NewSmile UK Review: Quality Treatment On a Budget?

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For decades, adults only had two ways to straighten their smiles: braces or Invisalign. Luckily, this isn’t the case anymore. Now, we have a wide range of options, including remote companies that deliver clear aligner treatment to your home, like NewSmile.

One of the newest clear aligner companies to hit the UK scene, NewSmile is a safe, convenient, and affordable alternative to traditional orthodontics. But is this value-driven treatment the best fit for you? Keep reading to find out!

Is NewSmile Legit?

£1,395

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NewSmile only recently debuted in the UK, but it’s already making waves. Its most notable feature? Price! Their all-day system costs just £1,295 on their Fast Track plan or £83.30 a month on their monthly plan. And this price includes more than just the aligners; it also includes the impression kit, treatment preview, retainers, and whitening.

What Is NewSmile?

Seeing how other at-home aligner companies were helping clients and achieving great success, NewSmile hit the Canadian and U.S. markets in 2020. Like other remote orthodontic treatments, it doesn’t require any office visits; you’ll handle everything from the comfort of your own home.

Of course, all at-home clear aligners have their limitations, and NewSmile is no exception. Since it cannot use attachments and doesn’t include office visits, it can only make cosmetic changes to the alignment of the front six teeth. The NewSmile team supervises progress remotely and treatment wraps up in 4–6 months.

NewSmile started in Vancouver, B.C., and currently operates in the UK, United States, and Canada. Although young, its combination of low prices and high-quality treatment has established a foundation for plenty of growth in the future.

How Do I Get Started With NewSmile?

They say a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. In this case, your journey to a new smile starts with an impression kit. But before you order one and make molds of your teeth, you need to choose a plan.

NewSmile has two options: Fast Track (with or without financing) and Impression Kit + Preview. With their Fast Track plan, you pay the full price up front (£1,295 for all-day aligners or £1,395 for nighttime-only treatment) or opt into financing (£83.30 a month for all-day or £91.67 for nighttime-only). This is ideal for anyone who knows NewSmile is right for them and is ready to take the plunge.

Impression Kit + Preview is great if you are feeling a little cautious about NewSmile, or even about remote teeth alignment in general. For £99 (though often on sale), you get an impression kit and — once they review your impressions, approve you as a candidate, and draw up your plan — a preview of your potential smile. If you like what you see in your preview, you can commit to the full cost of treatment.

NewSmile Aligners

NewSmile Impression Kit

NewSmile Before & After

Pros & Cons of NewSmile

We are about to take a deep dive into all things NewSmile, but before we do, let’s take a quick look at their top advantages and disadvantages. After learning everything there is to know about NewSmile, we felt these were the most important facts:

Effectiveness

Straightening your smile requires a significant investment of time and money. The last thing you want to do is come out of treatment feeling like it was a waste. NewSmile is effective at delivering the results customers seek — but not everyone is a candidate.

NewSmile can only make cosmetic corrections to the front six teeth, closing small gaps or adding a bit of space.

In very limited cases, it can also address bite issues that are strictly dental in nature — not skeletal issues involving the jaw. This might sound like NewSmile isn’t very effective, but these are the same limitations all remote aligner companies have. None of them can correct severe misalignments like Invisalign and other in-office treatments. If your case is more complex than this, NewSmile won’t approve you for treatment and will refund the money you’ve spent. But if you are a good fit, expect NewSmile to make the corrections you want.

Remote oversight from a team of dentists and orthodontists will help keep your treatment on track

You’ve sent off your impressions, and NewSmile said you’re a suitable candidate for treatment. Great! But who, exactly, will design your aligner plan? NewSmile has a team of dentists and orthodontists who collaborate to create their treatment plans, so you can be confident that you’ve got qualified experts on your case.

After you begin wearing your aligners, you’ll need to upload photos and videos of your teeth to NewSmile’s app every two weeks. The dental team reviews those images to make sure your teeth are moving as expected and address any issues before they can derail your progress. It’s not as robust as getting in-person care every few weeks, like you would with traditional orthodontics, but it still ensures consistent oversight.

NewSmile doesn’t share their manufacturing details.

Knowing who makes your aligners can inspire confidence in their quality and effectiveness. Some at-home companies partner with experienced dental supplies manufacturers to produce their aligners, while others make them in-house — and both result in reliable products. NewSmile doesn’t share who makes their aligners, just that their materials are free of BPAs and phthalates, but based on their positive customer reviews, we assume they’ve established quality manufacturing processes.

