We woke up this morning to the news that SmileDirect club is no longer trading. We have prepared a press release, and we thank our members in advance for assisting any SmileDirect customers sympathetically and professionally when approached as a result of this development.
STATEMENT IN FULL:
It was with only a little surprise that the dental profession learned today that SmileClub Direct had ceased trading overnight. It has been clear for some months that the company had been struggling financially, and appears to have decided to cease trading yesterday.
https://www.axios.com/2023/12/08/smiledirectclub-liquidating-sdc-bankruptcy-chapter-11
https://www.wsj.com/articles/smiledirectclub-to-shut-down-c3eb53bf
Over the past few years since the inception of this company and its subsequent move into the UK market, the profession internationally has been warning the public of the dangers of this type of ‘direct to public’ aligner therapy. With the sudden cessation of trading of the biggest company in the field, the BAPD are increasingly concerned about the welfare of those members of the public who are midway through treatment with SmileDirect Club. Given the initial information on the holding page of SmileDirect Club, it would appear these patients are now to be left high and dry without access to further treatment. Their website is now little more than a holding page with scant information as to what is going to happen to their clients.
https://smiledirectclub.co.uk/en-gb/
The BAPD and other professional associations have repeatedly warned both the GDC and the CQC of the risks this direct to consumer orthodontics poses to members of the public. Given that the regulators’ remit is to protect the public, it seems very little was achieved by them to stop the provision of this treatment.
There are now questions about the provision for care continuity which their registration with the CQC would require. Based on the information on their website, there is currently no provision for this, which means that members of the public are now either in the difficult position of having to continue to pay for aligners they will not receive, while others will have to find a practitioner willing to take them on to continue their treatment at additional cost or many may simply have to abandon their treatment.
The BAPD urges members of the public who have been affected, to contact their dentist. We are reassured that our members will assist SmileDirect’s customers sympathetically and professionally when approached as a result of this development.
Our sympathies also extend to those employed by SmileDirect Club who wake up this morning to this uncertainty as Christmas looms.
