What’s the difference between Candid and Smile Direct Club?
Candid™ makes it simple to straighten and brighten your teeth. We send custom clear teeth aligners to your door for thousands less than braces, and treatment takes just six months on average. Plus, we offer two easy ways to get started: our at-home starter kit or a 30-minute visit to the Candid Studio™.
But of course we aren’t your only option for teeth straightening at home. What’s the difference between Candid and Smile Direct Club, another at-home teeth aligners company?
1) Candid only works with orthodontists, never general dentists. Dentists and orthodontists both work with teeth, right? Yes, but only orthodontists have specialized training in tooth movement. (They get the equivalent of another medical degree after dental school, then thousands of hours of experience.) So with us, you’ll always be taken care of by an expert.
But Smile Direct Club works with general dentists also, not just orthodontists. That means the person in charge of your case might not be the best for the job.
Look at it this way: Let’s say you needed heart surgery. Who would you go to, a primary care physician or a heart surgeon? The heart surgeon, obviously. Same thing here.
2) Candid provides white-glove customer care. People love our customer service. Our care team is with you at every step of the way, from helping you take your photos and impressions to checking in on you during treatment. Sure, you never have to make an office visit — but that doesn’t mean you’ll go through the process alone.
3) Candid’s clear aligners are made from premium materials. We believe that high-quality aligners deliver the best outcomes. That’s why every set of aligners we make is precision-designed and thermoformed using a durable, stain-resistant thermoplastic. They’re comfortable, removable, and almost completely invisible.
Smile Direct Club makes their teeth aligners from a resin called PET-G — according to Orthodent Laboratory, it’s a “commodity” resin and “the same basic resin used to make plastic pop bottles.”
Once you start treatment, you’ll be wearing your aligners 22 hours a day for months. So you definitely want to make sure you choose the right ones.
4) Candid treats you the way you’d expect a doctor to treat a patient. For example, our consent form goes into much more detail about your medical history. And we require eight photos in order to determine whether our aligners are right for you, but Smile Direct Club only asks for five.
Why does something like the number of required photos matter? Because the ABO (American Board of Orthodontics) standard is 8 photos, and by using that standard — which the orthodontists in our network insist on — we’re able to treat you as an orthodontist would, providing a higher level of care.
The level of detail those photos provide, and the questions in our consent form, are also key to helping our orthodontists determine whether you’re a good fit for treatment. We always put your health first, even if it means advising you to seek treatment elsewhere.
5) Candid takes education seriously. We want you to know as much about treatment as you would if you met with an orthodontist in person. That’s why we have videos of our Chief Dental Officer, Dr. Hurst, explaining things like the science behind clear aligners — so you can make informed decisions about your care.
