You can sip iced coffee through a straw. I also figured out how to drink coffee from a cup without causing staining, but you really can’t linger all morning with a cup.
Smile Direct is basically DIY Invisalign. The problem is you sign up for a year, take your own impressions, and they send you the trays. Then you have to sign up again if you weren’t completed. Teeth are not tools or machines, no precision parts. What do you do when an issue arises? Without the supervision of a dentist, you can’t tell when something is going wrong, or when you perhaps figure it out, you’ve got damage. You also don’t know the specifics of your orthodontic problem and whether it can be corrected adequately with Smile Direct. Anecdote: one of my patients started it (against my advice) and after her year was more messed than when she started because she really wasn’t a candidate for Invisalign in the first place. She is now in traditional ortho and just finished her first year, with another year to go.
Another anecdote: my hygienist also has had Invisalign. 10 trays in she started having an issue with a tooth she broke 20 years ago. I asked for a consultation with her orthodontist and the 3 of us reviewed her scans and decided to back off the original 35 trays to avoid any damage to this tooth. She was rescanned and the trays redone, plus pushed back 2 months to let this tooth move at half pace. How do you as the Smile Direct patient know what is really happening to your teeth, gums, bone structure, and occlusion (bite)?
So, I just looked up SD, and they do have “shops”. 30 minute visit and you are scanned. The trays are shipped to your home. If you don’t live near a shop, they send you the materials to take impressions. Supposedly an orthodontist or dentist looks at your scan or impressions, and decides if you are a candidate for aligners. You are assigned a dentist who checks in with you every 90 days. Their site says complete in 6 months, but that is hard to believe unless you don’t need much done.