What’s the Deal with Candid Remote Monitoring?

Candid is leading the at-home clear aligner industry in an interesting way with their Candid Remote Monitoring (or CandidMonitoring) services. CandidMonitoring is meant to simplify the treatment process for Candid customers, while also providing them more oversight and care than any other at-home clear aligner brand.

On the other hand, at $2,400, Candid is much more expensive than any other online clear aligner service. So, the question must be asked: is CandidMonitoring really worth it? In this guide, we’ll explain what exactly CandidMonitoring is, how it works, and if it’s worth the cost.

What is Candid Remote Monitoring?

Without in-person appointments for check-ins throughout treatment, at-home clear aligner companies must find a way to keep an eye on your progress without ever seeing you. Candid Remote Monitoring is a way for your assigned orthodontist to track how you are responding to treatment. With their app, Candid has streamlined the remote monitoring process to a more convenient and attentive experience than their competitors.

There tends to be a lot of fancy words thrown around when describing remote monitoring, but essentially it’s just taking a few photos of your teeth — so your orthodontist (or dentist with a competitor) can ensure you are responding to treatment. With Candid, you’ll be taking photos at more regular intervals than competing clear aligner brands, which allows for more oversight throughout your entire treatment process.

How To Use Candid’s Remote Monitoring App

Candid has done their best to make remote monitoring as simple as possible. To get started with CandidMonitoring you’ll first need to download the CandidApp. You’ll receive push notifications when it’s time to upload new photos (about every ten days) of your smile, so you won’t have to worry about forgetting. Candid has made taking these photos relatively simple, but it’s best to take these photos in front of a mirror, to get all the extra help you can get.

In your aligner package you will receive a cheek retractor as well as a scan box. The cheek retractor pretty much does what it says it does — it gets those pesky cheeks out of the way for your photos! The scan box is also aptly named, as it is basically a container you can place your phone onto that helps facilitate photographing your teeth at the correct angles. Once you’ve gotten all the photos you need, you’ll simply upload them to your CandidApp!

These photos will be sent directly to your orthodontist for them to review, so they can ensure treatment is going as planned and if necessary, make adjustments.

How Much Attention Are You Really Getting?

In short? A lot more than you would with a competitor. If we take a look at how often other providers require photos of their patients, Candid comes out ahead. With Candid, you’ll upload photos about every ten days. With byte, AlignerCo and NewSmile you’ll send photos every fourteen days. And with SmileDirectClub you’ll only submit photos every ninety days.

To put this in perspective, for each SmileDirectClub check in — you would’ve already submitted photos to Candid nine times.

That’s a vast difference in the amount of care received. Unlike their competitors, at Candid your treatment will be overseen exclusively by orthodontists — but it’s important to understand that CandidMonitoring isn’t necessarily a dialogue between you and your orthodontist.

CandidMonitoring is a way for an orthodontist to receive your photos and determine whether or not you are ready to move on to another set of aligners. It’s also to ensure your treatment is going according to plan — and adjust if necessary. There is no similar oversight when you are beginning a new set of aligners. So if you just switched to a new aligner and things feel a little off, you’ll need to handle that all with the Candid care team.

Even though orthodontists are in charge of your treatment, you won’t receive any face time or direct communication from  them, it will all be done through customer care. There is no place within the app for you to express concerns or ask questions directly to your orthodontist, the app is simply a place to submit photos.

When compared to other at-home aligner companies, Candid provides more attentive remote monitoring than any other competitor. If you’re comparing Candid to an in-office treatment like Invisalign, you’re going to get significantly less attention with Candid, since there is no opportunity to speak face-to-face with your orthodontist to voice your questions and concerns.

So it’s all about what your preferences are. If you have had the same dentist for 20 years, CandidMonitoring might not feel as attentive as you’d like, since you never speak directly with your orthodontist. But when comparing the remote monitoring of at-home clear aligner brands, it doesn’t get more attentive than Candid.

Is Candid’s Remote Monitoring Worth Their High Prices?

We do think that Candid’s treatment is worth their high price, and their remote monitoring system is certainly a part of that. Having the highest level of expertise and the highest frequency of oversight in the industry means your CandidMonitoring is a worthwhile cost.

