Maia 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.

Maia is in her late thirties, a health promoter in Whangarei whose working days are spent in front of community groups, schools, and marae talking about wellbeing. Two upper front teeth had darkened behind old fillings, the edges had chipped years earlier on a netball court, and the line of her smile had drifted out of balance. She told us the gap that bothered her most was the one between the confidence she encouraged in others and the tight-lipped half-smile she gave in her own campaign photos. A Whangarei private clinic had put the figure for a full upper makeover at roughly NZD 16,000 — the midpoint of the NZD 12,000 to NZD 20,000 range she had been quoted — and on a community-sector wage that turned the idea into a someday-maybe one.

She found us after a whānau member flew to Vietnam for crowns, and she sent close-up smile photos. 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 the design to do

Maia is a careful researcher by trade, and she did not want a generic “Hollywood white”. From the post-trip survey: “I work in health. If my smile looks fake on a poster, the whole message looks fake. I wanted it to still look like me, just the me before the fillings went dark.”

The pre-trip conversation focused on the design and on what she actually needed:

• Material: Emax Press, a pressed ceramic chosen for strength and the way it catches light like natural enamel.
• Scope: we flagged which teeth genuinely needed treatment and which did not, so she was not paying for units that added nothing.
• Design control: the Portrait Sitting step sets shade, length, edge shape, and midline before any preparation, and the temporaries phase lets the design be adjusted before the final units are bonded.

She booked the flight a month out and timed the trip around a quiet patch in her campaign calendar.

The 10-day trip

The temporaries phase was the step she rated highest in the survey. “I did not expect to get a trial run. I asked for the front two to be a touch shorter and the midline straightened, and they did both before anything was permanent.”

What it cost end-to-end

Against an NZ benchmark of NZD 12,000 to NZD 20,000 for a full upper makeover, the gross saving was NZD 7,200 to NZD 15,200, and the net saving after travel was roughly NZD 3,650 to NZD 11,650.

She used 6 days of annual leave, with the trip overlapping a weekend at each end.

The thing she didn’t expect

In her words: “I assumed I would feel self-conscious eating in front of the dentists during the temporaries week — that they would judge how I chewed or talked. The opposite happened. They actually wanted to watch me talk and smile naturally so they could see how the temporaries moved with my face. By the end I stopped covering my mouth mid-sentence, a habit I had not even realised I had.”

We have added a note to the pre-trip pack reminding patients that the temporaries week is meant to be lived in, not protected. Real patient stories like this one are how we find those gaps.

What aftercare looked like back in Whangarei

Maia booked her follow-up bite check with her own NZ dentist before she flew, so it was confirmed for three weeks after she landed. Her dentist reviewed the occlusion and the gum margins and signed the case off; we received the report and added it to her file. She has had one 6-monthly check and clean since, with no issues, and her year-1 review is scheduled.

Maia’s three pieces of advice

From her survey response:

1. “Ask the clinic what you do NOT need. They told me two of my teeth were fine and talked me out of treating them. That is when I trusted the rest of the plan.”
2. “Use the temporaries week properly — eat, talk, present to an imaginary room. That is the only window where the shape is still changeable, so speak up loudly if anything feels off.”
3. “Pin down the warranty and the New Zealand follow-up before you fly. Knowing exactly what was covered for seven years, and that a Kiwi dentist was booked to check the result, took the fear out of it.”

See also

• Smile makeover pillar — the protocol, materials, and NZD pricing.
• Veneer care tips — what Maia was told for home maintenance.
• How long do veneers last — longevity by material.

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.