Natalie from Auckland — 8 Emax Press 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.

Natalie is a recruiter in her early forties, based in Auckland, and her whole day is spent across a desk from people she is trying to read — and who are reading her right back. She wanted a smile that looked as composed as she felt going into a client pitch: even edges, no chips, a shade that held up under boardroom lighting. An Auckland private clinic had quoted her around NZD 16,000 for 8 upper veneers, and she could not square that figure with a treatment she kept telling herself was optional.

She sent us seven phone photos of her smile, plus two she disliked from old work headshots, and asked one blunt question: what would this actually cost. We returned a written, itemised NZD quote within 24 hours: 8 Emax Press veneers at NZD 600 per tooth = NZD 4,800 (May 2026 Picasso price list, 1 NZD = 15,000 VND), with a 7-year warranty.

The question she kept coming back to

Natalie’s worry was specific to her job. From the post-trip survey: “I did not want eight teeth that screamed veneers across a meeting table. I wanted people to think I’d just always had good teeth. And I was nervous about how much of my own tooth they’d grind down to get there.”

We worked through it before she booked:

• Material: Emax Press, a pressed lithium disilicate the cosmetic clinics she’d quoted in Auckland use too — picked here for how it handles light at close range.
• Preparation: conservative enamel reduction in the 0.3 to 0.5 mm range. We sent the Turkey teeth explained page so she could see the difference between veneer prep and aggressive crown-prep on healthy teeth.
• Shade strategy: she wanted natural-bright, not Hollywood-white. We logged that against her skin tone and lip line so the Portrait Sitting started from her brief, not a default.

She booked her flights about a month out, around a gap between hiring cycles.

The 10-day trip

The temporaries phase was the step she rated highest in the survey. “I genuinely didn’t know you got a rehearsal. Seeing the shape on my own face for a few days, then asking to change it, is the reason I trust the final result.”

What it cost end-to-end

Against the Auckland private-clinic benchmark of NZD 12,000 to 20,000 for 8 veneers, the gross saving was NZD 7,200 to 15,200, and the net saving after travel was roughly NZD 3,700 to 11,700.

She took five days of annual leave; the trip overlapped two weekends.

The thing she didn’t expect

In her words: “I assumed the awkward bit would be the dentistry. It wasn’t — it was how loud my own self-consciousness had been. For about a week after the temporaries went in I kept bracing to feel weird about my teeth, and the feeling just never showed up. By the final fit I’d stopped thinking about my mouth entirely, which is the most I’ve not thought about it in years.”

We have added a note about this settling-in period to the patient pre-trip pack. Real patient stories like Natalie’s are how we find the gaps.

What aftercare looked like back in Auckland

Natalie booked her NZ follow-up before she flew, so it was confirmed and waiting. Her own dentist reviewed the occlusion about four weeks after the trip and signed off the case; we received the report and filed it. She has had one 6-monthly check since, clean, with the next review already scheduled.

Natalie’s three pieces of advice

From her survey response:

1. “Bring the photos you hate, not just the ones you like. Telling them what I never wanted to look like again narrowed the design faster than any inspiration shot.”
2. “Use the temporaries week properly. Talk, eat, take a meeting on video. That is the only window where changing the shape is free and easy.”
3. “Schedule the trip inside a quiet patch at work. I was glad I wasn’t half-answering emails between the prep and fit appointments — the design conversations deserve your full attention.”

See also

• Veneers pillar — the protocol, materials, and NZD pricing.
• How long do veneers last — longevity and care for Emax Press.
• Auckland to Vietnam dental travel page — local benchmark and route logistics.

Request your own free NZD veneer 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.