Veneers have a reputation problem, and it is largely deserved. Search for results from dental tourism and you will find photographs of teeth ground to small pointed stumps — teeth that will need crowns, then root canals, then replacing. That outcome is not caused by the country the treatment happened in. It is caused by a preparation technique, and you can identify it in advance by asking six questions.
1. How much enamel will be removed, and how is that controlled?
The answer you want is a number and a method: roughly 0.3 to 0.6 millimetres, controlled by preparing through an approved mock-up. That technique places a resin model of the planned result over the unprepared teeth, and the dentist cuts through it — so the amount removed is determined by the design rather than by eye. Where the design needs nothing removed, nothing is removed.
If the answer is vague, or if it involves phrases like “we shape the teeth to make room”, be careful. Enamel does not grow back, and a tooth prepared into dentine has begun a lifetime of restoration.
2. Will I see a trial smile before anything irreversible?
A mock-up takes about thirty minutes, needs no drilling or anaesthetic, and lets you see the proposed result on your own face in daylight before you commit. Changes made in resin are free. Changes made after the porcelain is fired are not. Any clinic that treats this as optional is prioritising throughput over your outcome.
3. Should I have orthodontics first?
This is the question that separates clinical advice from sales. Veneers do not move teeth. If yours are significantly crowded or rotated, bringing them into line with ceramic alone requires cutting deeply into the teeth that stick out. Aligners or braces first mean the veneers afterwards can be far thinner — sometimes barely reducing the tooth at all.
A clinic that recommends orthodontics first is recommending a longer treatment and a smaller invoice for itself. That is usually a good sign.
4. How many veneers, and why that number?
The correct answer is: as many as show when you smile and laugh, determined by photographing you doing both. Commonly six to ten on the upper arch. If you are quoted a round package — “20 veneers” — before anyone has seen your smile, that number came from a price list rather than a diagnosis.
5. Which material, and who makes them?
Lithium disilicate (e.max) is the sensible default for front teeth: strong enough, and translucent in the way enamel is. Hand-layered feldspathic porcelain is more beautiful still and allows the thinnest preparations, at higher laboratory cost. Zirconia is stronger but more opaque, which makes it right for masking a very dark tooth and wrong where you want light to pass through.
The ceramist matters as much as the material. Surface texture, edge translucency and slight deliberate asymmetry are what stop ceramic looking like a row of identical tiles.
6. Will they be tried in before bonding?
Veneers should be seated with water or glycerine try-in paste first, so you can assess shade and shape in daylight while changes are still possible. Bonding is permanent; try-in is the last point at which you have a say.
One more thing: whiten first
Porcelain cannot be lightened after it is made. If you intend to whiten your natural teeth at any point, do it before the veneers are fabricated, so the ceramist matches to your final shade. Otherwise you end up with veneers that no longer match the teeth beside them.
Send us photographs of your smile and we will tell you honestly what your case needs — including the cases where we would recommend whitening and bonding instead of veneers.