A dentist in Bolton is offering free treatment to people who have been left stranded after an online dental company folded.

Smile Direct Club, a US orthodontics company which offered cheaper aligner treatments to patients, announced they were closing immediately last week.

The US company only started in 2019 in a ‘gap’ in the market and normal procedure was to send moulding kits to patients’ homes for plastic aligners.

Now, after thousands of people in the UK have been left stranded mid-treatment, Bolton dentists Synergy, is offering free treatment to Smile Direct Club customers to finish their procedures.

Synergy Clinical director, Dr Zubair Bagasi said: “Patients cannot go back for their aligners, and you need them every week and once you start moving teeth, you have to move them quickly, so this is not fair on patients now.

“We are giving back and have seen hundreds of patients already and it’s the least we can do to support them.”

“It’s like a warzone  in dentistry and it’s not affecting hundreds, but thousands of people.

“We cannot help everyone, but we can do what we can.

The Bolton News: Dr Zuber Bagasi in his clinic

Synergy have opened up a hotline for Smile Direct Club's former customers, where they will offer advice, consultations and treatment free of charge.

Dr Bagasi said: “It’s like giving patients a set of tools to fix their own teeth and that is exactly what Smile Direct Club did.

“They send things through the post but to move teeth you need to create space and to create space you need to take teeth out or create space in between teeth by a fraction of a million, and that requires a dentist.

“And if things are going wrong you need to pick it out but how can you do that without ever seeing the patient?”

Dr Bagasi says he has written to the British Dental Board about Smile Direct Club to raise concerns he has had.

He said: “There would be no need for orthodontists if patients could do things online themselves.”

The BDA understands there are just five dentists registered with the company for 65,000 UK patients.

Eddie Crouch, chairman of the BDA said: “While SmileDirectClub is gone, the risks remain. Sooner or later, a new entrant will find a way to make remote orthodontics turn a profit.

“Patients will only escape these problems if the right regulations are in place, and standards are agreed upon and followed.”

Advice for patients and dentists thinking of providing treatment to former Smile Direct Club patients, can be found on the BDA website.