However, competitors like byte have much lower price tags and though their remote monitoring is less frequent, (every fourteen days instead of every ten) that difference isn’t vast. So while Candid is absolutely worth their high sticker price, that doesn’t mean there aren’t quality options at a lower cost elsewhere.

What Are Customers Saying About Candid’s Remote Monitoring?

Candid, like many of its competitors, solicits reviews from their customers early on in treatment. This can make their reviews challenging to navigate, since many are from people who have either just started treatment, or perhaps have only just received their complimentary scan. It’s hard to get a complete picture when a large portion of the feedback is from folks who don’t have a complete picture yet themselves.

However, in reviews there are often through lines company to company that tell a story — and Candid is no different. Customers often speak to the simplicity of being able to complete all of their treatment at home, and speak highly of the customer care team at Candid.

When it comes to remote monitoring, amidst a great deal of praise for the simplicity of the process, there is some light disappointment that the app does not allow for two way communication. You submit your photos, but you have no real way to express a concern, or accompany the photos with any real message.

Of course Candid does have an entire care team that can address any question or concern you may have about the process (and they are consistently praised in the reviews), it’ll just need to be completed outside of the app. Their team acts as a point of contact between you and your assigned orthodontist.

Your photos are meant to be uploaded when your orthodontist imagines you are ready to move on to the next set of aligners, but there is no way to upload photos when you have your new aligners in. Adjusting to new aligners can sometimes be uncomfortable in the beginning, and without being able to express that directly to their orthodontist, some patients felt a little out to sea at the beginning of treatment.

However, there is no teeth straightening treatment where you can just ring your orthodontist directly, morning noon or night — so it is not as though this particular problem has a solution in a competitor. But the remote monitoring system could stand to offer a way to share how new aligners look and feel, so customers could get a sense of if their discomfort is normal or if an adjustment must be made.

How Does Candid’s Remote Monitoring Compare to Other Brands?

Candid is ahead of the pack in terms of streamlining the remote monitoring experience, but they are far from the only company asking for regular photo updates of your progress — that’s industry standard.

Just as each company has their own unique draw, each company offers a way to monitor your smile remotely. Since at-home clear aligners don’t allow for face-to-face care, sending photos is the only way for your dental team to check in with your smile throughout treatment. The main differences from company to company come down to convenience and oversight.

Candid simplified the remote monitoring process with their CandidApp, which sends you push notifications when they’d like you to send new photos. Candid has also made this process more convenient by including more equipment to help with the photos. While all companies include a cheek retractor for this purpose, Candid goes the extra mile with their scan box, which you place your phone onto to ensure you’re capturing your smile at all the right angles.

Candid also asks for the photos more frequently than any of their competitors, which means your treatment will have more oversight. Candid asks for photos about every ten days, while competitors like byte and AlignerCo ask every two weeks, and SmileDirectClub only asks for photos every ninety days.

Candid takes a much more proactive approach to overseeing your treatment than their competitors. With their competitor NewSmile, the progress photos you email are reviewed by a customer service team — not doctors. It’s only if someone on the customer service team sees a problem that your photos make it into the hands of doctors.

It’s not likely that something will go wrong throughout your treatment, but there is still some comfort in knowing Candid is likely the company who will see the problem first, therefore be able to solve it right away and get you back on track.

Here’s an overview of these various brands’ approaches to remote monitoring:

Final Thoughts

We think it’s important to remember that any at-home teeth aligner company you choose will have some form of remote monitoring, in which you will be asked to periodically send in photos of your teeth. That being said, Candid’s remote monitoring is leading the industry in convenience, level of oversight, and expertise.

Candid’s easy to use app sends your photos directly to your orthodontist so that nothing gets lost in the shuffle. Your photos will also be reviewed with more frequency than any of the competition, which could mean closer oversight and more individualized care. Teeth can occasionally be stubborn or unpredictable, so this oversight can help treatment times overall — since any hiccups would be caught early on.

In addition to frequency, the photos will also be reviewed exclusively by your assigned orthodontist, meaning you can be sure you are getting the most experienced level of care available.

CandidMonitoring extends the attentiveness and expertise of Candid’s treatment even further, placing their remote monitoring ahead of any competitor in the industry. If you’re in a position where you can go for a higher price tag, Candid is well worth the investment. If oversight, convenience, and expertise are at the top of your wish list for at-home clear aligner care, then Candid may be just the right fit for you.