The Byte-for-Life Guarantee: What Does It Really Cover?

When you invest in a smile transformation, you want it to last as long as possible. With some treatments, like teeth whitening, temporary results are the norm. But if you get aligner therapy, you probably expect your results to last for life.

However, many people find their teeth naturally shift as they age, because of everything from pregnancy to gum disease. The Byte-for-Life guarantee is pretty reassuring, but does it really back your results forever? Here’s an in-depth look at this lifetime warranty.

Byte-for-Life: Key Takeaways

Byte is our favorite at-home aligner company, and along with their Hyperbyte device — which some studies suggest may help move teeth faster — the Byte-for-Life guarantee is among their most attractive features. Here’s what you need to know:

• If your teeth ever shift after treatment, Byte says they’ll provide new aligners to correct them.
• To stay eligible for this guarantee, you need to comply with several conditions (see below), including purchasing retainers every year and wearing them as directed.
• The guarantee only covers the teeth Byte originally treated, and only if they shifted through no fault of your own.
• Byte is one of the only at-home aligner companies with a guarantee like this.
• Byte rarely offers refunds, but they will work with you by creating refinement aligners if your results don’t match your treatment preview.

Byte took the top spot in our rankings of the best at-home aligners. For a lot more about them, see our in-depth Byte review.

Breaking Down the Byte-for-Life Guarantee

Byte-for-Life guarantees your smile for life. According to Byte, this means that: “if your teeth move out of alignment after you complete your initial treatment, we’ll provide additional impression kits, new treatment plans, and aligners to help correct any misalignment issues at no additional cost.” That sounds pretty comprehensive — and it is — but there are specific limitations to keep in mind.

1. Your teeth need to have shifted from the positions they were in at the end of treatment.
2. Your teeth and gums need to be healthy enough to receive additional aligner treatment.
3. You must have followed your active treatment plan correctly — in other words, wore your aligners as directed.
4. You must have followed your retention treatment plan correctly — aka, wore your aligners according to the schedule Byte gave you.
5. You need to be able to prove you bought retainers at least once a year, either from Byte or another source, or had a bonded retainer in place.
6. Any tooth movement cannot be the result of outside circumstances such as trauma to the teeth, missing teeth, additional dental or orthodontic treatment, or other health reasons.
7. Your account must be in good standing, without outstanding disputes or missing payments.

If you meet the requirements for coverage, Byte will send you a new impression kit, then make more aligners to get your teeth back into position. Of course, there is more to their guarantee than the limitations. Let’s dig into Byte-for-Life a bit more.

Byte-for-Life Timeline

Byte-for-Life goes into effect the day you switch from wearing aligners to wearing retainers. Alignment issues you have while in active treatment are not covered under the Byte-for-Life guarantee.

So, if you feel things aren’t progressing correctly halfway through treatment or you are on your last aligner and not thrilled with the results, Byte-for-Life doesn’t protect you. However, Byte is excellent about working with customers and issuing refinement aligners, so don’t worry about this.

How Long Does Byte-for-Life Really Last?

Byte-for-Life isn’t just a clever name. You really are covered from the end of treatment for the rest of your life — as long as you comply with all of the requirements on their Guarantees page. This length of coverage is important because most people will experience some degree of tooth shifting as they age, even if they don’t lose teeth or develop gum disease.

What Qualifies as “Teeth Moved Out of Alignment”

For Byte-for-Life to kick into effect, your teeth need to change position from where they were at the end of treatment. Byte will document this as part of your regular check-in process.

When you file a claim to use the Byte-for-Life guarantee, you will need to provide photos they can compare to your final photo from treatment, proving that something about your alignment has changed. This change needs to be clearly visible in the photo and cannot be the result of tooth or gum disease, injury, or wearing your retainers incorrectly.

What It Includes

The Byte-for-Life guarantee provides you with a new impression kit free of charge, plus however many aligners you need to realign your teeth. The HyperByte and whitening that were included in your original treatment bundle are not part of this guarantee.

