cosmetic dentistry
Porcelain veneers, planned tooth by tooth.
A veneer is a thin shell of porcelain bonded to the front of a tooth, changing its shape, color, and surface in one move. A few well-planned veneers can close gaps, square up worn edges, and quiet the crooked-when-I-smile feeling people carry for decades.
Plan on a few visits over several weeks: planning and design, preparation and temporaries, then bonding the final porcelain. What it costs depends on how many teeth and what the porcelain must do — a written, itemized figure comes at the consult, before anything starts.
Designed before they're made
Good veneers start on a screen and in wax, not in a drill. Your smile is designed against your face — tooth proportions, edge line, the shade that reads bright without reading bathroom-tile — and you see and approve the design before the porcelain is crafted.
Temporaries then let you wear the design for real: talk, smile, live with it. Adjustments happen at that stage, in resin, where change is easy — so what's bonded at the final visit has already earned your yes twice.
Traditional or prepless?
Traditional veneers involve reshaping the tooth surface to seat the porcelain — the standard approach, and the right one for bigger color changes, previous fillings, and heavier reshaping. Prepless veneers skip the drilling entirely and have their own page, their own case-selection discipline, and a referral pathway to the founder of our group.
Most patients don't need to choose in advance; the consult sorts your case honestly. What matters is that both doors exist in the same building.
Questions we hear in the chair
- How long do porcelain veneers last?
- Ten to fifteen years is typical with normal care, often longer. Porcelain resists stain better than natural enamel; what shortens its life is grinding — which is why a night guard is part of the conversation for anyone who does.
- How many veneers do I need?
- As few as the goal allows. Sometimes one veneer matched perfectly to its neighbors, commonly the teeth in your smile line. The design phase answers this precisely — and matching fewer veneers to natural teeth is craft we take seriously.
- Do veneers ruin your teeth?
- Traditional veneers permanently reshape the tooth surface — that's a real commitment, stated plainly. The tooth stays alive and healthy under well-bonded porcelain. If the permanence gives you pause, ask about prepless veneers, where enamel stays intact.
- Whitening first or veneers first?
- Whitening first, always, if you want both — porcelain doesn't bleach, so we match veneers to the shade your natural teeth will keep. It's sequencing we handle in the plan.
Clinical content reviewed by Dr. Marissa DeAngelis, Senior Dentist.
Serving Crozet for 50+ years. At least two full-time doctors in the building, Monday through Friday.