People who search for a smile transformation usually want to see the before and after. We have plenty of those in our smile gallery. This page is about the part the photos leave out: what happened in between, how long it took, and why the result held.
Because the honest version of a smile transformation is rarely one procedure. It’s a sequence, it often starts somewhere the patient didn’t expect, and whether it lasts has more to do with the first appointment than the last one.
It often isn’t what people come in asking for
Most people arrive with a clear idea of what they want changed: whiter, straighter, longer, more even. That’s a fine place to start. It just isn’t a plan yet, because the same complaint can have completely different causes.
- P.M. came in because her teeth were turning gray, and every time she whitened them they came out grayer. It wasn’t stain at all. She’d lost enamel, and the gray was the tooth underneath showing through. No amount of whitening would have fixed it. Ceramic restorations rebuilt what was lost. See her case.
- D.E. noticed his teeth were getting shorter. His bite was wearing them down unevenly, so crowns alone would have worn the same way. We moved the teeth with Invisalign first, then rebuilt the edges. See his case.
- L.B. had eroded the enamel off his biting edges with years of soda as a teenager. The restorations came second. The first step was finding the cause together and changing what he drank. See his case.
We’ve also had a patient referred to us for cosmetic bonding who turned out not to need any. A transformation should be as big as the mouth actually needs, and sometimes that’s smaller than expected.
Why the cause comes first
New dental work sits in the same mouth as the old problem. If teeth chipped because of the bite, new porcelain will chip for the same reason. If enamel wore away from acid, new edges will face the same acid. If gums are inflamed, the edge of a new veneer will look wrong within a year.
That’s why we plan in a particular order, and why it matters: health first, then position, then color, then shape. The full sequence and the reasons for it are on our cosmetic dentistry page. The short version is that straightening teeth before veneers means less tooth has to be removed, and whitening before any new work means everything matches.
Doing the right treatments in the wrong order is the most common reason cosmetic work has to be redone. It’s also the most avoidable.
How long a smile transformation takes
It depends entirely on what’s involved, which is why nobody can give you a real timeline before an exam. Here’s how the pieces typically run:
- Whitening: a few weeks, and the shade needs a couple of weeks to settle before any new work is matched to it. More on whitening.
- Bonding: often a single visit for small chips and gaps.
- Veneers: at least two visits and usually two to four, with a wax-up and a trial smile if you’d like to see the design before it’s final. If both arches are being done, we finish the top before starting the bottom. More on veneers.
- Moving teeth first: most Invisalign patients see results within 6 to 24 months. More on Invisalign.
- Larger rebuilds: planned in stages over months, or years if that’s what fits your life. What a full mouth rehabilitation involves.
Staging isn’t a compromise. One of our patients had just retired and asked what it would take to fix her smile, as long as it could be phased to fit a budget. We handled what needed attention right away, then combined orthodontics and ceramic restorations across several years. Larger cases can be stabilized first and rebuilt a piece at a time.
What it costs, and what drives it
We don’t publish prices for this kind of work, because the honest range is too wide to be useful. A few veneers and a full rebuild are both called a smile transformation. What moves the number:
- How many teeth are involved, and whether it’s one arch or both.
- Whether teeth need to move first.
- Which material fits the tooth and the bite: composite, porcelain, or a crown.
- Whether there’s decay, gum disease or a bite problem to treat first.
You’ll see the cost before you’re asked to decide anything, broken into stages if it’s a larger case. We take 5% off when a treatment plan of $1,000 or more is paid in full, and we offer CareCredit and Cherry for financing. Dental insurance rarely covers cosmetic work, and here’s how insurance works with us for the parts it does.
Does it last?
Done in the right order, the modern version of this work holds up well.
A review of 13 studies of porcelain and glass-ceramic veneers found about 89% still in place after a median of 9 years, with chipping or fracture the most common problem.
Morimoto S, Albanesi RB, Sesma N, Agra CM, Braga MM. Main clinical outcomes of feldspathic porcelain and glass-ceramic laminate veneers: a systematic review and meta-analysis of survival and complication rates. Int J Prosthodont. 2016;29(1):38-49.
For bigger rebuilds of worn teeth, a 2025 review of conservative full-mouth rehabilitation found estimated annual failure rates of 0.64% for composite, 0.13% for resin nanoceramics and 0.04% for ceramics, across studies with at least three years of follow-up.
Fan J, Wang B, Wang L, Xu B, Wang L, Wang C, Fu B. Clinical performance of minimally invasive full-mouth rehabilitation using different materials and techniques for patients with moderate to severe tooth wear: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Clin Oral Investig. 2025;29(2):96.
We don’t have to rely only on studies. This practice has been here since 1968, and we still see patients whose transformations were done more than 20 years ago and are still doing well. That’s the real test of the work: not how it looks the day it goes in, but how it looks when the same patient comes back two decades later.
What the numbers can’t tell you is what happens when the cause was never fixed. That’s the part that’s in your hands and ours:
- Fix what caused it. The drink, the reflux, the bite. Why teeth wear down covers the usual causes.
- Keep the teeth where they were moved. Anyone whose teeth were straightened should plan on a retainer for the long haul.
- Protect it from grinding, if you grind. A night guard puts the force on plastic instead of porcelain. We don’t recommend one for everybody, and we’ll tell you whether you need it.
- Keep your hygiene visits. Healthy gums keep the edges of new work looking right. What a cleaning actually does.
Sometimes it’s about more than teeth
Some of the transformations we’re proudest of weren’t really about cosmetics.
S.M. asked to have her veneers redone. The real story went back to a childhood accident that damaged her upper lip, which had hidden her smile through several surgeries. We coordinated timing with her plastic surgeon, and new veneers lengthened her teeth to give her the smile she’d been waiting for. See her case.
Derek came to us after a hard stretch of years, ready to start over, and his new smile came with his fresh start. Kurt had put his own teeth on hold for years while he took care of everyone else. See Derek’s case and Kurt’s.
Where to start
Every case in our gallery began with the same appointment: a comprehensive exam, photos, digital X-rays, a 3D scan, and a conversation about what we found before anyone talked about treatment. That visit tells you what’s actually going on, what’s already fine, and what a transformation would really involve in your mouth. Here’s what a first visit involves.
Call 702-734-0776 or tell us what’s going on.