Your smile assessment and your privacy

When you complete a smile assessment, your photos and answers go to the dental practice you contacted. SmileReply is the software that practice uses to receive them, prepare your consultation and send it back to you. We hold your information on their behalf and do not use it for anything else.

What we collect

• the photos of your teeth that you upload
• your name, email address and phone number
• what you told us you'd like to improve
• your dentist's assessment and recommendation, and a simulated preview of how your smile could look
• any messages you send the practice through your smile plan

Who can see it

The dental practice you contacted, and the people who work there. We do not sell your information, share it with other practices, or use it for advertising.

SmileReply support can open a practice's account to help them, for example when something isn't working. Each time, we record who opened it, when and why. Your name, contact details and photos stay hidden on screen unless there's a reason to see them, and showing them is recorded too. The support account is protected by two-factor sign-in.

A few services do part of the work for us, and each sees only what it needs:

• OpenAI looks at your photos to help your dentist prepare, creates the preview of your smile, helps write up your dentist's notes, and answers questions you ask in your smile plan's chat. It sees your photos, your first name, your dentist's notes and what you type in the chat. If your dentist records a personal video for you, OpenAI also turns what they say into subtitles.
• ElevenLabs creates the voice in your consultation video from its script, which includes your first name.
• Resend sends our emails, and Twilio and TNZ send our text messages. They see each message and the address or number it goes to.
• Cloudflare stores your photos and videos.

How long we keep it

Both are measured from the last time you did something — opening your consultation, sending a message or asking to book all start the clock again. If you're partway through treatment, nothing is deleted until it's finished.

If your dentist sent you a consultation, the practice keeps a record of it: what your dentist found, recommended and estimated, the photos they assessed, and your messages, with your name and contact details so it can be found. Dental records must be kept by law — ten years in New Zealand, and longer for a child — and this record is kept for as long as that, as it would be for any consultation. The practice holds the record; we store it for them.

Deleted means removed from our systems straight away. Our backups are kept for up to 13 months, so a copy can exist there for a while afterwards before it ages out.

Asking us to delete it sooner

Ask the practice and they can remove your video, your smile preview and your link at any time. They stop being available straight away, and the files themselves are deleted 7 days later, which gives the practice a short window to undo a mistake. The record of your consultation is a dental record the practice has to keep, so it stays for the legal period even if you ask; you can ask the practice for a copy of it. If you'd rather contact us directly, email [email protected] and we'll pass it on and confirm once it's done.

Reminders

If you haven't opened your consultation, the practice may send you up to three reminder emails over twelve days, and one more if a reply from them goes unread. Every reminder has a link to stop them, or you can ask the practice. We don't send reminders by text. Stopping reminders doesn't stop the things you asked for: your consultation, booking confirmations, sign-in codes and replies to your messages.

Where it's stored

Two places, and it's worth naming them.

New Zealand and Australian privacy law both allow personal information to be held overseas, provided whoever holds it is kept to the same standard as if it never left. That responsibility is ours and it doesn't change because a server sits in another country.

Everything travels over encrypted connections and is kept on servers we control. Your photos and consultation can only be reached through the private link sent to you, so avoid forwarding that link to anyone you wouldn't want seeing your assessment.

Our website

The pages at smilereply.ai set no cookies and run no analytics or advertising trackers. Two things on them come from elsewhere: the typefaces, served by Google Fonts (which sees your browser's request for the font files and nothing more), and the calendar on our Book a demo page, which is provided by HighLevel (LeadConnector). The name, email address and phone number you type into that calendar go to HighLevel to make the booking, under their own privacy policy; they are not stored by SmileReply until we speak with you. That page is for dental practices booking a demonstration, not for patients — a patient's photos never pass through it.

One exception, on the smile assessment form itself: if the practice you contacted advertises with Meta (Facebook and Instagram) or Google, the form can let their advertising account know that an assessment was completed. That only happens after you submit, and it sends nothing about you — no name, contact details, photos or answers, only that a submission happened. It does load Meta's or Google's code at that point, which can set their own cookies under their privacy policies.

Opening your consultation

There's no password to remember. The first time you open the link we send you, your consultation opens on that device and we remember it, so you can come back without signing in. We remember a device for 90 days after your last visit — or only until you close your browser, if you untick “Keep me signed in on this device”.

On any other device, we text or email you a 6-digit code to confirm it's you, sent only to the mobile number or email address you gave us. You can sign out of a device at any time from the menu next to your name.

A note on what this is

A smile assessment is an opinion based on photographs, not a diagnosis and not a substitute for an in-person examination. Your dentist will confirm anything discussed when they see you.