Until recently, the only options for adults seeking straighter teeth were braces or Invisalign — but luckily, this is no longer the case. Today, at-home teeth straightening services like NewSmile offer a safe, convenient, and affordable alternative to traditional orthodontic treatment.
An exciting newcomer to the industry, NewSmile has made it their priority to offer excellent value to their users. But is NewSmile the right fit for you? Read on to find out.
Table of Contents
What Is NewSmile?
After seeing the success of numerous online clear aligner services like SmileDirectClub and Byte, NewSmile joined the party in early 2020. Like the companies that came before them, they offer clear aligner treatment designed remotely and administered from home, no office visits necessary.
Like other at-home clear aligners, NewSmile is considered a primarily cosmetic treatment. It’s limited, by design, to treat mild-to-moderate cases of teeth crowding and spacing, along with some minor bite issues. With NewSmile, you’ll simply wear your aligners for 22 hours per day to gently shift your teeth to their aligned positions. NewSmile’s dental team will supervise your treatment remotely, and you can expect to be done within 4-6 months.
NewSmile was founded in Vancouver, B.C., and currently operates in the U.S. and Canada. A combination of low prices and high-quality treatment has laid a solid foundation for their future growth.
How Do I Get Started?
Like their competitors, NewSmile needs to see your teeth before you begin treatment, to ensure they will be able to give you the smile you are looking for. However, NewSmile takes a bit of a different approach to the beginning of treatment than most of their competitors.
You will first need to decide if you want their Fast Track plan, or their Preview First option. This basically comes down to how confident you are that NewSmile is the right company for you and your smile.
With the Fast Track plan, you will pay for everything upfront ($1,195 for day aligners). You will then have an at-home impression kit sent to you, which will inform the treatment preview that NewSmile crafts for your smile.
If after seeing your treatment preview, you decide that NewSmile is not the right fit for you — but you paid for your Fast Track Plan — you can request a refund. However, it can be a lengthy process (up to 90 days) to get your money back — potentially impeding you from moving forward with other treatment. You won’t be refunded for the impressions, and your refund will likely be subject to their labor and administration fees.
The Fast Track plan is best suited for a patient who knows NewSmile is the right company for them and wants to move forward as quickly as possible.
NewSmile’s Preview First option is for a more cautious buyer. For $139, (though often on sale for $49) you will receive an impression kit and a treatment preview — which will help you determine if this is the right path for you (before committing to the full cost of treatment).
It’s worth noting that at $139, NewSmile’s impression kit is priced significantly higher than their competition, leading us to believe their preference is for people to dive into treatment headfirst — by paying for an aligner plan outright with their Fast Track plan.
One way to look at these options is that buying Preview First ($139) and then buying the aligner package ($1,195) would bring your total to $1,334 — which is still a very low price in the at-home clear aligner market (only bested by AlignerCo at $1,145).
Since they do not offer any in-person offices in the U.S. at this time, NewSmile has made great efforts to make their at home impression kit as easy as user friendly as possible. One perk included in their impression kit (no matter which way you purchase them) is that you can schedule a video call with a dental professional who can guide you through taking your own impressions. This could save you some money in the long run — as they may help you avoid potential mistakes that would necessitate the purchase of an additional impression kit.
If you like what you see in your treatment preview, then you’ll be all set to move forward with your treatment and begin wearing your aligners!
Pros & Cons of NewSmile
Before we get too deep into our NewSmile analysis, let’s quickly run down some of their biggest advantages and disadvantages. After taking a look at all of their important characteristics, we think these are the most important for you to know:
NewSmile Pros
- While NewSmile doesn’t have the absolute lowest price point for at-home clear aligners, their $1,295 price tag is still quite reasonable. This is the second-cheapest teeth alignment service available.
- Those low prices get even more impressive when you consider that NewSmile includes your impression kit, retainers, and whitening kit. That’s a couple of hundred dollars’ worth of bonus products at no extra charge!
- NewSmile’s 4-6 month alignment schedule isn’t the industry’s fastest (Byte offers three-month alignments), but it’s closer to Byte’s alignment timeframe than any other competitor.
- With NewSmile, you can choose an all-day alignment plan or their nighttime-only treatment, which only requires you to wear your aligners while you sleep. If you want to be as discreet as possible with your alignment, this is an excellent option.
- NewSmile offers financing plans that don’t require a credit check, ensuring that their alignment services are accessible to as many people as possible.
NewSmile Cons
- NewSmile doesn’t have any retail locations where you can get an in-office teeth scan. The at-home mold kits they provide can get quite messy and many people prefer to get a professional scan instead. This is not an option with NewSmile.
