Hinewai from Whanganui — 10 Emax Press smile makeover veneers

Real patient story, shared with permission. This patient has consented to Picasso Dental Clinic publishing their experience to help other New Zealand patients. Treatment, material, NZD price, and timeline are accurate to the case archive. Reviewed by Dr. Emily Nguyen, Founding Clinical Director.

Hinewai is a midwife in her mid-40s in Whanganui — three kids, a packed roster, and a smile makeover she had quietly put off through all three pregnancies. Her front teeth had worn unevenly over the years, a couple of old fillings had gone grey at the edges, and no amount of whitening toothpaste touched the dullness. None of it was urgent, which was exactly why she had let it ride for so long. A Whanganui private clinic worked up a full makeover and quoted her NZD 15,000 to 25,000 — around NZD 20,000 at the midpoint. On a midwife’s wage, with two of the three still at home, that was simply not a number she could say yes to.

She found us late one night shift and sent through smile photos the next morning after a delivery. We returned a written, itemised NZD quote within 24 hours: 10 Emax Press units at NZD 600 per unit = NZD 6,000 (May 2026 Picasso price list, 1 NZD = 15,000 VND), with a 7-year warranty.

What she wanted from the design

Hinewai is a clinician, so she vetted us the way she vets anything she doesn’t fully understand — slowly, sceptically, with a list. She wanted to know about sterilisation, who the dentists actually were, and what happened if a unit failed once she was back in Whanganui. The cheap-flight-and-a-smile pitch she saw elsewhere put her off rather than reeled her in; our answers got more detailed the harder she pushed, not vaguer.

The design conversation centred on three things:

• Material: Emax Press, a pressed lithium-disilicate ceramic with the translucency that keeps a finished smile from looking flat or false.
• Scope: 10 upper units across the smile line, combining veneers and crowns to restore the worn front teeth and even out the colour. We told her one lower tooth was better monitored than treated for now — she had half expected to be upsold, and being talked out of a unit instead is what made her trust us.
• The look: warm rather than fluorescent, shaped to suit a face that has seen a lot of long nights. We finalised this in the Portrait Sitting on day 2.

The 10-day trip

Travelling alone was part of the appeal. “For the first time in years no one needed me,” she wrote in the survey. “The days between appointments did almost as much for me as the dentistry.”

What it cost end-to-end

Against an NZ benchmark of NZD 15,000 to 25,000 for the comparable plan from a Whanganui private clinic, the gross saving was NZD 9,000 to 19,000, and the net saving after travel was roughly NZD 5,350 to 15,350.

The thing she didn’t expect

In her words: “It was how it landed at work. I spend my days telling frightened, exhausted women they’re doing brilliantly, and I never noticed I’d been doing it with a half-closed mouth. Now I smile at them properly without thinking about it. A few have told me, without knowing why, that I put them at ease.”

She had braced for a wave of guilt about spending on herself that, she says, never showed up.

What aftercare looked like back in Whanganui

Hinewai booked her NZ follow-up before flying, so it was confirmed: her own dentist reviewed the occlusion about four weeks after the trip and signed the case off. We received a copy of the report and added it to her file. She has had one 6-monthly check since, clean, with the next scheduled. Emax Press needs no special maintenance beyond normal brushing, flossing, and avoiding using the front teeth as tools.

Hinewai’s three pieces of advice

From her survey response:

1. “Ask what they won’t do, not just what they will. The moment they talked me out of a tooth I didn’t need touched, I knew I could trust them.”
2. “Go alone if you can swing it. As a mum and a midwife, the quiet recovery days between appointments rebuilt me as much as the teeth did.”
3. “Treat the smile as one unit, not tooth by tooth. Staging it cheaply at home would have left me with mismatched colour and a result I resented. Doing the whole upper line at once is what made it look like me.”

See also

• Smile makeover pillar — the protocol, materials, and NZD pricing.
• Veneer care tips — what Hinewai was told for home maintenance.
• Regional NZ to Vietnam dental travel page — benchmark and route logistics from outside the main centres.

Request your own free NZD smile makeover quote

About this page

Medically reviewed by

Dr. Emily Nguyen

Founding Clinical Director, Picasso Dental Clinic

DDS · Founder and Clinical Director, Picasso Dental Clinic group

Clinical focus: Cosmetic dentistry · Veneers · Smile design

Dr. Emily Nguyen founded Picasso Dental Clinic in 2013 (originally Serenity International Dental Clinic) and led its 2023 rebrand. She sets clinical standards across the group's six branches in Hanoi, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City, and Da Lat, and personally reviews cosmetic protocols including the Portrait Sitting workflow for veneers and smile makeovers.

Last clinically reviewed

28 May 2026

Published by

Picasso Dental Clinic

Review policy

Every medical procedure page on this site is reviewed by a named Picasso clinician before publication and re-checked when pricing, materials, or protocols change. Source documents are linked at the bottom of each page.