretty simple in terms of design and layout, with just five tabs to choose from - Status, Profile, Messages, Records and Rewards.
However, it does what it says on the tin, and best of all, the dentists are ridiculously quick to respond to your messages.
Whether it was at 3am or 10pm, I think the longest I had to wait for a reply was about two hours - a timeline that you would never get with a dentist in a physical clinic!
The dentists are also very knowledgable about the treatment, and were helpful without being patronising, no matter how ridiculous my message was.
My results
I received my first set of aligners at the beginning of December, and finished mid-July, meaning my treatment took 7.5 months to complete.
The small gaps I had in my lower teeth have completely gone, and the few crooked teeth I had in my top teeth have disappeared.
I’ve also been surprised at how many compliments I’ve received on my teeth, even from people who didn’t know I was using aligners!
It’s safe to say that I couldn’t be happier with my results.
Price
£1,350 is a significant cost, but it’s an absolute bargain compared to most of the quotes I received from dentists, which ranged from £3,000 to £5,000.
And while the payment plans are slightly more expensive than the single downpayment, they could be an appealing option for many people.
It’s also worth bearing in mind the fact that the initial consultation is completely free, as are any replacement aligners - something that wouldn’t be the case with a visit to a physical clinic.
Overall thoughts
Overall, the past eight months have been as straightforward as can be.
Yes, I know I spent a whole section of this review wingeing about taking moulds. But that’s something that would have had to be done in a dental practice anyway, and was actually quite comical in hindsight.
Despite my initial doubts about only interacting with dentists online, the team from Straight Teeth Direct couldn’t be more helpful or responsive if they tried, and made the whole process very easy
However, it’s worth noting that my teeth didn’t have very complicated issues to fix, and for people with trickier cases, this lack of face-to-face interaction could be more problematic.
In terms of my teeth, I couldn’t be happier with the results.
As someone who regularly presents videos online, I'd become accustomed to wincing at my gappy teeth when watching footage back. However, thanks to my my treatment, I only have to wince at my dodgy accent now, and not my teeth!
It really is amazing how much a straight smile can boost your confidence.