Be sure to keep your HyperByte safe after treatment since it costs $699 to replace. And if you want to whiten, you can purchase more solution from Byte for just $30, their BrightByte Pro LED treatment for $99, or whitening pens for $25.

What It Means to “Follow Your Treatment Plan”

Orthodontic treatment has two phases: active treatment and retention. Active treatment is when you are wearing your aligners and “actively” moving your teeth. Retention involves wearing retainers indefinitely to keep your teeth in place. To qualify for the Byte-for-Life guarantee, you need to approach both phases correctly.

While in active treatment, you need to:

• Wear your aligners every day for the number of hours indicated in your treatment plan (22 hours per day for all-day aligners and ten continuous hours per night with Byte-at-Night).
• Not modify your aligners in any way, unless Byte tells you to.
• Keep all your aligners until treatment is complete and you have received your retainers.
• Use the HyperByte every day for the amount of time indicated in your treatment plan (typically five minutes a day for all-day treatment or Byte-at-Night).
• Check in regularly by sending photos to Byte’s team. They will tell you how often you need to send photos.
• Practice quality dental hygiene, including brushing and flossing daily and seeing your dentist every six months.
• Not get elective dental work during treatment.
• Order your retainers as soon as you begin wearing your last aligner set.

In addition to requiring all customers to meet these guidelines to be eligible for Byte-for-Life, the company also requires you to meet these for their aligner guarantee.

While in the retention phase, you need to:

• Purchase retainers once a year from Byte or another source. You can also get a bonded retainer from a dentist or orthodontist.
• Retain proof of having purchased these retainers.
• Confirm that you have used your retainers as directed by Byte, wearing them as frequently as stated in your directions and for the correct amount of time per day.

This might seem like a lot, but it is all essential to great results. If you follow through on your part, you likely won’t even need Byte-for-Life, but it’s still reassuring to know you have it.

Additional Byte Guarantees

Byte-for-Life is Byte’s most comprehensive guarantee. However, it isn’t the only one they have. They also have an impression kit guarantee and an aligner guarantee.

Impression Kit Guarantee

Starting orthodontic treatment can feel like a risk, and with Byte, you have to invest money in an impression kit just to find out if you are a candidate for treatment. They don’t want the what-ifs to hold you back, and that’s why they offer a zero-risk Impression Guarantee. If their team evaluates your impressions and determines Byte’s treatment cannot help you, they will fully refund the cost of the impression kit.

Aligner Guarantee

To qualify for the Aligner Guarantee, you must follow the active treatment guidelines we listed above. If you do, and you get to the end of treatment only to find you aren’t happy with your results, they will evaluate your case.

Should Byte’s team decide that your case could benefit from refinement, they’ll issue new aligners to make small corrections. You must contact Byte within 14 days of finishing treatment, though.

Returns

Byte does not accept returns, and besides the impression kit, they also do not offer refunds. If you receive a damaged or defective product, let customer support know and they will replace it. If you are unhappy with your products for another reason, Byte will typically make a strong effort to work with you to make things right.

Does Byte-for-Life Really Protect You?

Byte-for-Life can protect your smile when things go wrong despite you doing everything right. While there are quite a few rules to follow, ultimately, they are the same ones you need to stick to for good results with any form of orthodontic treatment.

Essentially, Byte-for-Life gives you additional protection, free of charge, for following your treatment instructions. We’d say that’s a pretty sweet deal.

Verified Customer Reviews

The best way to know if Byte keeps their promises is to see what customer say about it. We’ve collected over 200 reviews from real Byte customers, and a handful say that they chose Byte in part because of the Byte-for-Life guarantee.

While few provide much detail about Byte-for-Life, plenty of them talk about getting refinements, which is how Byte fulfills their end of the guarantee. Aside from a few complaints about inconsistent customer support and extended treatment times, many customers were very pleased with how the company handled their refinements. See for yourself: