SmileDirectClub: what happened, and can you still start?

What happened

SmileDirectClub had already filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States when it announced the wind-down. The company said it had looked for an investor or partner and had not found one willing to put in the capital it needed. From that day, aligner treatment through its telehealth platform ended. Customer support stopped, the lifetime smile guarantee was withdrawn, and orders that had not shipped were canceled.

Healthcare Finance Direct, which serviced many US SmilePay installment plans, later described those bankruptcy cases as moving to a Chapter 7 liquidation on January 26, 2024.

If you were already in treatment

People partway through a course lost the company's check-ins, replacement aligners, and the guarantee they had been sold. The company's notice told anyone who wanted to continue to speak to a local dentist. On December 14, 2023, the American Association of Orthodontists gave the same practical advice: book an in-person examination with an orthodontist, and take your records and the history of the treatment to that visit. The association also said an examination and X-rays matter before further orthodontic treatment.

SmilePay installment plans sat alongside the aligners. SmileDirectClub told SmilePay customers they were expected to keep paying under those contracts. A later compensation plan, arranged with the New York Attorney General and described by Healthcare Finance Direct, covered certain US customers who on December 8, 2023 still had an active installment contract, were up to date, and were still likely to be in treatment. The refund or balance reduction depended on when the first aligners had arrived and how much of the plan was already done. People who had already finished treatment and still owed payments were described as outside that plan. If you still have a balance, the contract and the finance company named on it are where you check what you owe.

SmileDirectClub also sold retainers after treatment. Once the company stopped, those orders ended with it.

SmileSet and former customers

When we checked on October 23, 2026, smiledirectclub.com redirected to a SmileSet page for former customers. SmileSet is a separate US company. It says it bought SmileDirectClub's technology and assets. It says it works with some of the dental professionals who treated SmileDirectClub patients, so former customers can usually order retainers or night guards without new impressions. It will not continue an old treatment plan: aligners need new impressions and a new plan, offered to former customers at a discount.

SmileSet says it cannot honor SmileDirectClub's guarantees or warranties. One answer on that page appears to say the opposite, but the text under it is about something else, so get any promise in writing.

A new SmileSet plan is a new course of treatment, covered in the SmileSet review.

What people still look up

For several years SmileDirectClub sold clear aligners by mail in the United States. You could use a home impression kit or have a scan at a SmileShop, and the company sold a night-wear plan alongside all-day wear. Those were the products older reviews compared. The dollar prices and promo codes in those articles belong to that former offer.

What you can look at instead

If you are deciding how to straighten your teeth now, the useful questions are who supervises treatment and what a current fee includes. These pages explain the current choices. SmileDirectClub's place in them is as history, not as a brand you can buy:

• Compare current US aligner providers, with prices and how each one starts
• How at-home aligner treatment works
• Invisalign and at-home aligners
• What clear aligners cost in the US
• Night-only aligners, if you were looking at the old night plan
• Invisalign in the US, for clinic-based treatment

Byte, the other large mail-order brand often compared with SmileDirectClub, has also stopped taking new aligner patients. That history is on the Byte page.