Smile Direct Club Responds to Misrepresentations in the Media

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 14, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SmileDirectClub, the industry pioneer and first direct-to-consumer oral care med tech platform, issues the following statement in response to an NBC Nightly News story on the company, which aired yesterday. 

“We are disappointed that though we provided NBC with the opportunity to obtain all relevant facts as to the safety and efficacy of teledentistry for the provision of clear aligner therapy, NBC failed to provide its viewers with a balanced and fair news story reflecting those facts.  The piece misrepresents SmileDirectClub and the quality of care provided by the over 250 state-licensed dentists and orthodontists across the country who use our platform to treat their patients.  We are surprised by the journalist’s blatant disregard for the facts and failure to include all of the accurate information we provided. 

Notably, the almost five-minute report and online story does not include one interview or statement from the more than 750,000 satisfied customers who have used our products to improve their lives, nor does it include a single interview with any of the hundreds of dentists who have publicly supported our technology. In fact, though NBC conducted interviews over the last 30 days with these doctors and customers under the guise of providing a fair and balanced story, their statements were not included or referenced in this story.

SmileDirectClub made customers, doctors and team members available for hours of in-person interviews, phone calls and email correspondence. The Company provided a tremendous amount of critical information that would have allowed NBC to report a more accurate and balanced story. NBC owes it to its viewers and the public to correct these errors immediately:

• Just like other telemedicine platforms, SmileDirectClub customers interact with their treating dentists or orthodontists via our med tech platform. Each patient’s treatment is supervised by a state licensed dentist or orthodontist from start to finish, including the patients interviewed by NBC.  Our SmileShops and those employed at our SmileShops are not engaged in the practice of dentistry; they simply provide a convenient option for gathering information from customers for subsequent review by one of the more than 250 state-licensed dentists and orthodontists in our affiliated network.  Each case is reviewed and approved, where appropriate, by the treating doctor, who is available to connect directly with customers at any time before, during and after treatment.  With over 350 SmileShops staffed by over 1,000 team members, across the country, the fact that NBC was able to find one or two SmileDirectClub team members who failed to follow SmileDirectClub protocols in informing customers of the importance and requirement of seeing their regular dentist before commencing treatment, is not surprising. In a company our size and given our tremendous and rapid growth, this can be expected and is something we work to correct every day.  Dentists are an integral part of our business model and we take our commitment to oral care seriously.