Retainers DirectReviews of retainersdirect.com

Unfortunately, my experience with Retainers Direct was disappointing. I submitted my impressions and received multiple emails confirming that both my upper and lower impressions had been approved. I was later told that fabrication was moving forward and that my retainers would be shipping soon. Based on those approvals, I discarded the remaining impression material. After weeks of waiting, I was then informed that the upper impression was actually too distorted to use and that I would need to retake it. The frustrating part was that I was expected to purchase additional putty to redo the impression, despite having relied on their multiple approvals and discarded the extra material as a result. To their credit, they eventually offered a refund. However, they still retained $20, which I felt was unfair considering the time lost and the fact that the need to start over stemmed from an impression that had already been approved more than once. My issue isn't that an impression needed to be redone. My issue is that it was approved multiple times before I was told it was unusable. I hope the company improves its review process so future customers don't experience the same frustration.

Do not subscribe! No cancellation possible through their website. Customer service is just asking questions when trying to cancel. Now they charged again.

Scam! I regret not spending more to have them done professionally. We had a lot of trouble just getting the impressions done because we were sent the wrong tray size. After struggling with a few attempts, we told Retainers we needed a smaller tray and had to buy more putty ourselves. When we finally submitted the impressions, the retainers they sent back didn’t fit at all—and by that point, we were conveniently outside the 30-day return window. The whole experience felt like a waste of time and money. Save yourself the frustration and go with a professional.

I did retainers direct back in 2021 and again in 2025. I have to say, I am pretty disappointed now. Starting off, back in 2021, you used to receive a nice big organized box with all of the things you need to make your impressions. Now everything is just thrown into different bags and shipped to you. I understand they probably needed to cut back on their packaging costs, but it just feels a lot cheaper now. I had to purchase more putty since my upper impression was deemed not good enough to make a retainer from. So not only did I have to spend about $25 more for more putty and then pay to send it back (which appears to be a very common experience with this company lately, probably to make more money forcing people to buy more putty by telling them their perfect impressions didn’t pass the first time) but then I receive my bottom retainer in the mail, which they deemed perfectly acceptable for a proper retainer, and half of one of my molars is missing in the retainer. It was never communicated to me that this would be the case or that the bottom was even being sent out separately. I finally received my upper retainer after taking and sending them multiple new impressions and it fits, however, it was a disaster. They accidentally mailed it to my old address from 3 years ago! They have been sending everything to my current address this whole time so no idea what happened!! I had to hunt down this retainer worth a lot of money that I waited months for now at this point and had to get security and management involved from an old apartment complex. Thankfully I still live local to that address but it was SUCH an inconvenience due to the security measures taken to open someone else’s mailbox. I’m lucky the resident didn’t get thier mail and throw it out! I’m also very frustrated because one of my entire back molars missing from the upper impression- which again wasn’t communicated would be the case. And half of one of my molars is missing on the other side. When I did my impressions years ago for my first set of retainers, everything was perfect first try and not a single area of any tooth was missing from the final retainers. I feel as though my impressions we were perfect since every single tooth was fully included, and that is not what is represented in my final retainers. Believe it or not, I still have photos I took of my impressions from 2021, and I compared them to the recent impressions and they look identical… so I don’t know how teeth could be missing from one, but not the other if they were both the same quality!! Lastly, the false advertising- I did not get a new retainer case which used to be included back in 2021. A retainer case is shown in the photo as if it’s included in the upper/lower set. this process has been so stressful and frustrating this time around. They only show their 5 star reviews online when there are an equal amount of low reviews as of lately. This was not worth the hassle this time around and $170+ it ended up costing me! Couldn’t even get a retainer that includes all my teeth!

I purchased two upper retainers. I sent a photo of the retainers to the email to verify they were OK, was told the molar back teeth were not included but was OK to send anyway. So I mailed it back, they reached out and said they couldn't make the retainers due to the mold. I stated they told me it was okay, and they said I could chose a refund or order new mold material because I had threw the remaining away due them saying it was okay. They stated they would refund me with a deduction of $20 for material and shipping. So I say I would like a refund. They credit me back everything but the $20 and an additional $50. I reached back out to ask why I was being charged an additional $50 they stated I need to ship back the two free gifts. But this was not stated in the original discussion. I stated this was poor customer service because none of this was discussed in the email where I asked about the original refund. This is shady business practices, order from another company as I am now awaiting the address to ship their "gifts" to receive my additional $50. I do not recommend!

they have good retainers but my last experience made me switch to another company. i ordered ahead 2 sets of retainers bc it would be affordable to order two. however by the time i had to replace my old one, i opened the first set they delievered to me and they were not my impressions. completely sent me wrong impressions both two sets. reached out to them they told me if i can take a photo. i did take a photo and sent them and if in case they thought i was lying i even told them i would send back the wrong impressions if they could replace it with mine. unfortunately after all the back and forth messaging they told me it was over the 30days of return. my advise is dont buy in advance or dont buy more than one set, or just dont buy here at all 😂 i want a peaceful business transaction and they are not serving that to me at least. i had to wait for the other company to give me new sets and in those waiting days i was not wearing retainers. which i am so unhappy about.

I ordered my retainers after taking the molds of my teeth and it took a long time with very little communication about the timing. I had to badger the company several times as it was more than double the estimated time to make the retainers. Then, inside of 30 days, the top retainer cracked. They replaced it at no cost which was fine. I was hoping that was a one off as in the past when I had retainers they did not crack. These seem to be of thinner material. I had purchased the multi-year replacement program and figured this would be good. Recently, now about 3-4 months later the bottom retainer cracked. They said it was possibly because i may clench or grind my teeth which may be true - I am not sure, but these should be thick enough to withstand what is normal activity. When I asked about the cracked bottom retainer, they asked for photos which they had one as well on the first round. I sent them and they offered to replace it with a $49 charge. Frankly, I thought that was my discounted price anyhow under the 3-year program which I paid extra for. Now, they also want me to send back my molds to make the new retainers. This does not make sense as I did not have to do this when they replaced by cracked upper retainer. This process is complicated and I am not very pleased. I think they should be able to send these more quickly and with less hassle and not crack so easily. They should last with normal use for at the very least - one full year. I am only part of their program as SmileDirect went under so this is overall a disappointing experience. Of course, Retainers Direct had nothing to do with Smile Direct so this is not reflective of that component.

went in hoping to have a secondary replacement for my original retainer, thought this would be a good choice and a decent price. The first process of making the mold and sending it in and expecting ten business days to receive them. It took 2 months with multiple emails questioning where my process was at, every week they told me delays and should expect it in a weeks time. I got to the point I wanted to cancel completely, but was reassured that would be sent asap. By the time I received the retainers, only one mold would fit, and it was difficult to remove; felt like my teeth were going to be ripped out if I forced them off quickly. The bottom set was missing a tooth and never fit. I emailed saying I wanted to use the larger mold to make larger impression, was emailed back saying to take pictures of the impressions. Clearly I need them to agree with my request on new impressions with larger mouth piece. I didn't want to deal with the run around and gave up at that point. To this day I use the original retainers that I never had a issue with. They must be more transparent with the process, and have detail of what process their orders are at. Wish them well, they need to work on the flaws