Oral Healthcare Was Left Behind — and Technology Is Finally Catching It Up

When I started Cheeky about seven years ago, I wasn’t trying to “disrupt healthcare.” I was trying to solve a very specific, very frustrating problem: teeth grinding. (getcheeky.com) 

Millions of people grind their teeth at night. Dentists know it, patients feel it, and yet the solution has barely changed in decades. If you want a real custom night guard, you go to a dentist, pay anywhere from $600+, hope insurance helps (it usually doesn’t), and then repeat the whole process again a few months later when the guard gets worn down or unhygienic.

For something that’s worn in your mouth every night, that system never made sense to me.

Why Was Dentist-Quality Care So Hard to Access?

As I dug deeper, it became clear that the issue wasn’t materials or medical know how. Dentists already had access to excellent labs, great thermoplastic materials, and proven designs. The real problem was the process: it was slow, manual, expensive, and completely dependent on in office visits.

That meant access depended on where you lived, how much time you had, and whether you could afford a large upfront cost for a product that isn’t permanent.

So we asked a simple question: What if patients didn’t need to leave their homes to get a truly custom oral device?

Moving the Starting Line to the Customer’s Home

That idea became the foundation of Cheeky.

Instead of starting in a dental chair, we start at home. Customers receive an impression kit, take their impressions on their own time, and send them back to us. From there, everything is handled using the same level of manufacturing you’d expect from a high end dental practice.

We only work with FDA-approved dental labs. We use premium German thermoplastic materials. Nothing is cheap about the product and only the unnecessary steps were removed.

Over the years, we’ve served tens of thousands of customers, and what surprised me most was how many people told us the same thing: “I should have done this years ago.”

Digital Dentistry Changed Everything

One of the biggest shifts in oral healthcare, and one most consumers don’t see is the move from physical impressions to digital ones.

Today, impressions can be 3D scanned and stored accurately on file. That means a customer only needs to take impressions once. From that scan, we can 3D print a precise dental model and thermoform night guards or retainers with the same accuracy dentists rely on.

This isn’t futuristic technology,  it’s already here. But oral healthcare has been slow to adopt it at scale. When done correctly, it dramatically lowers costs, improves consistency, and makes replacement devices easy and affordable.

That’s how you take something that used to cost hundreds of dollars per visit and make it sustainable long term.

Innovation Doesn’t Stop at Night Guards

As the business grew, we expanded into other areas where oral health was underserved or poorly designed.

Take mouth tape, for example. It’s a simple idea with real benefits for sleep and breathing, but most versions on the market irritated skin, peeled off overnight, or felt unsafe. We rebuilt it from scratch using 100% cotton, designed it to stay on comfortably, and added a breathing hole so people didn’t feel trapped.

That same philosophy applies to what we’re working on now: sleep apnea oral devices. Properly designed mandibular advancement guards can help open the airway by gently repositioning the jaw, but they must be extremely precise. Every jaw is different, and small errors matter.

Advances in digital modeling and manufacturing finally make it possible to approach this responsibly, without cutting corners.

Accessibility and Quality Don’t Have to Be Opposites

One of the biggest misconceptions in healthcare is that lower cost means lower quality. In reality, high prices are often the result of outdated systems, not better outcomes.

Retail partnerships with companies like Walmart and Target are proof that oral healthcare doesn’t have to live behind a dentist’s front desk. It can be accessible, well-made, and trustworthy at the same time.

Technology didn’t replace dentistry, it removed friction.

Where Oral Healthcare Is Headed

The future of oral healthcare is personal, digital, and preventive. People want products that fit their actual anatomy, don’t require constant appointments, and don’t force them to choose between price and quality.

We finally have the tools to make that happen. The challenge now is using them responsibly and putting the patient first, not the legacy process.

I didn’t start Cheeky to follow a trend. I started it because oral healthcare deserved to work better than it did. Seven years later, I’m convinced more than ever that this industry is just getting started.

By Samuel Goodman, Co Founder of Cheeky.