Veneers, Stage by Stage

First, the Consultation

Every porcelain veneer case starts with a free consultation; a £40 deposit secures it and comes back to you once you have attended. Dr Pei Xian Chen will ask what bothers you when you smile and whether porcelain is truly the right answer. Teeth that are crowded or crooked are often better aligned first with Invisalign, after which veneers can be thinner, or unnecessary. If colour is the only issue, whitening may be all you need, and small chips or gaps usually respond well to composite bonding, with the enamel barely touched.

Decay and gum disease are treated before anything cosmetic, so the veneers have healthy teeth beneath them. You go home with a written plan listing the teeth involved, the fee for each and the order of treatment, and you are under no obligation.

Stage 1: Designing the Smile

We take photographs, a short video and an iTero Element scan; there are no putty impressions. Your new smile is then designed digitally on images of your own face, so the proportions come from you rather than a stock template. The shade is chosen to suit your complexion, your eyes and the neighbouring teeth, and the outline follows your lips, your face and the curve of your smile. A bright result need not look artificial, and we show you the options on your own photographs.

When they smile, most people show between six and ten upper teeth, so veneers normally cover the teeth on view. Others need just one or two to bring a dark or chipped tooth into line. The design shows precisely which teeth would change, and the written plan prices each one before any preparation. Allow about ninety minutes for this appointment.

Stage 2: The Trial Smile

From the digital design we make a mould, fill it with tooth-coloured material and seat it over your teeth for a short while. Nothing is drilled or glued, so it comes off again before you leave. With it in place you can judge how long and how wide the teeth look, how they sit with your lips and face, how you sound when you speak and how the smile photographs from different angles.

This is the moment for changes, and they are simple: longer, shorter, squarer or softer. We refine the design until you are happy, and that version becomes the template for your porcelain. What to look for is covered in our trial smile guide. Nothing irreversible happens before you sign off the design.

Stage 3: Preparing the Teeth and Fitting Temporaries

Local anaesthetic numbs the teeth, so you notice pressure but not pain. Dr Pei then removes a very thin layer of enamel, typically around half a millimetre, so the veneers can sit flush instead of looking bulky. Preparation is kept to the minimum, and the signed-off design dictates exactly how much each tooth needs. Because this step is permanent, the trial smile always comes before it.

An iTero Element scan of the prepared teeth goes to the dental laboratory that makes your porcelain. While you wait, temporary veneers protect the teeth and keep your smile intact. Be gentle with them: steer clear of hard, sticky or very chewy food, and let us know if one loosens. A few days of sensitivity to hot and cold is common and passes.

Stage 4: Fitting the Porcelain

At the fitting the temporaries are removed and each porcelain veneer is tried on so the fit, shade and bite can be checked before anything is bonded. If a veneer is not right, it goes back to the laboratory; we would rather wait than fit something we are not happy with. Once you and Dr Pei are both satisfied, the tooth surfaces are prepared, the veneers are bonded and light-cured, surplus cement is cleaned away and your bite is fine-tuned.

A final polish follows, and a short review soon afterwards lets us recheck the bite and see that the gums around the veneers are healing well. The whole process, design to fit, usually runs to three or four weeks.

How Long It Takes Overall

Expect three to four weeks and three appointments: smile design with the trial smile, preparation, then fitting. If you want your natural teeth lighter first, allow two to three weeks for home whitening plus about a fortnight for the shade to stabilise, since porcelain is made to match on the day and never changes colour afterwards.

Where Invisalign straightening comes first, the veneers are fitted at the end, which can add several months. The wait pays off, because well-aligned teeth allow thinner veneers and less enamel removal. Your written plan sets out the full sequence and timing at the start, so you can see the whole route rather than only the next visit. If you work in Canary Wharf, the practice is five minutes away on the Jubilee line from North Greenwich, which makes the appointments easy to fit around a working day.

What Porcelain Veneers Cost

Porcelain veneers at Peninsula Dentists are from £650 a tooth.² The smile design and trial smile are part of the treatment fee, and a typical case covers six to ten teeth. For comparison, composite veneers, which are built up by hand at the chair and need minimal preparation, are from £375 a tooth. Veneers are not covered by the dental plan discount.

Chrysalis Finance lets you pay for treatment of £1,500 or more in instalments, subject to status, at 0% over 6 or 12 months or over longer terms at 14.9% APR representative. Six porcelain veneers from £3,900 would be from £325 a month over 12 months interest free.⁴ The terms are on our finance page, and our veneers cost guide gives typical totals and what to check in a quote.

Making Veneers Last

With sensible care, porcelain veneers commonly last 10 to 15 years or longer. The usual reasons for replacement are grinding, biting on hard objects and gradual changes in the gums.

• Brush morning and night, and floss or use interdental brushes every day
• Keep your hygiene appointments and dental examinations
• If you grind, wear a night guard; a custom one is from £135
• Never chew pens, nails or ice, or use your teeth to open packaging
• The porcelain itself resists stain, though its margins can still collect it from coffee, tea and smoking

Whitening gel has no effect on veneers, so if you want a lighter smile in future, we whiten the natural teeth around them and make the replacement veneers to that shade when the time comes.

Questions

This guide explains the options in general terms. Only an examination can tell you which of them suits your own teeth.