Gary Moore, a dentist who contracts with SmileDirectClub and is licensed in Colorado and Nevada. Kaitlyn Laurel of Washington, D.C., and Donna Fontaine of Windsor, Virginia, both completed five-month treatments. SmileDirectClub provided NBC News with a list of 21 satisfied customers. “They’re subject to the same standards of care that a doctor in a traditional setting is,” she said. SmileDirectClub said that they can't comment on individual cases like Rosemond's and Harwood's because of privacy concerns, but the company's chief legal officer, Susan Greenspon-Rammelt, said the company has helped more than 750,000 people with its network of licensed dental professionals. “Every visit that we spend with a patient, we're constantly making adjustments so we can get the best, optimal care for the patient,” he said. Regular visits with an orthodontist help ensure everything is on track, Kau said. It’s important for teeth straightening patients to see an orthodontist regularly to make sure their bite is correct and their mouth is healthy overall, Kau said. He also said that he tried to get in touch with his assigned dentist, but that he was unable to do so. Harwood said that he stopped his treatment after about 3 months, before the 90-day mark when customers are asked to send photos of their mouths to SmileDirectClub to monitor progress. SmileDirectClub calls the effort in Congress “the latest in a series of anti-competitive publicity tactics.” Last month, nine members of Congress - five of them dentists - asked the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate SmileDirectClub “to ensure that it is not misleading consumers or causing patient harm.” Most of the complaints involve customer service issues - such as broken aligners, delivery issues and payment problems - but dozens describe concerns about treatment results: complaints like broken teeth and nerve damage. The Better Business Bureau reports more than 1,800 complaints nationwide involving SmileDirectClub. While SmileDirectClub, the largest at-home dental alignment company, and others promise to leave patients smiling, an NBC News investigation into a growing list of complaints found that this new trend in straightening teeth is leading to painful problems for some people. Rosemond, who says she tried SmileDirectClub because of the money she thought she’d save, wound up spending thousands on traditional braces to fix her teeth. What’s more, her orthodontist said the crossbite was causing other symptoms: strain in her neck and jaw muscles, which led to migraines. ![]() So she consulted an outside orthodontist, who diagnosed her with a crossbite, or misalignment, possibly caused by the aligners. She’d been assured that she’d be able to get in touch with her assigned dentist, but after multiple attempts, she said she was never connected, nor given contact information.
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