Veneers, Visit by Visit

Is Porcelain the Right Fix?

Before anyone talks about porcelain, Dr Sharma wants to know what actually bothers you when you look in the mirror. The answer decides the treatment. Teeth that are only dull or yellow often need nothing more than home whitening. A chipped corner or a small gap is usually quicker, cheaper and kinder to the tooth with composite bonding.

Crowding is the big one. Veneers placed over crooked teeth need deeper shaping to line them up, so we'd normally suggest straightening first with Invisalign and then deciding whether veneers are still wanted. Plenty of people find they're not.

Any decay, leaking fillings or gum inflammation is sorted before cosmetic work, because porcelain bonded onto an unhealthy tooth won't last. The consultation is free, booked with a £40 deposit that comes back to you within seven days of coming along, and you go home with a written plan listing each tooth, its fee and the order of work. You don't have to decide on the day.

Visit One: Design and Trial Smile

This is the longest appointment, at roughly an hour and a half. We take photographs and a short video of you talking and smiling, then scan your teeth with the iTero Lumina. There are no trays of putty. From those records your new smile is designed on screen over your own face, so tooth length and width follow your lips, your facial midline and the way you smile, not a catalogue.

The design is then made into a temporary mock-up that sits over your existing teeth. Nothing is cut and nothing is glued. You look at it in the mirror, chat, take photos on your phone and tell us what you think. Longer, shorter, rounder, more even: it can all be adjusted now, and changing your mind at this point costs nothing. More detail is in our guide to the trial smile.

How Many Teeth, and What Shade?

Count the teeth you see in a broad smile. For most people it's somewhere between six and ten upper teeth, and that's usually how many veneers a full change involves. A single veneer is possible too, typically to disguise one dark or misshapen front tooth, although matching one tooth to its natural neighbours is among the hardest jobs in cosmetic dentistry and needs careful shade work.

Shade is chosen with you, in daylight, against your skin tone and the whites of your eyes. Very white can look right on one face and false on another, so we show options on your own photos. If you'd like the surrounding natural teeth lighter, whiten them first. Porcelain doesn't respond to whitening gel, so the veneers are matched once your new colour has settled.

Visit Two: Preparing the Teeth

The teeth are numbed with local anaesthetic, so what you notice is vibration and pressure, not pain. A fine layer of enamel, often around half a millimetre, is taken from the front of each tooth to make room for the porcelain. Without it, the veneers would sit proud and look thick. Your approved design shows where reduction is needed and where it isn't, which keeps it to the minimum your case allows.

Be clear on one point before this visit: once enamel has gone, those teeth will always need a covering. That's why the trial smile comes first. After shaping, the teeth are scanned again and the file goes to the dental laboratory, and temporary veneers are made in the chair so you leave with a complete smile.

Life in Temporaries

Temporaries are made from a softer material and held on lightly, so they come away cleanly at the fitting. They look reasonable rather than perfect, and that's normal. A few habits help them last until the porcelain arrives:

• Cut food into small pieces and chew towards the back
• Skip toffee, crusty bread, hard sweets and anything you'd bite into with your front teeth
• Brush gently, and pull floss out sideways rather than lifting it up between the teeth
• Expect a little sensitivity to cold for a few days; it usually fades
• If one cracks or lifts, phone us, because it's normally a quick fix

Visit Three: Fitting the Porcelain

The temporaries come off and each veneer is first tried on with a water-soluble paste, so you and Dr Sharma can judge the fit, shape and colour before anything is permanent. If a veneer isn't right, it goes back to the laboratory. We would rather rebook than fit something you're unsure about.

Once everyone is happy, each tooth surface is cleaned and treated, the veneers are bonded one at a time and hardened with a curing light, and the surplus resin is cleared away. Your bite is checked in every direction, including grinding side to side, and adjusted where needed. A review a couple of weeks later lets us confirm the gums have settled and the bite still feels natural.

How the Weeks Add Up

Without whitening or straightening, the whole thing usually takes three to four weeks. Straightening first takes longer but means thinner veneers and less enamel removed. Your written plan sets out your own timetable at the start.

What Porcelain Veneers Cost

Porcelain veneers are from £695 a tooth. ¹ The design, the trial smile, the temporaries and the review sit within that fee, not on top of it. A tooth that needs more work first, such as replacing an old filling, may cost more, and your plan shows it before anything starts. For comparison, composite veneers are £395 a tooth. Veneers aren't covered by the dental plan discount.

Making Them Last

With sensible care, porcelain commonly lasts 10 to 15 years, often longer. The usual reasons for failure are grinding, biting on hard objects, and gums receding until the edge of a veneer shows.

• Clean between your teeth daily, as well as brushing twice
• Keep your hygiene appointments so the edges stay clean and get checked
• If you clench or grind, wear a custom night guard (£210)
• Use scissors, not teeth, on packaging, and leave pen lids and ice alone
• Tea, coffee, red wine and smoking won't stain the porcelain itself but can mark the margins

When a veneer eventually needs replacing, it's remade from a fresh scan, and that's the moment to match it to any whitening you've done since.

Questions

This guide is general information, not a diagnosis. A dentist needs to examine you to say what is right for your teeth.