- There aren’t many reviews of NewSmile’s services available on reputable third-party websites. While most of their competitors have hundreds of reviews online, NewSmile only has around 100 reviews. To be fair, most of that feedback is positive, but we would still like to see more of it.
Effectiveness
Aligning your teeth requires a significant investment of both time and money. Therefore, you don’t want to fork over your hard-earned money before determining that the company you choose can provide the results you want.
Much like their competitors in the at-home teeth alignment industry, NewSmile’s services are solely for minor crowding and spacing issues. If your bite is misaligned due to a significant overbite, underbite, or crossbite, it’s unlikely that you’re a candidate for their alignment services, and you may need to turn to traditional orthodontics.
Once you complete your impressions and send them back to NewSmile, they will figure out whether they can correct your alignment. If they can, they will then produce a preview image showing you what your finished smile could look like. When you approve this preview, NewSmile will produce your clear aligners and ship them directly to your home.
When you receive your aligners, you simply need to start wearing them. If you choose their all-day alignment plan, you’ll wear your clear aligners for 22 hours per day, only removing them to brush, floss, eat, and drink. If you opt for the Night Aligners, you will only need to wear them for roughly ten hours each day.
Affordability
Braces and Invisalign are both so expensive that for years, teeth alignment was reserved only for the relatively wealthy. Additionally, insurers typically view teeth alignment as an optional, cosmetic treatment, and therefore will not cover the costs.
Perhaps the biggest advantage of at-home aligners is how much more affordable they are than traditional orthodontics. Especially when we’re discussing NewSmile, one of the cheapest options available for teeth alignment in America today, pricing is a massive pro.
While Invisalign typically costs $3,000-$8,000, NewSmile can straighten your smile for $1,295. Even more impressively, NewSmile includes your initial impression kit, a pair of retainers, and a premium whitening solution at no additional cost. However, if you want their nighttime-only aligners, the price will be $100 higher, at $1,295.
What if you need help affording NewSmile treatment? Not to worry — financing is available! If you opt for their monthly payment plan, you’ll pay a one-time $295 deposit, followed by 12 months of $84 payments with a 0% APR. At a total cost of $1,295, this option ends up costing a bit more than an up-front payment but it doesn’t require a credit check.
It’s also well worth mentioning that NewSmile offers military discounts. If you serve in the military, NewSmile provides a robust $200 discount off of their already-low prices. It’s a great offer that their competitors can’t match.
Convenience
In addition to pricing, convenience has traditionally been a make-or-break factor for many people seeking teeth alignment services. For busy people, it’s often prohibitive to require frequent trips to the orthodontist. Let’s face it: lots of people simply don’t have time for that.
Furthermore, in-office alignment takes much longer than at-home aligners, and it can often be well over a year before you’re done with Invisalign — braces take even longer, up to three years in some cases! With that in mind, NewSmile’s 4-6 month average treatment time is quite impressive.
There’s no doubt whatsoever that NewSmile is significantly more convenient than using traditional orthodontics. But do they also compare favorably to their direct competitors in the at-home clear aligner industry? That’s a bit more of a complicated question.
Let’s start with the beginning of the process, getting images of your teeth to the aligner company. The at-home impression kits offered by NewSmile can be a messy hassle, as taking molds of your own teeth is harder than it might sound.
While many of their competitors offer in-office professional teeth scans as an alternative to the DIY molds, NewSmile does not — at least, not in the United States. NewSmile gives its Canadian customers the option of an in-office scan, but they have no retail locations or dental partnerships in America. This means that you’re stuck with taking impressions of your own teeth. NewSmile does offer some tips and tricks for getting the best results possible, but it’s still not ideal.
We do appreciate how NewSmile offers the option to align your teeth strictly at night, which is a nice convenience advantage compared to wearing them all day long. If you live a busy lifestyle full of meetings and outings, it might not be realistic for you to wear clear aligners 22 hours per day, so it’s great to have the nighttime option.
How about alignment times? NewSmile’s 4-6 month timeline is one of the fastest in the industry, but there is actually one company that has them beat. Byte offers alignments as quick as just three months, thanks to their proprietary HyperByte device which vibrates against your teeth and encourages them to move. No other competitor offers such a device, so Byte maintains an exclusive advantage in this area.
Appearance
It probably goes without saying that clear aligners from any company are going to look much more natural than metal braces. Most clear aligners are slightly noticeable if people know you’re wearing them, or if they’re right up in your face, but you might be surprised by how much variance there is from company to company regarding aligner appearance.
