Straighten teeth through an app – Inside London’s first pop up, Covent Garden

What an event – there’s never been a more exciting time to straighten teeth!
From May 13th– 15th, we had the pleasure of taking part in a pop up event in the heart of Covent Garden in London, alongside 10 other hand picked, exciting start-ups. We still can’t get over how much of a success it was, so here’s what happened and some helpful info for those who missed the event 😉

Here’s a quick video recap to give you the authentic pop up vibes:

#1 The host: Founders Factory 

You can’t have an event without a host, and Founders Factory were amazing. In the summer of 2018, we joined their accelerator programme and they are well known for being “the world’s best partner for founders”. Recently named Europe’s hottest startup up accelerator program, the London based program was started by Henry Lane Fox and Brent Hoberman (Co-founder of lastminute.com and Made.com) and is backed by L’Oréal, Marks & Spencer, EasyJet and other corporate giants.

This Retail & Beauty pop up hosted a hand-picked selection of exciting companies, some of which were invited to take part in a presentation to explain their missions and visions to beauty industry experts…

#2 Connecting Brands & Investors

…and Straight Teeth Direct™, the first app to straighten teeth, was among the select few! The morning of May 14th saw seven founders pitch their brands to a room full of well known brands and influential people. Our co-founder, Lucie, explained how many individuals are embarrassed of their teeth and smile, but the options for in-clinic methods to straighten teeth are so expensive and inaccessible that many of them decide to live life without smiling. What makes matters worse is that the image of dentists is rather negatively tinted.

We want to put a stop to all that! By making it affordable, accessible and an all round enjoyable process to straighten teeth using the latest technology and an innovative communication platform to connect people with world class dentists, we’re making dreams come true one smile at a time. Our users are so happy with the process that many of them even visited us at the pop up!

#3 Pleasure to meet you!

It’s wonderful accompanying straight teeth journeys from the lab, but it’s even more amazing to finally get to see them in person! The London pop up turned out to be the perfect meet and greet location for so many of our users to come and chat with the team and founders. Whether at the free e-consultation stage, the impression phase or already well into their treatments, we received so many visits and were overwhelmed with all the fantastic feedback.

We also met dozens of new users wanting to straighten their teeth so much that they started their teeth straightening journey right then and there with an assisted e-consultation! Taking pictures of your teeth can sometimes be challenging, especially getting the front facing phone camera to focus at the right time. That’s why the Straight Teeth Direct™ team was on sight in Covent Garden to help out, guiding users through the free e-consultation. For those who could not attend they can find a step by step blog and video on how to do it alone or assisted using a smartphone.

#4 SmileBox™ or 3D Scan?

The choice was yours! We made sure to stock up on SmileBoxesTM, so anyone with an approved e-consultation could pick up their SmileBox™ impression kits at the pop up without having to wait for the delivery man.

Alternatively, we also scheduled loads of 3D scans. This is a new addition to our services! It’s a digital version of the impression kit, and is done at a state of the art scanning facility in London. Perfect for anyone on a tight schedule: the whole process takes less than 30 minutes and is easily accessible in Central London.

But that’s not the last of it! We launched our new line of merch and goodies and gave exclusive access to those who paid us a visit…

#4 Exclusive Merch and Goodie Bags

In the weeks leading up to the event, we started receiving boxes upon boxes of exclusive merchandise, all for the pop up. There were T-shirts, selfie lights, toothbrushes, toothpaste, travel pouches, phone pop sockets and tote bags. You loved them so much that we were worried we’d run out before the end of the event 😉 That’s why we’ve decided to cook up something special with this merch for the future… stay tuned for updates!

#5 What if you want to straighten teeth affordably but missed the pop up?

If you couldn’t make it to the pop up in Covent Garden, don’t worry! You’ll always be able to get your free e-consultation from anywhere in the world as long as you have an internet connection 😉 The same goes for ordering your SmileBox™ impression kit, scheduling a 3D scan if you’re in London, or ordering the StraightBox™ teeth straightening kit – all hassle free via the Straight Teeth Direct™ app. Our support team will also be happy to help you with any questions you have.

Speaking of questions, here’s a quick look at some frequent questions we got asked at the pop up:

1) Who is behind Straight Teeth Direct™ making all these dream smiles come true?

After successfully running a private dental practice in London and helping adults in and around London get a confident smile, married team Lucie and Aalok Shukla decided to straighten teeth remotely, while keeping up with world class service, right from the comfort of users’ own homes by working together with top dentists around Europe. Straight Teeth Direct™ expanded so quickly that we have offices across Europe, as well as our very own state of the art lab in London, where the high quality aligners are produced and further R&D is done to continuously innovate using the latest technology.

2) What guarantees that Straight Teeth Direct™ is legit?

Now you know a little bit more about the team, you can also find the excellent customer reviews left on Truspilot.

