Which links pay us, which do not, and which we will not take
Three outbound links on this site can earn Tray Count a commission. Several companies that would pay us are not linked here at all, and this page says which and why — so that refusal cannot be quietly reversed later.
The short version
Some links on this site are affiliate links. If you follow one and buy or book, the company may pay Tray Count a commission. That never changes what a page says, because this site ranks nothing and recommends no brand over another.
Every paid link is marked where it appears, with the disclosure printed above the link rather than below it or in the footer, and every one carries rel="sponsored nofollow" so search engines are told the same thing you are.
The three keys
| Company | What it is | Where it may appear | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| AlignerCo | a mail-order aligner seller, US and Canada | the price page | live: an affiliate network programme paying a flat percentage of the sale |
| NewSmile | a mail-order aligner seller | the price page | live: listed as open on affiliate directories; the commission rates they publish conflict, so we print none |
| Opencare | a service for booking an appointment with a dentist in a US metro area | where this site tells you to get examined in person | live: pays per completed booking |
The third one is the odd one out, and deliberately so. The advice we repeat most often on this site — be examined in person before you buy anything — is the advice that would normally pay a publisher nothing, which is a large part of why so few publishers lead with it. Opencare is the only way we have found to be paid for giving it.
Be clear about what that means for you. When this site says to get examined, we may be paid if you book through that one link, and we are paid nothing if you ring a practice yourself, use a dental school clinic or a community health centre, or already have a dentist. All of those are fine answers, and none of them is worse for being free to us.
What we refuse, and why
SmileDirectClub, Byte and Candid's consumer line: never linked. All three stopped selling to consumers, and two left regulators recovering money for customers. They appear on this site as dated history, sourced to the companies' and regulators' own documents, and they will not appear as links. See what happened to them.
Invisalign: no programme exists, so no link. Align Technology runs no consumer affiliate programme. We use the name to describe the product it belongs to — that is nominative use, not an endorsement, and Align has not reviewed, approved or seen a word of this site.
Straight My Teeth: not linked, pending verification. This UK seller is listed as running a programme through an affiliate network, which would suit the UK readers this site cannot otherwise serve. On 24 September 2026 its website would not complete a TLS handshake for us, so we could not read its published prices or terms. We do not link a company whose own pages we have not been able to read. If that changes, this paragraph changes with it.
Discount dental plans: not linked here. Plans of that kind are not insurance, and several of them do pay publishers. They belong on a page about paying for dental care, not on an aligner price page, and adding one here would be a payout looking for a pretext.
Dental chains and clinic-side facilitators: not linked. Including ones with open, paying programmes. This site does not send readers to a specific practice.
What we do not do
No sponsored posts, no paid placements, no gifted treatment, no company sees a page before it is published. Nobody has ever paid to be described a particular way here, and if that is ever offered we will publish the offer.
We do not use coupon or discount codes, and we do not bid on any brand's name in paid search.
If a link is wrong
If a paid link on this site points somewhere unexpected, or a company listed above has changed status, tell the desk and we will correct it and date the correction.