Affordability

All orthodontic treatments are expensive — but some represent a better value than others. Not everyone can drop thousands of pounds on aligner therapy, and even if you can make it work for your budget, you need to feel confident that it represents a solid value. Fortunately, NewSmile does.

NewSmile costs just £1,295 for all-day treatment or £1,395 for nighttime-only.

This makes it one of the most affordable clear aligner companies in the UK. In fact, only Straight My Teeth has a lower price point. And of course, it’s thousands less than in-office treatments like Invisalign.

Most at-home aligner companies will include a bonus item in the cost of treatment, but NewSmile throws in three.

You get the impression kit, your first set of retainers (£149), and their premium whitening solution (£19) for no additional cost. While the whitening is optional, the impression kit and retainers are essential to treatment, so it’s nice to not pay extra until you need replacements.

While it represents a great value, not everyone can afford NewSmile outright.

Luckily, you don’t have to pay the full price up front. NewSmile offers financing for all customers — no credit check needed to qualify. You pay a £295 deposit with 0% APR and then £83.30 a month for 12 months for their all-day aligners or £91.67 a month for 12 months for their nighttime system.

Convenience

Convenience has often been a barrier between adults and the smile they want. Multiple office visits and a year or more in treatment? Most people don’t have time for that. That’s why at-home options like NewSmile have soared in popularity. They offer a more streamlined road to straighter teeth.

NewSmile is a fully remote treatment: from your diagnostics to your check-ins, you do everything at home.

This really frees up your schedule. Most people getting in-office treatment see their dentist or orthodontist somewhere between 15 and 25 times before they finish — then they have to come back in every so often to ensure everything is still good and get replacement retainers. Each visit takes roughly an hour, so by cutting out those appointments, NewSmile saves you a good chunk of time.

At just 4–6 months from start to finish, NewSmile treatment is pretty efficient.

Most at-home aligner services in the UK take around six months, while in-office options like Invisalign often take 12–24 months. However, the length of your treatment depends almost entirely on the severity of your case. Mild cases of crowding or spacing might just take a few months, while severe jaw misalignments usually take much longer.

In-office treatments have a longer average timeline because dentists typically use them for more severe cases.

You get to choose between all-day and nighttime-only aligners, both of which deliver satisfying results.

The only real difference is in how long it takes to see those results. On a standard plan, you wear your aligners for 22 hours a day, only removing them to eat, drink, brush, and floss. But you only need to wear nighttime aligners for ten continuous hours — no removing them at all.

NewSmile’s all-day aligners take just 4–6 months, but nighttime-only aligners take longer. That’s because when you don’t wear your aligners during the day, your teeth shift back a little bit. Expect to take 8–10 months to finish NewSmile nighttime treatment.

NewSmile has a slightly less convenient startup process than some of their at-home competitors.

This is because they don’t offer in-person scans, while several of their competitors do. Making your own impressions doesn’t take long, but it can be difficult and messy. Most people would rather get a digital scan. Even though it requires an appointment, it ensures you’ll get accurate images on the first try, and it helps you avoid mailing packages back and forth.

Appearance

No matter what company you choose, clear aligners look more natural than braces. Still, they can be noticeable, especially when people know you’re wearing them and can’t resist looking for them. Some design choices can help better conceal your aligners.

NewSmile’s aligners are transparent and smooth. The company claims they are nearly invisible, but the surfaces can look unnaturally shiny.

To understand why, you need a quick primer on natural teeth surfaces. We know: you feel pretty confident you know what teeth look like. But it’s not something we often think deeply about.

Your enamel is naturally porous, which makes your teeth look textured and matte. It’s also very slightly translucent, which allows the depth of color in the teeth to show. NewSmile’s smooth aligners can reflect light, making them shinier than your teeth, and people might notice something off about your smile.

NewSmile scallops their aligners to follow the gum line.

Basically, there are two cuts for clear aligners: scalloped to match the gum line or cut straight across and overlapping the gingiva. Straight-cut aligners leave a visible edge, especially on people who show extra gum when they smile. NewSmile’s scalloped cut hides the edge in the gum line, reducing visibility.

NewSmile doesn’t use attachments like buttons or elastics, so these won’t make their aligners more visible.