Apart from that we are also the only remote cosmetic orthodontic service provider in the world to provide a straighter smile with no hidden costs, offering you these unbeatable guarantees. They include a suitability guarantee (meaning you can be 100% certain that this method will work for you once your free e-consultation has been approved by a dentist), an impressions guarantee (which means that you’ll all impression material or scans offered to capture your teeth properly), the lost or broken aligner guarantee (so you’ll receive a replacement aligner if you happen to lose or break one – accidents happen!), and a results agreement guarantee (as many aligners as you need to reach the goals outlined in your treatment plan at no hidden cost). Furthermore, the three step procedure (free e-consultation, impression stage, treatment plan) means that you can stop at any time if for any reason you feel you need to. You’re in control every step of the way.

3) How can it be so much cheaper than in clinic treatments or competitors?

Clinics have very high fixed costs for staff, rent and maintenance, as well as lab fees. They outsource to have aligners produced, which also requires a higher financial investment. All that piles up, resulting in sums upwards of 4000€ / £3500. They also cannot reduce the cost further as it is outsourced and due to being small local providers they don’t have scalable costs. Other companies that straighten teeth remotely also need to have their aligners produced elsewhere, causing them to charge upwards of 1750€ / £1500, with extra costs for additional aligners or refinements. At Straight Teeth Direct™, we have innovated to replace the in clinic experience through the Straight Teeth Direct™ app, a revolutionary way for dentists to stay in touch with their patients and the fastest way to organise any support and track progress. No more waiting for appointments! By producing your aligners in house, we can keep production costs to a minimum while guaranteeing the highest standard. This also means that turnaround time from order to delivery is faster – and we all know, time is money!

4) What’s the difference between Straight Teeth Direct™ and Invisalign©?

One of the main differences is that our aligners go straight from our lab to you with a prescription from a dentist, without the expensive and time consuming in-clinic stop. With Invisalign©, your dentist outsources to the aligner manufacturers (Invisalign©) and has no control over the aligner production process. If adjustments are needed, they need to contact Invisalign© to make any changes, causing delays. With Straight Teeth Direct™, our experts all work together, there are no middle men slowing down the process and everyone is equally involved in creating your dream smile.
Furthermore, the Invisalign© process is in-clinic, meaning you need to contact and visit your dentist for every aspect of the treatment. If anything goes wrong, you’re limited by the dentist’s schedule for any support. At Straight Teeth Direct™ we save you hours and hours of waiting room and check-up time though our innovative app. Think of it as your online, pocket clinic: get all your teeth straightening related questions answered, receive guidance from your assigned dentist, and be monitored on your progress – all through the app. As long as you have an internet connection, you could be in the Sahari desert and still get your answers in no time 😉
Another big difference is the price tag that comes with Invisalign©. Treatment costs usually start around 4000€ / £3500, and that doesn’t include extra fees and refinements. At Straight Teeth Direct™, we have only one fixed price of 1500€ / £1350, covering all aligners necessary to straighten teeth, meaning you’ll get everything you need to achieve the smile goals outlined in your treatment plan (even extra aligners if needed) with no hidden costs.

5) Will this method really work for me?

If you have completed your free e-consultation and received an approval – YES! As part of our unique guarantees, you can be sure that this method will work for you if your case has been approved.

6) How is my progress monitored during the treatment? Don’t I need to see a dentist?

The Straight Teeth Direct™ app functions as your virtual clinic: this is where you can ask any questions you may have, and our support team or your assigned dentist will get back to you in no time with the answer. Same goes for the monitoring: every month, you will be reminded to send in pictures of your teeth (much like those taken during the e-consultation), which will be compared to your 3D models for that stage to ensure that everything is on track. When we are sure that your progress has gone exactly as predicted, we’ll put in the order for your next few sets of aligners to be produced and sent to you.

7) Are all the aligners sent in one go?

No. Some remote aligner companies do this, and we strongly advise against it! It can end up in disappointment as progress varies based on individual’s biology; also not sticking to the treatment plan and schedule can also affect the results. It’s also a potential waste of resources: imagine one of your teeth needs a bit more time to move as it’s particularly disinclined to budge. This will be picked up on via your monitoring through the app, and the treatment plan can be readjusted accordingly, accommodating the stubborn tooth. If all the aligners are sent out in one go, adjustments like these would not be possible, or cost a lot of money.

8) Why don’t you have more reviews from bloggers or user posts on social media?

We’re really proud of the fact that all our online presence and growth is 100% organic, meaning that we don’t work with influencers or paid accounts to artificially boost our ratings. Having loads of fake followers on Instagram to influence new users’ decisions is not in line with our company ethic. So, all of our users’ feedback, posts and reviews are genuine and so much more valuable (not to mention that they’re always extremely positive)! It’s very important to us that we stay completely honest and transparent with you, so all of our online media presence needs to be as real as us and the smiles we transform 🙂

9) How do I sign up?

The whole process to straighten teeth remotely is designed to be super easy, especially this first step: head over to get your free e-consultation (it’ll take you less than 5 minutes!) and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours with the dentists’ feedback. It’s that simple!

A huge thank you goes out to Founders Factory for making this event possible, and of course to all of you who came by to start or share your straight teeth journeys with us!

Wondering why everyone is so excited about this method to straighten teeth remotely? Complete your free e-consultation today and get on the fast track to your dream smile 😉