Fabienne wanted to get her teeth done at Bestsmile – she regrets that today

A Bestsmile customer is dissatisfied with her dental treatment. Three associations also criticize their competitors and the focus on the price at Bestsmile. However, the Migros subsidiary thinks that customers are above average happy.

Fabienne Patriarca was annoyed about her misaligned teeth. Until she noticed more and more advertising posters: “Change your life. Secretly.” – from CHF 40 a month. This is how the Bestsmile dentist chain, which specializes in transparent braces, advertises. Patriarca decided to start treatment there, she tells watson.

The woman from Lucerne received a box with several braces made for her – but the first one didn’t fit her. “I was in pain and my gums were torn open,” says Patriarca. The Bestsmile dentist then “grinded” the splint to fit. But shortly afterwards it broke. Not all rails had the same problem, but several did. The promise to send her a new box was also not kept.

Patriarca is disappointed: “Looking back, I would have gone straight to a specialist.” She soon reached the end result, but she would not recommend the way to it to others and would not do it a second time herself. However, Bestsmile adhered to the price, the whole thing cost almost 5,000 francs. Nevertheless, the woman from Lucerne shared her dissatisfaction in a Google rating.

Customers who describe negative things

Although most Bestsmile branches have more than 4 out of 5 stars on Google, there are also commenters who describe negative experiences, such as headaches when wearing the splints or inadequate care from medical professionals. The quality of the braces is also sometimes questioned. What does Bestsmile say about this?

At watson’s request, a spokeswoman for the Federation of Migros Cooperatives (MGB) said about the Google ratings: “We have treated over 39,000 customers since the company was founded and actively accept their feedback on an ongoing basis. The reviews over the last few years show us that Bestsmile customers are above average satisfied.»

However, it is not just a few customers who are skeptical about the dentist chain. Associations from the dentistry industry also have reservations about the competitor and Swiss market leader Bestsmile. Above all, they criticize insufficient advice, especially for young people, decoy prices and the quality of the work.

Point: advice

As of this April, Bestsmile has extended the range of transparent aligner braces to young people aged 11 and over. To do this, the Migros subsidiary had to expand its orthodontic skills. Peter Suter, President of the Association of Cantonal Dentists in Switzerland (VKZS), writes: “The treatment of young people with orthodontic appliances and aligners requires special care and attention. Since this group of people is growing, sound orthodontic knowledge and skills are required. Every dentist has to decide for themselves whether they have these skills.»

Alexander Johner is President of the Swiss Society for Orthodontics (SGK) and runs his own practice in Murten. He says: “Aligners like Bestsmile are not suitable for treating all misalignments. They are just one option among many that a specialist dentist should be able to master.» For children and young people, comprehensive diagnostics are therefore key – also for any costs to be covered by disability insurance or basic insurance.

At Bestsmile, the orthodontist sees other things in the foreground. “Bestsmile suggests short treatments, but deliberately selects simple misaligned teeth, the treatment of which by a specialist in orthodontics would often be neither more expensive nor longer,” says Johner. The SGK has also set up an assessment committee, a kind of ombudsman’s office, to which patients who question the treatment of their dentist can report. “We’ve already had individual cases from Bestsmile customers,” explains the SGK President. He was not allowed to give any details for data protection reasons.

Migros rejects this criticism and explains: “The treatment recommendations are always medically justified.” Experienced orthodontic dentists would perform the aligner therapy for teenagers. Regarding the accusation of deliberately selecting simple tooth misalignments, Migros writes: “We can offer above-average treatment quality and support patients in finding a suitable specialist for services that we do not offer.”

Point: prices

Orthodontist Johner is not the only one to criticize Bestsmile’s pricing tactics. Bestsmile is also viewed with reservations by the Zurich section of the Swiss Dental Society (SSO). “They advertise directly to the end customer, promising beautiful teeth practically overnight and low prices with installment payments. This is a decoy tactic that we at the association do not tolerate among our members and that we take action against, »says SSO Zurich President Roger Naef to watson. However, Bestsmile is not a member of the SSO.

Migros, however, denies the decoy tactic when it comes to prices: “With Bestsmile, there is a fixed price and monthly costs that are transparently communicated before the start of treatment, so there are no unforeseen additional costs. Because we cover the entire value chain in-house – from examination to treatment to production in Winterthur – we are able to offer a cost-effective alternative to conventional treatment methods.»

Roger Naef sees this differently. “In the end, the costs are often similar to those of other dentists,” says the SSO Zurich President, who runs a dental practice in Zurich himself. It gets even more expensive when other dentists have to make repairs, he has experienced that himself. Naef has personally experienced veneers from former Bestsmile customers. “The quality of your veneers that I saw was catastrophic. They had nothing to do with an aesthetic smile, but looked like piano teeth and they didn’t fit properly on the teeth,” says Naef.

point: quality

The quality of the work is also questioned by the President of the Swiss Society for Aligner Orthodontics (SGAO), Phil Scheurer. He says to watson: «One Just look at the before and after pictures on the Bestsmile websiteto see that the results you have shown are all unacceptable,” says Scheurer. In his opinion, there are some “serious treatment errors”.

Scheurer, himself a specialist in orthodontics, commented on one of the before and after pictures for watson. He drew what went wrong: “The cross/forced bite on the right side of the patient, which represents a very high need for treatment for the temporomandibular joint, is still present at the end.” This, although a correction would have been easy. The conclusion of the SGAO President: «The teeth are better, but not good by a long shot. So the patient was not helped.”

watson showed the before and after example from the Bestsmile website to Professor Theodore Eliades, Director of the Department of Orthodontics and Pediatric Dentistry at the University of Zurich. He agrees with Scheurer’s verdict and goes on to write: “The efficiency of a treatment method cannot be limited to creating a new one from a misalignment.”

This raises the question of why Bestsmile advertises results that are not of sufficient quality. “If these are the best cases out of 30,000 customers, it’s frightening,” says SAGO President Phil Scheurer. If a patient’s teeth end up looking a little nicer but the medical problem remains unsolved, that’s clearly mistreatment.

Migros, on the other hand, is sticking to its own quality. “Thanks to our own production in Winterthur, the splints are of high quality.” Defective products would “of course be replaced”. “In addition, the customers are closely cared for by the doctors during the entire treatment period,” writes the MGB spokeswoman. They also want to refute the criticism of the effectiveness of aligners and veneers: “The dentists specialize in the treatment of misaligned teeth. With over 5000 successfully performed treatments, their experience leads the industry.»