CVS Moves Into Dental Care With Teeth-Straightening Service

(AP) -- CVS Health is venturing into dental care with plans to offer a relatively new teeth-straightening service.

The drugstore chain says it will add SmileDirectClub locations to hundreds of stores, enabling customers to start a teeth-straightening process that doesn't involve an in-person visit with a dentist or orthodontist.

Dental assistant Jessica Buendia looks at a scanned image of patient's teeth in SmileDirectClub's SmileShop located inside a CVS store Wednesday, April 24, 2019, in Downey, Calif. CVS Health is venturing into dental care with plans to offer the relatively new teeth-straightening service. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

CVS Health and other drugstores have been pushing in recent years to add more services to their store locations, in part to help customers stay healthy. They also want to do more business in the profitable beauty category.

The American Association of Orthodontists warns that in-person visits are crucial for care like teeth-straightening.

A scanned image of a patient's teeth is shown on a display of a 3-D scanner in SmileDirectClub's SmileShop located inside a CVS store Wednesday, April 24, 2019, in Downey, Calif. CVS Health is venturing into dental care with plans to offer the relatively new teeth-straightening service. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

CVS Health says it has no safety concerns about the concept, and a SmileDirect spokeswoman says that the company has served more than half a million people.

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