Aligners gave SmileDirectClub team member Amy the confidence that can only come from a smile she loves. 

The Amy you see beaming here is very different from the Amy a few years ago.

“There was always this voice in my head that was like, ‘Don’t smile. Cover your laugh,'” Amy says. “Even on my wedding day. I shouldn’t have been thinking, ‘Don’t smile so big.’ But that voice was trying to remind me not to smile.”

After years of listening to that voice and hiding her smile, Amy, now 26, decided to do something about it. She began her SmileDirectClub journey in June 2017, and today her straight, bright smile has given her a whole new outlook and zest for life.

“My confidence is through the roof,” she says. “I’m finally able to smile and laugh the way I feel.”

“I was embarrassed of my teeth.”

After having braces twice growing up, Amy found that her teeth kept shifting.

“My very lovely parents gave me braces, and I did at one point have straight teeth,” Amy says. “That didn’t last long at all. I never wore my retainer. My teeth shifted a little, and then they kept shifting.”

Amy graduated from Samford University in 2015 and got a job in marketing and advertising in Birmingham, Alabama. She and her husband, Ethan, got married the following year, and life was going well. Except her teeth still bothered her.

“I’m a young professional and consider myself an independent woman,” she says. “I was very embarrassed of my teeth. I would wake up in the morning and my first thought would be, ‘Oh, my teeth.'”

She’d scour Facebook to untag any photos showing her teeth and would even cover her laugh when around others. Ultimately, she adopted what she calls an “awkward, fake closed-mouth smile” for a long time.

Time for a change

When Ethan’s job moved the couple to Shreveport, Louisiana, in the summer of 2017, she started selling more of her unique and fun paper crafts, including custom invitations and piñatas. The couple knew they’d have a year in Louisiana, and Amy decided she wanted to do something for herself in that time. What would mean the most to her was to straighten her teeth.

After meeting with her local orthodontist to discuss teeth straightening options, Amy was quoted $5500 for aligners, plus a treatment plan that would take 15 months.

“I was so upset because I wanted a solution, and I felt like that was not a good use of my money right now in life,” she says.

A friend told Amy about SmileDirectClub, and she almost thought it was too good to be true. (Spoiler: It’s not.) Amy went into a SmileShop for a free 3D scan; a few days later, she received her 3D smile plan and was able to see how her teeth would change month by month with SmileDirectClub invisible aligners. In just 7 months – less than half the time her orthodontist quoted her – the aligners would address her crowding issues and help generally straighten her teeth. And she’d be able to use her Etsy shop earnings to do so.

“My aunt is a dental hygienist, so I called her before I did SmileDirectClub,” Amy says. “My aunt talked to the dentist she works with and looked into it. She said there was no reason not to move forward.”

Although SmileDirectClub can be done completely remotely via teledentistry, every member is assigned a licensed dentist or orthodontist who oversees their new smile from start to finish and checks in every 90 days to make sure everything is shifting according to plan. Every Club member can rest assured they’ll have a doctor’s guidance each step of the way.

“I smile big now.”

Everyone in Amy’s life supported her through her smile transformation. She sent weekly updates to her friends and shared a countdown calendar. They all texted her to congratulate her on her last day wearing her aligners.

“I smile big now,” Amy says with a wide grin. “I don’t cover my mouth. I’m excited to smile!”

Shortly after finishing her smile journey, Amy and her husband moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to be closer to family and got an Australian Shepherd, Louis. Amy and Louis take selfies together every morning – she’s no longer afraid to show off her teeth.

The lift in confidence from SmileDirectClub has impacted Amy’s life in ways she never expected.

In fact, Amy loved her new smile so much that she began working for SmileDirectClub – a job she never would have considered prior to having aligners. Today, Amy wears her signature quirky earrings all the time, never worried about drawing more attention to her face. She’s happy to talk to people up close without any fear of them seeing her teeth. And her bright, bubbly personality finally shines through her smile.

She’s investing in herself creatively this year, too, enrolling in a sewing class and baking class, and using her die-cut machine at home for her made-to-order cards, invitations, and piñatas. She and Ethan recently traveled to Paris, with tickets to Asheville, North Carolina; New York, New York; and maybe even Milan coming up next. Of course, she’ll snap selfies all along the way.

“I’ve never smiled like this before,” Amy beams. “Now look at me go.”

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