SmileDirectClub in the UK: what happened?

What happened

SmileDirectClub is an American company, and it had already filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States before the December announcement. It said it had tried to find an investor or partner and had not found one willing to put in the money it needed. The wind-down took effect immediately.

In the UK, the company's notice said aligner treatment through its platform had ended, customer support had stopped, and the lifetime smile guarantee had been withdrawn. Orders that had not been sent were cancelled. People who wanted to carry on were told to speak to a local dentist.

If you were already a UK customer

Anyone mid-treatment lost the company's check-ins and any further aligners it would have sent. A dentist or orthodontist can look at where your teeth are now and talk through what to do next. Take any records, aligners, and paperwork you still have. Every dentist and orthodontist practising in the UK must be on the General Dental Council register, which you can search.

If you paid by instalments, start with your agreement. Tabeo, which administered SmilePay loans in the UK, says there were two kinds, and you can log in to Tabeo's customer site to see yours and check which you have:

• Regulated loan, 24 or 26 months at 9.9% APR. Healthcare Finance Ltd was the lender. Tabeo says these customers may have a claim under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, which can make the lender answerable for what SmileDirectClub UK failed to supply.
• Unregulated loan, 12 months at 0% APR. SmileDirectClub UK Ltd was itself the lender. Tabeo says these agreements are not covered by the Consumer Credit Act, and any claim for treatment that was not supplied lies against SmileDirectClub UK, not Tabeo.

When the company stopped, it told customers to keep paying their plans. Which? warned that customers of a collapsed company are usually at the back of the queue of creditors, so a refund through the liquidators was unlikely to amount to much. Its advice was that people who paid by credit card, and were still waiting for something they had paid for, should try a section 75 claim with the card provider. Whether either route works depends on how you paid and what your agreement says.

American customers had a different arrangement. A compensation plan agreed in New York covered some US SmilePay customers only, and it does not apply to UK agreements. If you want that background, it is on the US SmileDirectClub page (US customers only).

Retainers were part of the old aftercare offer. Once UK support stopped, a retainer decision sits with a dentist who can see your teeth.

Why the old UK address opens SmileSet

When we checked on 23 October 2026, smiledirectclub.co.uk redirected to the website of SmileSet, a separate American company that says it bought SmileDirectClub's technology and assets. The redirect does not make SmileSet a UK continuation of SmileDirectClub, and nothing on its site describes a UK service. Its prices are in US dollars, its treatment plans are approved by dentists licensed in US states rather than registered with the General Dental Council, and it says it cannot honour SmileDirectClub's guarantees.

If you are in the UK, a UK dentist or orthodontist is the place to start.

What people still look up

SmileDirectClub sold mail-order clear aligners in the UK, with home impressions or a scan in a shop, and it sold both all-day and night-wear plans. The prices and codes in older UK pages belong to that period, when the offer was still on sale.

What you can look at instead

If you are choosing aligner treatment in the UK now, the useful questions are who examines you and what the current fee includes. These pages explain that. They describe treatment you can start, rather than a stand-in appointed to replace SmileDirectClub:

• Compare current UK aligner providers, with prices and how each one starts
• How at-home teeth straightening works in the UK
• Invisalign and at-home aligners in the UK
• What clear aligners cost in the UK
• Ways to straighten teeth in the UK
• Invisalign in the UK, for treatment arranged through a dental practice