The biggest predictor of whether a veneer case goes well isn't the ceramics. It's whether the patient's expectations were realistic to begin with, and that's something we work through before any tooth gets touched.

We use Digital Smile Design to build a mockup, essentially a test drive of the outcome, before starting treatment. It lets us show a patient exactly where their teeth are and what a full plan would actually look like. It's also useful for ruling things out early. If someone's midline is off by several millimeters, no amount of shaping a veneer will pull it back into place. That's a conversation we need to have upfront, not a surprise partway through.

There's a particular expectation we push back on more than any other: shade. A very specific kind of bright, opaque white has become popular through certain cosmetic dentistry trends, and it looks striking in photos. It does not look natural, and there's no way to make it look natural. You can have that shade, or you can have a natural-looking smile. Not both. Understanding that tradeoff upfront saves everyone a disappointing outcome later.

A good candidate for veneers is someone with a clear idea of what they want and why. A harder candidate is someone who wants their teeth to "look better" with no real sense of what that means, or who wants results a specific shade or shape simply can't deliver naturally. Our job in that consultation is either to reset expectations to something achievable, or to be honest that we're not the right fit for that particular ask. We'd rather have that conversation early than deliver a result someone ends up unhappy with.