NewSmile uses completely transparent aligners that they claim are nearly invisible. However, we think they’re actually more noticeable than some competitors. This is because your teeth aren’t naturally shiny. Rather, your teeth are porous and have a matte appearance that doesn’t reflect light.
With NewSmile’s clear aligners, your teeth appear shiny and reflective. This is the most subjective category of this entire competition, and some people even say that they like how these transparent aligners make their teeth shimmer and gleam, but we tend to prefer a more natural look.
Some of their competitors — like Invisalign and SmileDirectClub — use a translucent frosted plastic instead of entirely clear aligners. In our opinion, these aligners are less noticeable than the aligners offered by NewSmile. They more accurately mimic the look of your actual teeth.
The other big differentiator between different companies’ clear aligners is whether they’re cut straight across the gums or scalloped to match your unique gumline. With NewSmile, your aligners will be trimmed to match your gums, which is the less noticeable option. If a company cuts its aligners straight across, there will be plastic covering part of your gums, while NewSmile’s aligners blend into your mouth with ease.
Customer Friendliness
It’s important that you have the utmost confidence in the company you choose to align your smile. After all, you only have one set of teeth, and aligning them can be expensive and time-consuming. Thankfully, NewSmile’s support team is quite responsive, addressing any questions or concerns quickly.
With NewSmile, you can contact their customer support team via phone, email, or social media. We will note that they have the shortest support availability hours we’re aware of in this industry. NewSmile reps are only available from 12:30 pm to 6:00 pm ET on weekdays. When some competitors offer support seven days a week, or at least provide more than 5.5 hours of availability, it’s disappointing to see such a narrow contact window.
That said, we have found that NewSmile representatives are quite responsive if you contact them during their brief office hours. Their reps are knowledgeable and friendly, and they’ve been able to answer every question we’ve asked them.
How about refund policies? In this area, NewSmile is roughly average compared to its competitors. They offer refunds for your entire purchase if they determine that you’re not a good candidate for their aligners. However, they do not offer refunds for your impression kit “due to hygienic reasons.”
What Are NewSmile Customers Saying?
We always like to take a look at what customers have to say when reviewing a clear aligner service like NewSmile. Some companies in this industry have thousands of user reviews. However, that’s not the case for NewSmile, as they’re newer and smaller than many of their competitors.
That said, while larger providers like SmileDirectClub certainly have a higher volume of reviews, you would be hard-pressed to find a company that receives a higher quality of feedback than NewSmile. We found roughly 100 reviews of their services online, and nearly all of them were positive. Their clients rave about the affordability and convenience of NewSmile aligners, and they recommend NewSmile almost universally.
NewSmile vs. Invisalign
There are some commonalities between what NewSmile and Invisalign have to offer, but there are also numerous key differences. These companies both straighten customers’ teeth using clear aligners, but that’s about as far as the common qualities go. Let’s take a look at how they compare in a few crucial areas.
Cost
Invisalign typically costs $3,000-$8,000, depending on the exact nature of the misalignment you’re trying to fix. This is because Invisalign treatment requires frequent in-office visits with a dental professional, while NewSmile is an entirely home-based treatment. NewSmile’s $1,295 price point is about 60% cheaper than Invisalign’s lowest possible cost.
Convenience
Because there are no office visits required, NewSmile is significantly more convenient than Invisalign. Beyond that, NewSmile can align your teeth in just 4-6 months, whereas most people have to wear Invisalign aligners for at least a year. Even NewSmile’s Night Aligner products can align your smile faster than Invisalign.
Effectiveness
This category all depends on the specifics of your alignment issues. If you only have mild crowding and spacing issues, NewSmile and Invisalign are both entirely capable of straightening your smile. However, if you have issues like a severe overbite, underbite, or crossbite, Invisalign might be your only option.
Invisalign’s in-office treatment means that your dental professional can add attachments to your aligners, allowing them to exert more force when straightening your teeth. Obviously, this isn’t an option with NewSmile.
Treatment Plan
These companies have quite a few differences in their treatment plans. Invisalign starts with an in-office teeth scan, while NewSmile begins with an at-home DIY impression kit. The next step is the same for either company: they produce your aligners and ship them.
However, Invisalign adds a step that NewSmile skips. While NewSmile sends your aligners straight to your front door, Invisalign sends them to your dental professional, who will then walk you through the process of wearing them and determine if they need to make any adjustments or add any attachments.
