Kiri from Whangarei — 8 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.

Kiri is 45, a nurse in Whangarei, and she had been meaning to “sort her teeth out” for the better part of fifteen years. Years of grinding had flattened the edges of her upper front teeth and let a couple of them drift just enough to throw the line off. Nothing hurt, which is exactly how the years slipped by — there was never an urgent reason to act. A local consult put a smile makeover at roughly NZD 16,000, the midpoint of the NZD 12,000 to 20,000 a Whangarei private clinic had quoted, and the idea stalled there yet again.

She sent us photos one evening after a late shift. We returned a written, itemised NZD quote within 24 hours: 8 Emax Press units at NZD 600 per unit = NZD 4,800 (May 2026 Picasso price list, 1 NZD = 15,000 VND), with a 7-year warranty.

What she wanted from the design

Kiri did not want a brand-new smile — she wanted the one she’d worn down. In her words from the post-trip survey: “I was scared of walking out with a row of fake-looking blocks. I wanted my teeth back, just before fifteen years of grinding got to them.”

The pre-trip conversation focused on the design, not the discount:

• Material: Emax Press, a heat-pressed lithium-disilicate ceramic that holds its edge well under a grinder’s bite — the same class of material she’d been quoted at home.
• Shape over shade: because her real complaint was worn edges and a crooked line, the Portrait Sitting design step would rebuild the proportions first and treat colour as secondary.
• Recourse: a written 7-year warranty, travel reimbursement if a re-do is ever needed, and a New Zealand follow-up care note for her own dentist.

She picked our Da Nang Hoang Dieu branch, partly for the clinic and partly because she liked the idea of healing somewhere warm by the coast.

The 10-day trip

The Portrait Sitting was the step she rated highest. “Seeing each tooth mapped out and agreed before anything was touched is what finally made me hit confirm. After fifteen years of putting it off, I needed to see the plan.”

What it cost end-to-end

Against an NZ benchmark of NZD 12,000 to 20,000 for a comparable makeover, the gross saving was NZD 7,200 to 15,200, and the net saving after travel was NZD 3,700 to 11,700.

She took the trip across two weekends to keep her annual leave down.

The thing she didn’t expect

In her words: “What caught me off guard wasn’t the teeth — it was my own voice on the ward. I’d been turning my head away when I talked to families for so long I didn’t know I did it. Weeks later a colleague’s birthday photo came round and I was smiling with my teeth in it, no thought about it at all. The reshaping mattered as much as the colour; my smile finally sat even.”

Real patient stories like this one are how we learn what actually changes for patients after they fly home.

What aftercare looked like back in Whangarei

Kiri booked her own NZ dentist for a bite check four weeks after the trip, confirmed before she flew. Her dentist reviewed the occlusion and signed the case off, and we added the report to her file. Because she grinds, we fitted her for a nightguard to protect the new edges. She has had one 6-monthly check since, clean, with the next due on schedule.

Kiri’s three pieces of advice

From her survey response:

1. “Stop waiting for an emergency. Mine never came, and that is exactly how fifteen years went by. Book the consult before you feel ‘ready’.”
2. “Be specific at the design stage. I brought photos of my own smile from my thirties and said ’this, before the grinding’. Knowing what you’re aiming for makes the result yours.”
3. “Pad the trip with quiet days. As a nurse I never rest, and the slow mornings between visits did me as much good as the teeth did.”

See also

• Smile makeover pillar — the protocol, materials, and NZD pricing.
• Veneer care tips — what Kiri was told for home maintenance.
• Nightguard and bruxism care — protecting new edges if you grind, as Kiri does.

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.