A pair of “invisible” braces for orthodontic patients. Photo by Zhang Yilin of China News Service
“Recruiting an Invisible Braces Experience Officer for a free trial.” Recently, advertisements for invisible braces have appeared frequently on social media platforms.
Can the original price of tens of thousands of orthodontics be done for free? Is it reliable?
Dental advertisements frequently play the “public welfare card”
“‘Public subsidy, orthodontic trial fit’, the first phase of the free trial of invisible braces will be officially launched from now on, and 10 people aged 12-35 with irregular teeth will be invited to enjoy the free trial of invisible braces. Try it.”
Relying on attractive keywords such as free trial, similar orthodontic advertisements have attracted comments and consultations from many netizens on several grass-growing content platforms.
College student Yuchao is one of them. However, when she went to the clinic with great anticipation to participate in the try-on activity, she was told that the braces she tried on was not a whole plan, but just a “model”.
“The free trial service is just to let everyone experience the feeling of invisible braces, and there is no corrective force. If you want to straighten your teeth, you need to buy services.” The dental receptionist told Yuchao.
In addition to trial fittings, many institutions have also launched a public welfare orthodontic “salon”, claiming that they can popularize the knowledge of orthodontics and listen to others to share their experience on orthodontics.
“Participating in an event all morning, in the end, it is still a sales promotion, changing the soup but not the medicine.” Yu Xiangzhong reported that the so-called salon is still the old way of seeing doctors and introducing correction plans.
“Free” hides the trap
Can these kind of sales promotions really save consumers money? Zhongxin Finance found that if consumers pay on the day of a salon or try-on event, although it is not free, they can usually enjoy so-called “discounted prices.”
However, some practitioners reported that doctors who can provide discounted correction prices may be “novices” with less experience. There are differences in the price of seeing a dentist with different qualifications. Be vigilant that the price is low and the service level is also down.
Some merchants have launched “installment payment” services, and consumers can choose payment methods with different durations such as 6, 12, and 36 instalments. In fact, this is an online installment loan jointly launched by the dental and loan platform. It is mainly aimed at students who love beauty but are short of money. The problems and risks should not be underestimated.
According to the prospectus data of the invisible braces supplier Times Angel, in 2020, the number of invisible orthodontic treatment cases in my country will reach 300,000, and the invisible orthodontic market will reach 1.5 billion US dollars, accounting for 18.99% of the overall orthodontic market.
A doctor who has been engaged in orthodontics for many years said that among the young orthodontic army, many people come to the clinic with imagination or even misunderstandings. Not everyone needs to be corrected. Orthodontics is not “plastic surgery”. Young people have insufficient awareness of teeth straightening, or they are greedy for petty benefits, so it is easy to ignore the risks.
Author: Gong Hongyu