NewSmile vs. Other Home Aligners
NewSmile is an excellent option for at-home teeth alignment, but they’re far from the only choice you have. There are several other reputable companies offering clear aligners for home application these days, so let’s see how NewSmile stacks up to a couple of the top options one-on-one.
NewSmile vs. Byte
Byte has the fastest alignment times available for at-home clear aligner companies in the U.S., and they can straighten your smile in as little as three months. However, Byte also has much higher prices than NewSmile. While NewSmile charges $1,195 for all-day or $1,295 for night-only alignment, Byte has an $1,895 price point for all-day alignment and a $2,295 sticker price for nighttime treatment.
NewSmile vs. Candid
One big advantage Candid has over NewSmile (and Byte) is that they offer an option for in-office scans if you’d rather not use a DIY impression kit. Candid also uses a “Remote Monitoring” service that provides regular virtual check-ins with your orthodontist, which NewSmile doesn’t offer. However, all of this comes at a price, as Candid charges $2,400 for their at-home aligners.
NewSmile vs. SmileDirectClub
SmileDirectClub was the first company to start selling at-home clear aligners, and today they’ve aligned more than 1 million smiles. SmileDirectClub has a big advantage for experience, but they charge $1,950 and they have a somewhat hit-or-miss customer support department. However, they have hundreds of retail locations where you can get professional teeth scans, and their experience is unrivaled in this industry.
Is NewSmile Right for You?
Out of all the at-home teeth alignment companies we’ve reviewed, we ranked NewSmile at #5. They offer the industry’s second-best pricing paired with fast alignment times and a nighttime-only option. While they don’t have any retail locations for in-office scans or all that much experience, they’re still a strong company providing high-quality clear aligners at reasonable rates.
Our top pick, Byte, has the fastest alignment times in this industry, and their Byte for Life Guarantee ensures the quality of your smile for the rest of your life.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does NewSmile offer discounts?
We are not aware of any NewSmile discounts. However, their $1,195 sticker price is already the second-lowest price point for home alignment in the U.S., so they don’t really need any sales or rebates to provide a solid value.
Can NewSmile correct my condition?
This depends on the specifics of your alignment issues. If you only have moderate crowding or spacing, it’s quite likely that NewSmile can align your smile with no problems. However, more serious issues may require traditional orthodontics.
What about Invisalign?
Invisalign is still the gold standard for clear aligners, and they offer a much more personalized alignment process. As opposed to at-home alignment, Invisalign requires regular office visits where your dental professional can adjust your treatment, add attachments to exert more force, and more.
NewSmile has faster alignment times and lower prices, but Invisalign can fix a wider variety of alignment issues. For more information about Invisalign, check out our full review.
How much will I end up paying?
The answer to this question can vary a bit depending on whether you choose all-day or night-only alignment, whether you use their financing plan, etc. The sticker price for NewSmile is $1,295 but many people pay more or less than that depending on the specifics of their purchases.
How do I get started?
The first step is to use NewSmile’s at-home mold-making kit to take impressions of your teeth. Once you successfully complete your molds, you will send them back to NewSmile so they can analyze whether you’re a good candidate for their alignment and send you a preview image of what your aligned smile could look like.
How long will it take?
Your exact alignment schedule depends on the specifics of your issues, but for most people, NewSmile’s all-day aligners take 4-6 months and their Night Aligners take 8-10 months.
Does insurance cover NewSmile treatment?
This varies depending on the specifics of your insurance plan, so you should contact your insurer for more information if you’re not sure. However, we will point out that most insurance companies consider teeth alignment to be an optional cosmetic treatment and therefore do not cover it.
What is the fastest home aligner service?
Byte can align your teeth in as little as three months. No other company in this industry can match Byte’s efficiency.
What is the cheapest home aligner service?
AlignerCo charges just $1,145, making them the cheapest home aligner service available in America. They also sometimes offer discounts driving their great rates even lower.
What is the most effective clear aligner company?
For at-home alignment, there are two top options in our opinion. Byte’s proprietary HyperByte device gives them the fastest alignment times in the industry, which is a big advantage. We’re also impressed by Candid’s Remote Monitoring service that gives you the customized care of an in-office visit with none of the hassle.
Do clear aligners hurt?
You may experience some level of discomfort for a day or two whenever you switch to a new set of aligners, but for the most part, you’ll barely even notice them.
Is home aligner treatment safe?
Yes. While it might sound daunting, the fact is that at-home teeth alignment companies have safely aligned thousands upon thousands of smiles, and serious incidents are extremely rare. We feel that you can have as much confidence in at-home alignment as you would with traditional orthodontics.
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