"At-Home" Teeth Straightening: Cheaper Option or Risky Bet?

Linea Team

Updated 04 Dec, 2024

You can do practically anything these days from the comfort of your own home. Attend meetings. Buy groceries. Tour museums. And some clear aligner companies claim you can straighten your teeth entirely from home too—no office visits required. Their prices might jump out at you, and their model might seem convenient, but is it safe? Is it effective? Is it worth your time, money, and trust?

If you ask us, the at-home teeth straightening model has some appealing perks, but it’s not an ideal approach, and curious customers should be wary about it. Why? Here are the details.

Key Takeaways

  • At-home aligners, also called online aligners or direct-to-consumer aligners, are brands that deliver clear aligners directly to your home, without any office visits. Learn more
  • While they’re often cheaper than other orthodontic treatments, at-home aligners don’t include any hands-on care, and they can’t treat complex misalignments. Learn more
  • In our opinion, treatments that incorporate in-person dental care are safer and more reliable than fully remote options. Learn more

What Are At-Home Clear Aligners?

No matter which brand you choose, clear aligner treatment uses a series of plastic trays to move your teeth a tiny bit at a time. However, at-home aligners—also called “online aligners” or “direct-to-consumer aligners”—facilitate this process without in-person oversight from a dentist or orthodontist.

Here’s how the process typically works:

  1. You purchase an impression kit through the company’s website. You create molds of your top and bottom dental arches using this kit, then mail these molds (plus photos of your teeth) to the company.
  2. If your impressions are accurate enough, the company’s employees and/or doctors will determine whether you’re a good candidate for treatment.
  3. They generate a treatment plan, including digital models of your finished smile, and email it to you.
  4. You review the treatment plan and if it looks good, pay for your treatment.
  5. The company manufactures and ships your aligners.
  6. You wear each aligner set for around 2 weeks and complete virtual check-ins every few weeks. The interval and processes for these check-ins vary by company.
  7. If you go through all your aligners and haven’t achieved the results you want, the company may issue a refinement—new aligners to finish the job.

At-home aligner companies assign each patient to a specific dentist in their network. However, the patients never actually see this dentist. Instead, the dentist approves their treatment plan, and if the company’s support staff notice any concerning issues in the patient’s virtual check-ins, the dentist might step in and provide feedback.

Patients rarely communicate directly with their assigned dentist. If you have questions or concerns during treatment, you’ll need to take them to the company’s patient support team.

At-Home Aligners vs. Linea

So what’s the difference between DTC aligners and a treatment like Linea? Both create a series of customized aligners, and both incorporate teledentistry, but they do so in different ways.

While at-home aligner companies eliminate in-person care completely, Linea patients will attend at least two in-person appointments with a dentist. During the first one, the dentist will examine your teeth to ensure they’re healthy enough for orthodontic treatment, then take 3D scans, x-rays, and intraoral photos. These scans are more comfortable than conventional impressions, and more accurate than dental molds made at home. At the second visit, the dentist will make sure your aligners fit, give you wear instructions, and field questions.

During this second visit, the dentist may also apply attachments to your teeth or administer interproximal reduction (IPR), if your treatment requires it. These procedures can help your aligners make more complex shifts and treat more severe misalignments. Without direct care from a dentist, at-home aligners can’t offer attachments or IPR, so they’re limited in the cases they can take on.

Throughout the rest of your Linea treatment, you’ll submit monthly progress photos to the Linea app so your dentist can evaluate your progress and address any issues that come up. They’ll also be available to answer questions. This combination of in-person and remote oversight from a dentist helps keep treatment safe and reliable.

Benefits of At-Home Aligners

The at-home aligner model might be flawed, but it still has some appealing features. Here are a few of its most compelling benefits.

Low prices

This is probably the biggest reason people choose at-home aligners. Without the expense of office visits, their prices are typically lower than options like Invisalign and braces. Depending on the brand, they often cost $1,000–$3,500. However, those decreased costs come at the expense of hands-on care.

Also, Linea’s prices can rival some at-home aligners, ranging from $2,698 to $4,998.

Less Time Commitment

Eliminating the regular office visits of treatments like Invisalign or braces doesn’t just save money, but also time. Just remember that it also means at-home aligners can’t incorporate attachments or treat complex misalignments.

Many DTC aligner companies also advertise treatment times of around 4–6 months. While this might seem faster than other options, it’s because they only accept mild-to-moderate cases, which don’t take as much time to correct. The more complex cases that Invisalign and Linea accept can take 12+ months to treat.

Drawbacks of At-Home Aligners

Low prices and convenient treatment might sound great, but we think at-home aligners also pose some concerns that every potential patient should know. Here are some of the biggest.

Little or No Oral Health Assessment

It’s important to address any other tooth or gum issues before you start using clear aligners, since things like cavities and gingivitis can affect treatment. Plus, not everyone is a suitable candidate for clear aligners—like people with short tooth roots, since pressuring these teeth might make them fall out completely.

The only way to get an adequate look at your roots and bone structure is an x-ray at the dentist’s office. Online aligner companies often recommend seeing a dentist for an exam and x-rays before beginning treatment, but they don’t require it.

At-home impression kits help them evaluate your tooth positions, but those molds don’t show what’s happening under the surface, so they can’t fully determine if you’re a good candidate for treatment. Plus, making dental impressions is difficult for anyone who hasn’t been properly trained, so the impressions you make might not be as accurate as you’d get from a professional.

Limited Input from Your Dentist

When DTC aligner companies upload your impressions into their system, their algorithms will come up with your treatment plan. Your assigned dentist will then review and approve it, but may or may not make many changes. Then, during your treatment, you’ll need to take your questions to the company’s support staff—not the dentist.

It’s staff members who also typically review your virtual photo check-ins, and if anything looks off, they may pass it along to the dentist. So while you technically have a dentist behind your treatment, you’ll hardly (if ever) interact with them.

Limited Scope of Treatment

As we mentioned earlier, at-home aligners’ lack of direct oversight and inability to use attachments mean they typically can’t handle complex misalignments. So if you have a particularly severe case of crowding or spacing, or a bite issue like overbite or underbite, you’ll probably need to consider other treatments anyway.

Less Personalized Support

For completely remote companies, many at-home aligner brands have fairly helpful patient support programs. But it’s still not the same as support from a dentist and office staff who know you and your teeth personally. Rather, you’ll speak with customer service representatives who may or may not be familiar with your case.

Verdict: Should I Get At-Home Aligners?

If you ask us, you’re better off going with a treatment that includes in-person oversight, like Linea, Invisalign, or even braces. At-home aligner prices are definitely tempting, and it might seem like a more convenient model. But if inaccurate impressions or inadequate oversight leads to issues with your teeth, it will be much less convenient to get them fixed.

By including direct dentist oversight in their treatments, Linea and other in-office clear aligners can provide a safer, more reliable outcome. Regardless of which way you’re leaning, visiting a dentist before treatment is crucial. They’ll make sure your teeth and gums are healthy, and can provide recommendations on the best teeth-straightening options for your unique smile.

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