Khanh from Wellington — 10 Emax Press veneers, full smile makeover

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.

Khanh is 34, an architect in Wellington who spends his days drawing things to scale and signing off on how they will actually look once built. His own smile, he told us, was the one elevation he had never been happy with — worn lower edges from years of grinding, two greying older composite fillings on the front teeth, and an upper arch that had drifted slightly out of line. A Wellington private clinic had quoted him in the region of NZD 15,000 to NZD 25,000 for a full makeover, with a midpoint near NZD 20,000. He sat on it for the better part of a year.

What changed his mind was the realisation that he could treat it the way he treats a building: design first, then construct. He sent us a set of smile photographs and a one-page brief — yes, an actual brief, with annotations. We returned a written, itemised NZD quote within 24 hours: 10 Emax Press veneers at NZD 600 per unit, total NZD 6,000 (May 2026 Picasso price list, 1 NZD = 15,000 VND), carrying a 7-year warranty.

Designing the smile before any prep

Because Khanh wanted to be involved in the design, the Portrait Sitting step was the part he was most curious about — and, in his words from the post-trip survey, the part that “sold the whole trip.”

The pre-trip conversation covered three things:

• Material: Emax Press across all 10 upper teeth, for a uniform shade and translucency rather than a patchwork of old composite and natural enamel.
• Preparation: conservative enamel reduction, 0.3 to 0.5 mm, keeping the teeth alive rather than crowning them down. We sent him the Turkey teeth explained page so he could see what over-aggressive prep looks like and avoid it.
• Control over the design: he asked whether he could iterate on proportions the way he iterates on a facade. The answer was the Portrait Sitting plus the temporaries phase — two genuine review points before anything is permanent.

He booked his flights about a month out, timing the trip around a short family visit.

The 10-day trip

The temporaries phase was where his design instinct really showed. “I treated the temporaries like a 1:1 model,” he wrote. “I lived with them for a few days, decided two edges read too hard, and they changed them. That iteration loop is exactly how I work, so it felt natural.”

What it cost end-to-end

Against the Wellington benchmark of NZD 15,000 to NZD 25,000 for a full makeover, the gross saving was NZD 9,000 to NZD 19,000, and the net saving after travel and stay was roughly NZD 4,950 to NZD 14,950.

He used 6 working days of leave; the trip bracketed a weekend at each end.

The thing he didn’t expect

In his words: “I assumed I would obsess over the colour. I didn’t. What actually caught me off guard was how the new edges changed my speech for the first evening — a couple of S sounds whistled slightly with the temporaries. I almost panicked. By the next morning it had completely settled, and the final veneers had zero issue. I just wish someone had warned me it was normal for a night.”

We have since added a clearer note about temporary-stage speech changes to the pre-trip pack. Real patient stories like this one are how we find those gaps.

What aftercare looked like back in Wellington

Khanh booked his first follow-up with his own Wellington dentist before he flew out, so it was locked in for three weeks after his return. His dentist checked the occlusion and the margins and signed the case off; we received the report and filed it. He was also given a night guard recommendation given his grinding history — important for protecting the veneer edges long term.

He has had one 6-month check since, clean, with the year-1 review already in the calendar.

Khanh’s three pieces of advice

From his survey response:

1. “Come in with a reference, not a vague wish. I brought annotated photos of smiles I liked and disliked. As an architect I’d never start without a brief, and the same logic made the result sharper.”
2. “Use the temporaries as a working prototype, not a waiting period. If something feels off, say it then — that is the cheap, easy moment to change it.”
3. “If you grind your teeth, sort out a night guard at home straight away. The veneers are an investment; protecting the edges while you sleep is the obvious next step.”

See also

• Smile makeover pillar — the design process, materials, and NZD pricing.
• Veneer care tips — what Khanh was told for home maintenance and night-guard use.
• Wellington to Vietnam dental travel page — local benchmark and route logistics.

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.