Cosmetic Dentistry in Hamilton

How we plan a smile

Most cosmetic work goes sideways when the plan skips the boring part. Before we touch a tooth we take photos from a few angles, do a quick bite check, and either mock up the proposed shape directly on your teeth with composite or run a digital preview in our scanner. You get to see roughly what the final result will look like before any drilling happens. If the preview is not quite right, we adjust on the screen, not on the tooth. That single step prevents most of the regret stories you hear about veneers.

We usually whiten first, then plan any bonding, veneers, or crowns afterward so the new material matches the brighter shade. The order matters. Whitening after veneers will not change the porcelain colour and you will end up with a two-tone smile.

Bonding, veneers, or crowns, which is the right pick

For one chip or a small gap, composite bonding done freehand finishes in one visit and costs roughly $250 to $450 per tooth. It can be polished and adjusted any time. The trade-off is bonding stains over five to ten years and chips more easily than porcelain.

For shape, length, or shade changes across the front six or eight teeth, porcelain veneers are the durable answer. They run roughly $1,200 to $1,800 per tooth and last ten to fifteen years on average. We remove very little enamel, usually less than a millimetre, and many cases are no-prep. A full crown is reserved for teeth that are already broken down or that have had a root canal, because crowns require more reduction.

Honestly: if bonding can solve it, we will tell you. We have no reason to talk a patient into more work than they need.

Materials and labs we use

For porcelain veneers and full-coverage crowns on front teeth we prefer lithium disilicate (IPS e.max). It is strong enough for most bites and the optics on a properly-shaded e.max veneer are very hard to distinguish from natural enamel. For posterior crowns where bite force is higher, we use zirconia or layered zirconia.

For composite bonding we use 3M Filtek and Tokuyama Estelite, both well-supported in the clinical literature and easy to polish to a high gloss. Our local lab work for veneers and crowns is sent to a ceramist whose shade-matching we trust enough to put our own family in his hands.

What insurance does and does not cover for cosmetic work

Most Canadian dental insurance plans cover the restorative portion of treatment but not the cosmetic portion. A composite filling that also closes a small diastema is usually covered. A veneer placed purely to change shape or shade is usually not. We submit a pre-authorization with photos and X-rays for any major case so you know what your plan will pay before you commit.

CDCP does not cover purely cosmetic dentistry. A Health Spending Account through your employer benefits often will, and Beautifi 0% financing covers the rest.

Aftercare that protects the work

The two things that wreck veneers and front-tooth bonding are night-time grinding and nail-biting. If you grind, a custom night guard ($400 to $650) pays for itself the first time it stops a fracture. We always make one for patients who have visible wear facets or who clench when they are stressed.

Daily care is otherwise the same as for natural teeth: brush twice, floss or use interdental brushes, and come back every six months so we can polish, check the margins, and catch any early problems while they are easy to fix. Avoid biting hard things directly with the bonded or veneered teeth: pens, ice, fingernails, the corner of a hard pizza crust. Bonding lasts longer on the patients who stop these habits.

Red flags when shopping for cosmetic dentistry

A few things to watch for at any clinic: a quote that does not include a written breakdown of how many teeth and what material, an aggressive push toward veneers when bonding could solve the problem, no mock-up or digital preview before the work begins, no discussion of bite or grinding habits, and pressure to commit on the first visit. Cosmetic dentistry is elective. There is no reason to rush.