New patients
A first visit is ninety minutes: full examination, periodontal chart, photographs, and a written plan before you leave.
Treatment 01
Thin bonded ceramic facings that change the shape, edge and shade of the front teeth as one set.
A veneer is a facing of dental ceramic, usually between 0.3 and 0.7 mm thick, bonded to the front of a tooth. Because ceramic is translucent and takes a polish that plaque struggles to hold, a well-made veneer sits in the mouth very differently to a composite build-up. The trade is that most veneer preparations remove some enamel, and enamel does not grow back. We treat that as the central decision, not a detail.
The sequence
Photographs, a digital scan and a bite record. We design the proposed shape digitally and mill or print a physical mock-up so you can see it before anything is prepared.
The mock-up is trialled directly on your unprepared teeth in temporary material. You wear it, photograph it, show it to somebody whose opinion you trust, and come back with changes. Nothing is irreversible at this stage.
Enamel is reduced conservatively, guided by the approved design rather than removed to a fixed depth. A scan is taken and provisional veneers are placed. Sensitivity to cold is common while temporaries are on.
The ceramic is tried in with water and then with try-in paste so shade can be assessed before it is committed. Bonding is done under isolation, one or two teeth at a time. The bite is refined at the end.
A short appointment two weeks later to check the gum margins, the bite under function and the polish. Most people need one small adjustment.
Instead of this
A cosmetic practice that never names the less profitable option is not giving you a choice.
Sculpted directly in one visit, reversible, roughly a third of the cost. It stains sooner and chips more readily, and it typically needs polishing every year or two and replacement inside five to seven. For a single chipped edge it is often the better answer.
If shade is the only complaint and the shapes are good, whitening is cheaper, non-invasive and removes no enamel. We will say so.
Straightening before veneering usually means preparing four teeth instead of eight, and preparing them less. It adds months and it is very often worth it.
Before you agree
This is the part most sites leave out. It is also the part that a consent discussion is legally and ethically built on.
Fee
Per tooth. Includes design, trial smile, temporaries, the ceramic and two reviews. A night guard is quoted separately at $525.
Indicative. Your written plan is itemised and is produced only after an examination. Members take 15% off restorative fees. We are out of network; you receive a coded receipt for out-of-network reimbursement.
A word on language. You will not read the word “painless” on this site, and you will not read that any restoration is permanent. Local anaesthetic makes most treatment comfortable at the time; some procedures are sore afterwards and we will tell you which and for how long. Restorations are maintainable, not eternal. Anyone promising otherwise is selling rather than consenting.
Questions
They commit them. Conservative preparation stays within enamel wherever the design allows, and some cases can be done with no preparation at all. But once enamel is removed the tooth needs a bonded restoration from then on, and that is the honest cost of the treatment. We show you the planned reduction on the mock-up before you agree to anything.
However many show when you smile fully — usually six, eight or ten. Treating four when eight show produces a visible shade step at the corners of the mouth. We take a full smile photograph at the consultation and count from that, not from a formula.
That is a design decision rather than a material one. We build translucency, surface texture and a slightly irregular edge into the design deliberately, and you approve it in the mouth as a trial smile before any preparation.
A small edge chip can sometimes be polished or repaired in composite. A significant fracture means remaking that unit, which takes two visits. We keep your design file so a replacement matches.
Related
Composite sculpted in a single visit, or full-coverage ceramic where a tooth no longer has enough structure left to hold together.
Supervised peroxide whitening, in-office or in custom trays at home, with sensitivity managed rather than ignored.
Removable Invisalign trays that move teeth in small increments — and an honest account of when fixed braces are simply better.
$190, credited against treatment. Scottsdale, on Kierland Boulevard.