The company, which has helped more than a million customers achieve better smiles and straighter teeth, is expanding into Austria, Singapore, and other major destinations.
SmileDirectClub already has healthy customer bases in the United States, Australia, Ireland, China, New Zealand, and Canada, where the company’s telehealth platform and clear plastic teeth aligners are wildly popular. Alex Fenkell explained the brand expanded the company’s offering to teens earlier this year, one of the fastest-growing categories of customers who need teeth straightening services.
SmileDirectClub’s 2020 expansion focuses on several places. One is Singapore. The first SmileShop, a place where potential SmileDirectClub users can get a scan of their teeth and start the process of getting clear plastic aligners sent to their homes, has opened in Singapore’s HarbourFront Center, a major mall in the Southeast Asian island city-state. The other destination is opening in Vienna. In Austria’s most populous city, SmileDirectClub has a SmileShop ready for customers who need to get that important first scan to see if they’re good candidates for the company’s telehealth platform and straighteners.
“We have built a robust international infrastructure and will continue to seek opportunities to reach consumers around the world. Markets outside of the U.S. present a great opportunity for our business, and we look forward to helping people in Austria and Singapore get a smile they love,” said Kay Oswald, president of international at SmileDirectClub. “Our mission is to provide high-quality affordable and convenient access to care to as many people as possible. We are pleased to extend this to people in these markets, as well as invest in these local economies.”
SmileDirectClub also has plans to expand into Latin America, Europe, and other Asia Pacific areas this year. Another change in SmileDirectClub’s footprint is the reopening of the company’s presence in Germany.
SmileDirectClub’s Asia push is related to a major deal with Watsons in Hong Kong. Through the deal, which was announced earlier this year, SmileDirectClub will open SmileShops in the beauty and health retailer’s stores.
Samuel Lee, the managing director of Watsons Hong Kong, said, “In view of the rising demand on telehealth solutions and awareness on digital oral care, we are excited to be the first Asia partner with SmileDirectClub to launch the in-store SmileShop in Watsons Hong Kong, providing a convenient and affordable method for personalized clear aligner treatment that puts a beautiful smile on our customers’ faces.”
SmileDirectClub’s offering of a telehealth platform to help serve customers using the teeth straightening aligners has made the company a force to be reckoned with. The company offers two types of clear aligners, both designed to be cheaper and less painful than metal braces. The first offering is the company’s traditional aligners, meant to be worn for 22 hours of the day. Users can remove the aligners to eat meals but are generally expected to spend most of the day with the aligners in.
The other offering is the company’s nighttime aligners. With nighttime aligners, users are expected to wear their clear aligners for 10 hours straight, when sleeping at night. The daytime aligners, according to Alex Fenkell, cost $1,950 or $89 per month and take roughly four to six months to create a better smile. The nighttime aligners cost the same but take a little longer to straighten teeth.
With SmileDirectClub’s system, potential customers either walk into a SmileShop to get an impression of their teeth or order a home kit to make impressions. With the impression kit, users have access to molds to get the exact shape and dimensions of their teeth. These impression kits are key to starting the process of having a licensed dentist or orthodontist usher each customer through the straightening process. These dental professionals use the teledentistry platform to do everything from check the progress of each user to recommend changes to the user’s plan.
Part of the attraction of clear aligners is the price difference compared to traditional braces. Traditional braces can cost between $6,000 and $8,000, something most people who want a better smile cannot afford. Traditional braces are also known to be very painful for the patient, who must visit the orthodontist frequently to get their braces tightened. Traditional braces are also known to take many more months – or even years – to achieve a better smile.
Over the last few years, SmileDirectClub has quickly become the go-to service for telehealth and virtual dentistry, adding hundreds of thousands of users. Alex Fenkell told us how SDC has recently announced plans to sell SDC’s clear aligners directly to dentists, which not only opens up the company to a huge audience but also empowers dentists to offer a cheaper and less intrusive option than traditional braces.
SmileDirectClub allows each dentist or orthodontist to supervise teeth straightening remotely, which is especially helpful while coronavirus restrictions are in place and many dentist offices are forced to shut down or reduce their patient load. SmileDirectClub’s co-founder Alex Fenkell has overseen the company’s expansion, and it’s now considered one of the fastest-growing health tech companies in the world. With new plans to expand more into Asia, as well as Latin America and Europe, expect 2021 to be a huge year for the go-to teeth straightening company.