Attachments can make in-office options more powerful, and even though they’re often small and tooth-colored, they can still make your aligners more noticeable. NewSmile aligners can’t incorporate attachments, so they don’t run into this issue. However, they can stain if you don’t care for them properly. This isn’t unique to NewSmile, though. Any clear aligners can discolor if you don’t remove them when eating or drinking beverages, besides plain water.

Customer Experience

Before purchasing clear aligners, you do your homework — that’s why you’re reading this article, after all. But no matter how extensively you research, you can never know with 100% confidence if things will go smoothly. Should something go wrong or you have a question, you’ll need to rely on customer support, since you won’t have any face-time with a dentist.

NewSmile’s support team is responsive and helpful, though it doesn’t reach the same level as in-person care.

You can reach their support representatives by email and webchat, or by phone Monday through Saturday from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm BST and from 10:30 am to 3:30 pm BST on Sundays. During our research, we’ve reached out to the NewSmile team and found them to be highly responsive during office hours.

They’re also highly informed and friendly. They never hesitated to answer a question and always seemed to have the information on hand. Contacting a remote representative doesn’t give you the individualized care that a dental office can provide, but based on our limited experience, we think NewSmile offers quality customer service.

Just keep in mind that, like most at-home aligner companies, their refund policy is somewhat limited.

NewSmile offers refunds on your entire purchase only if they review your impressions and decide you are not a good fit for treatment. If you order the impression kit, then decide you don’t want to move forward, you can get a refund on the cost of treatment. They will only refund the cost of the impression kit if it is “unopened, unused, and in the same condition that you received it.”

So, what if you get halfway through treatment and decide you don’t want to finish? Or what if you reach the end and realize you aren’t happy with the results? Sorry, no refunds. That said, if your finished smile doesn’t match the one in your treatment preview, they’ll create more aligners to get you there.

What Are NewSmile Customers Saying?

When reviewing any company, it’s a good idea to see what past customers have to say. Unfortunately, that’s a little difficult with NewSmile.

Since it only launched in Canada and the U.S. in 2020 and in the UK in 2022, there aren’t that many reviews. While other companies have hundreds, even thousands, of reviews and video testimonials to peruse, NewSmile has just a handful.

The reviews we’ve found are positive, though. Customers love NewSmile’s quality and effectiveness, the helpfulness of their support team, and their low prices. The only real complaints were about slow processing and the occasional manufacturing defect, but these aren’t common.

For a realistic look at the NewSmile customer experience, check out these unbiased video reviews we’ve gathered from our readers at various stages of the treatment process:

NewSmile vs. Other Aligners

NewSmile is an excellent option for teeth alignment, but they’re far from the only choice you have. There are several other reputable companies offering clear aligners, so let’s see how NewSmile stacks up against a couple of the top options.

Invisalign

If you are interested in the original aligner system, Invisalign is the treatment for you. It requires regular trips to the dentist’s office and often takes longer than at-home treatment, but it’s extremely effective, addressing even severe misalignments, and widely available even in smaller communities. Invisalign’s biggest downside is its price, which is thousands of pounds more than NewSmile in most cases.

Read our in-depth Invisalign review to learn more.

Straight Teeth Direct

If you are confident remote treatment is for you, check out Straight Teeth Direct. We ranked it as our number one choice for at-home clear aligners in the UK, and for good reason. They offer highly effective treatment at an affordable price and their app is easy to use for check-ins. Just expect to pay a bit more than you would with NewSmile and not get as many extras.

Read our in-depth Straight Teeth Direct review to learn more.

PlusDent

Uniquely, PlusDent doesn’t offer an impression kit. Instead, you’ll get your treatment started with an in-person scan at one of their partnered clinics. With regular remote oversight through their proprietary app, PlusDent keeps close watch of your remote treatment from beginning to end. Their Standard treatment costs £1,890, and Pro treatment costs £2,390, so their prices are significantly higher than what you’d pay with NewSmile.

Read our in-depth PlusDent review to learn more.

Is NewSmile Right for You?

NewSmile pairs affordable prices with efficiency and commendable customer service, plus they give you the option of nighttime-only treatment. While they have a few downsides, they remain a solid option for high-quality at-home alignment.

Our top recommendation, Straight Teeth Direct, costs a bit more but has an excellent app for check-ins and pairs you with a specific dentist throughout treatment. We feel it does a solid job of mimicking the oversight you’d get in person.