Patient stories
Quynh from Wellington — 8 Emax Press veneers
Real patient story — a Wellington lawyer travels to Picasso Dental Clinic for veneers at the May 2026 NZD price. NZD 4,800 clinical cost.
Quynh, 29, a Wellington lawyer, travelled to Picasso Dental Clinic in Hanoi for 8 Emax Press veneers across the upper smile zone — NZD 4,800 clinical cost (May 2026 Picasso price list, 1 NZD = 15,000 VND), a single 10-day trip with the design locked in during the Portrait Sitting on day 2.
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.
Quynh is 29, a Wellington lawyer who spends most of her working week in front of a room — clients, panels, the occasional courtroom. Two upper front teeth had chipped at the edges years ago, and a faint greyness no whitening tray ever shifted had left her with a half-smile she’d learned to deploy on instinct, lips doing the work her teeth wouldn’t. A Wellington private clinic had quoted her around NZD 16,000 for a front-of-mouth set of eight, which she described in the survey as “the kind of number that makes you just keep the smile you’ve got.”
She messaged us a set of eight phone photos late one evening. 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), carrying a 7-year warranty.
What she wanted, and what she didn’t
For a lawyer, the worry wasn’t the procedure — it was the look. “My whole job is being taken seriously,” she wrote. “The last thing I needed was a wall of fake-white teeth that made me look like I’d had work done.”
The pre-trip conversation centred on three things:
- Restraint: Emax Press in a shade just one notch brighter than her natural teeth, not a uniform bleach-white. We agreed the final call would be hers at the design stage.
- Preparation: 0.3 to 0.5 mm of conservative enamel reduction, not the aggressive grinding behind so many bad results. We sent the Turkey teeth explained page so she could see the difference for herself.
- Recourse: a written warranty, travel reimbursement if a re-do is ever needed, and a New Zealand follow-up care note for her own dentist.
She booked her flights about a month out.
The 10-day trip
| Day | What happened |
|---|---|
| Day 1 | WLG to Hanoi via Singapore. Late evening arrival, hotel check-in, early night. |
| Day 2 | Consultation 9:30. Photographs, OPG, iTero digital scan. Portrait Sitting design session after lunch — shade, length, edge shape, midline, and how much brightness she actually wanted. |
| Day 3 | Preparation appointment, 8 upper teeth. Temporaries fitted in the matched shape. |
| Days 4–8 | Temporaries phase. We asked her to live in them for several days and flag anything — speech, bite, look. She came back on day 6 to nudge two edges very slightly squarer. |
| Day 9 | Final fit, around 3.5 hours. Bonding, occlusion check, photographs. |
| Day 10 | Short review and polish in the morning, then fly home. |
The temporaries phase was the part she hadn’t valued in advance and rated highest afterwards. “Wearing the test version into a café and seeing how it photographed before anything was permanent — that’s what sold me on the whole approach.”
What it cost end-to-end
| Line item | NZD |
|---|---|
| 8 Emax Press veneers (clinical) | 4,800 |
| Consultation + OPG + iTero | included |
| Return flight Wellington to Hanoi | 2,100 |
| Hotel — 10 nights, mid-range | 1,050 |
| Food and local transport | 600 |
| Total | 8,550 |
Against a Wellington benchmark of NZD 12,000 to 20,000 for a set of eight, the gross saving was NZD 7,200 to 15,200, and the net saving after travel was roughly NZD 3,450 to 11,450 — a wide range, but every point of it on the right side of the ledger.
She took five days of annual leave; the trip straddled two weekends.
The thing she didn’t expect
In her words: “I’d braced for the prep day to be the hard part. It wasn’t. What caught me off guard was how attached I got to the temporaries — by day five they already felt like my teeth, and I had a flicker of nerves taking them off for the real ones. The final set looked better. I just hadn’t expected to bond with a placeholder.”
We hear this often enough that the pre-trip pack now explains the temporaries are deliberately close to the final design, so the moment of swapping them out feels like an upgrade rather than a leap.
What aftercare looked like back in Wellington
Quynh had booked a check with her own Wellington dentist before she flew, scheduled for three weeks after she landed home. Her dentist reviewed the bite, confirmed the margins, and signed the case off; we received the report and added it to her file.
She’s had one 6-monthly check since, clean, with the next already on the calendar.
Quynh’s three pieces of advice
From her survey response:
- “Come to the design session with examples — a couple of smiles you like and one you don’t. I argue for a living, but I was useless at describing what I wanted until I had pictures to point at.”
- “Don’t waste the temporaries week worrying. Use it as the test drive it actually is, and speak up early if anything feels off. They fixed mine in twenty minutes.”
- “Lock in your NZ follow-up before you leave. Knowing a Wellington dentist would check the final result made the whole trip feel like part of normal care, not a gamble.”
See also
- Veneers pillar — the protocol, materials, and NZD pricing.
- Veneer care tips — what Quynh was told for home maintenance.
- How long do veneers last — longevity by material.
- Wellington to Vietnam dental travel page — local benchmark and route logistics.
Request your own free NZD veneers 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.
Frequently asked questions
Is Quynh a real patient?
Yes. Quynh is a real Picasso Dental Clinic patient who has given written permission for us to share their experience with other New Zealand patients considering treatment. Treatment, material/brand, NZD price, and timeline are accurate to the case archive.
What did the veneers cost in NZD?
8 Emax Press veneers at NZD 600 per tooth = NZD 4,800 clinical cost (May 2026 Picasso price list, 1 NZD = 15,000 VND). This is the clinical figure only and excludes flights and accommodation.
Will 8 veneers look natural for someone in front of people all day?
Yes — the brightness and shape are chosen by the patient during the Portrait Sitting design step. Quynh asked for a shade just one step above her natural teeth rather than a uniform bright-white, and lived with temporaries in that exact shape for several days before the final ceramics were made.
What warranty applies to Emax Press veneers?
7-year warranty on Emax Press veneers from Picasso, with the manufacturer warranty running in parallel. It covers fracture or debonding not caused by trauma or untreated bruxism. See the full /warranty/ page for tier-by-tier terms.