Six Month Smiles: Everything important about the company and its products

How well do Six Month Smiles aligners and braces work in the office? We took a closer look at the products.

You came across Six Month Smiles in your research for aligner providers? Then you’ve come to the right place!

In this detailed article you will learn everything you need to know about the provider of invisible aligners.

We’ll take a closer look at who’s behind the Six Month Smiles company, how the aligners work, and the treatment process.

After all, the promise sounds almost too good to be true: a dental correction in just a few months – inexpensive, painless and completely discreet.

But does the principle really work and how do the Six Month Smiles experiences of current and former patients turn out?

Important to know: In addition to removable aligners, Six Month Smiles also offers clear braces.

We will also briefly discuss this product here. However, this article primarily focuses on the company’s aligner offering.

Who or what is behind the Six Month Smiles company?

Six Month Smiles was founded in 2006 by Dr. Ryan Swain and Dr. Chris Bowman. The company is based in the United States – more precisely in The Colony in the state of Texas.

The two dentists have made it their mission to develop a quick and aesthetic solution for straightening teeth.

Her idea was to create a method that specifically targets only the visible teeth, allowing for a shorter treatment time.

This is to give patients the opportunity to have a more beautiful smile without having to walk around with traditional metal braces for months.

However, it is not at all easy to research further information about the Six Month Smiles company on the Internet.

And the aligner and braces provider also shines in the social media and on YouTube with distinguished restraint.

This is probably due to the fact that Six Month Smiles was only represented in the USA and Canada for a long time, and later also in the UK and Ireland.

However, Six Month Smiles has been trying to make a name for itself in Germany and other European countries for some time now.

There are now some dentists and orthodontists in various EU countries who cooperate with Six Month Smiles and offer the products.

However, the number of Six Month Smiles partner practices is far below that of established aligner providers, such as DrSmile.

How does a dental treatment with Six Month Smiles work?

Aligners are wafer-thin aligners made of a special plastic material. These are pliable and completely transparent, allowing for discreet tooth correction.

The splints are slipped over the teeth, where they fit snugly and precisely. For outsiders, they can only be seen when looking closely.

Due to their customized shape, the aligners are able to exert constant pressure on the teeth .

This allows them to be pushed into the desired position during the course of treatment. This lasts – as the name suggests – usually not much longer than 6 months.

However, only correction of the visible anterior teeth is possible. Aligners usually reach their limits in complicated malocclusions.

To achieve the desired result, the invisible braces must be worn for at least 22 hours a day.

In principle, they should only be removed for eating and dental care. When drinking, they can easily remain in the mouth.

After consuming sugary drinks, however, they should be cleaned once briefly and then reinserted.

The consumption of coloring beverages – such as red wine, cola or black tea – is also not recommended with aligners.

This is because the color pigments contained in the liquid can cause the sensitive splints to gradually lose transparency and eventually become visible on the teeth.

Six Month Smiles offers treatment only for teenagers and adults from 16 years an. This is because the dentition (jaws and teeth) should no longer be in growth.

For serious malocclusions – such as a severe overbite, underbite, crossbite or other types of malocclusion – Six Month Smiles aligners are usually not suitable.

By the way, this applies to most aligner providers, including Smileunion, Braceless or PlusDental. Currently, only Invisalign products are considered for serious tooth correction.

Unlike other providers, however, Six Month Smiles has another system for straightening teeth in addition to its invisible braces.

This is a transparent, fixed brace system that can correct misaligned teeth in an average of four to nine months.

How does the Six Month Smiles with Aligners treatment work?

The first step is to enter your zip code on the Six Month Smiles website to locate a cooperating dentist or orthodontist near you.

So much for the theory. In practice, the location search via the company’s homepage does not yet seem to work, at least for Germany (as of 2023).

Because although there are already dentists and orthodontists here who offer the products of Six Month Smiles, we were not shown any results in our test in Berlin and Munich, among other places.

However, if your dentist or orthodontist offers the treatment, it will proceed as follows:

• First, impressions of your teeth are taken in the practice or a 3D scan is made.
• The impressions or scan are digitized and passed on to the treatment planning department.
• You will then receive your personal treatment plan and also find out exactly how much the teeth straightening with Six Month Smiles will cost.
• If you decide to have the treatment, your aligners will be made individually for you. You can then start the treatment.
• During tooth correction, the splints must be worn for at least 22 hours a day and changed regularly.
• As the name suggests, the treatment lasts about six months. To ensure that the teeth do not subsequently shift back into their original position, the next step is the retention phase. For this purpose, the teeth are stabilized with a so-called retainer splint.

Alternative: Six Month Smiles treatment with transparent braces

Unlike other aligner providers, Six Month Smiles has another teeth straightening system in its portfolio besides invisible braces.

This is a transparent, fixed brace system that can correct misaligned teeth in an average of four to nine months.

This variant was also developed primarily for the straightening of the anterior teeth.

However, treatment with Six Month Smiles’ fixed, almost invisible braces requires several in-office appointments.

During the first appointment, impressions are taken and sent to the laboratory. Based on these, Six Month Smiles can determine the ideal placement of the brackets on the teeth and create a deep-drawing tray (bonding tray) with the pre-positioned brackets.

This is inserted and bonded (bonded) during the second appointment. Subsequently, the fixed braces must be checked and adjusted every four weeks.

You can see exactly how the clear braces look and work in this video:

Six Month Smiles prices: How much does the treatment cost?

While providers like DrSmile communicate their prices transparently, the cost structure at Six Month Smiles is not quite so clear.

An individual pricing model is used here. This means that the cost of straightening teeth varies from case to case.

On their websites, some dentists and orthodontists quote prices for Six Month Smiles treatment between 2700 euros and 3900 euros.

However, you will only find out what the costs will be during the first appointment.

Basically, the more severe the malocclusion(s), the more aligners are needed and the more expensive the treatment will be.

Financially, it also makes a difference whether only one or both jaws need to be treated.

In the meantime, dental corrections can almost always be paid for in installments. However, the installment payment is not arranged directly with Six Month Smiles, but with the respective dentist or orthodontist.

Unfortunately, the costs of dental correction for adults are not usually covered by health insurance.

However, we still recommend that you do not focus exclusively on price when choosing an aligner provider.

Instead, rely primarily on authentic reviews and research lots of testimonials on the Internet.

Conclusion on Six Month Smiles: Do the products deliver what they promise?

The experiences of former and current patients make it clear that discreet teeth straightening is entirely possible with both aligners and clear braces from Six Month Smiles.

Invisible dental trays actually work well in many cases and it is not an empty promise.

However, since Six Month Smiles has little presence on the German market, it is difficult to find authentic testimonials on the Internet.

With relatively few partner practices, Six Month Smiles is also significantly behind other competitors in the aligner comparison (such as DrSmile).

Those who do not live directly in a larger city may therefore have a somewhat more difficult time finding a practice nearby.

For this reason, the established provider DrSmile remains our recommendation for your teeth correction.

The company offers not only a good price-performance ratio but also a satisfaction guarantee in case you are not one hundred percent happy with the result.

FAQs about Six Month Smiles

Here we answer a few more of the most frequently asked questions about Six Month Smiles.

In this article we compare Six Month Smiles with its competitor DrSmile.