Cosmetic Dentistry in Hocking, Perth

A front tooth chipped years ago, staining that brushing no longer shifts, or a gap you have stopped smiling around in photographs. Cosmetic dentistry covers the colour, shape and spacing of your teeth.

We take the conservative option wherever there is one. Whitening before veneers, a filling before a crown, and no work at all if the honest answer is that it is not needed.

This page is the map. Each option below has its own page with the detail on it, and the consultation is where we work out which of them applies to your teeth rather than to teeth in general.

Start with what is bothering you, not with a procedure

People come to us for cosmetic work for all sorts of reasons, and very few of them are vanity. A wedding, a return to work after years out, a photograph that made somebody realise how long they had been smiling with their mouth closed. Our dentists provide cosmetic treatment that changes the colour, shape and spacing of your teeth, and we will show you what is achievable on your own teeth before you commit to anything.

The most useful thing you can bring to a first appointment is a description of the problem rather than a request for a treatment. “The two front ones look grey in photos” tells us far more than “I'd like veneers”, and it quite often leads somewhere cheaper and less invasive than the treatment that was asked for.

The options, and what each one is actually for

Depending on your budget and desired outcomes, there are several cosmetic procedures our clinic can provide. They are not interchangeable — each solves a different problem.

Every row has its own page. Follow the one that matches the problem rather than the one that matches the budget.
Option	What it is for	What it involves	Reversible?
Whitening	Teeth the right shape but the wrong colour. Stains from coffee, tea, red wine, smoking, and the general yellowing that comes with age.	Take-home trays worn about an hour a day for two weeks, or in-chair treatment in a single appointment.	Yes — nothing is removed from the tooth.
Composite bonding	A chipped corner, a small gap, a tooth slightly the wrong shape. Also the cheapest way to test a change before committing to porcelain.	Tooth-coloured resin shaped onto the tooth and set, usually in one visit and often with no drilling.	Largely — it can be polished off.
Veneers	Staining that whitening will not lift, or teeth that are chipped, crowded or spaced and need reshaping as well as brightening.	A shaped facing, made from porcelain or built up in composite, cemented over the visible surface. Two appointments for porcelain, often one for composite.	No — a thin layer of enamel is removed.
Crowns	A tooth that needs strengthening as well as improving: heavily filled, cracked, root-treated or badly worn.	The tooth is reduced, an impression taken, and a custom crown made and bonded on.	No.
Clear aligners	Teeth in the wrong position rather than the wrong colour or shape. Crowding, spacing and mild bite problems.	A planned series of removable trays worn 22 hours a day, with reviews along the way.	Yes — the appliance is removable, though retention is needed afterwards.
Implants	A missing tooth, or a denture that moves.	A titanium root placed in the jaw, left to integrate, then a crown fitted to it.	No.

We can also provide a range of cosmetic dental implants to replace missing teeth and loose dentures.

The order things are done in, and why it matters

Sequence is most of what separates cosmetic work that ages well from cosmetic work that has to be redone.

Health first
Active decay and gum disease are treated before anything cosmetic. Bonding a veneer onto a tooth with an untreated cavity underneath, or onto gums that are inflamed and will recede, means doing it twice.
Position before shape
If teeth are going to be moved, they move first. Building up a crowded tooth to look straight, then straightening it later, wastes both.
Colour before anything permanent
Whitening only lifts natural tooth structure. Crowns, veneers and fillings stay whatever shade they were made in. So whiten first, let the colour settle for a fortnight, then match the porcelain to the result — otherwise the new work is matched to a shade you are about to change.
Reversible before irreversible
Whitening before veneers. Bonding before porcelain. A trial before a commitment. There is almost always a smaller option worth trying first, and having tried it costs very little.
Then the permanent work
By this point the shade is fixed, the positions are final, and the shape is the only variable left. That is when porcelain is worth paying for.

What a cosmetic consultation involves

An hour, mostly spent looking and talking rather than treating.

Every cosmetic plan starts with a consultation. We go through the options, what each one costs, what your health fund will cover, and what the treatment will look like on your teeth rather than on a stock photograph. Photographs and, where it helps, models of your teeth are part of that — the point is to look at your own mouth on a screen rather than at somebody else's in a brochure.

You will also be told when a cheaper option would do the same job, and when the honest answer is to leave it alone. Cosmetic work is elective, which means there is never a reason to rush the decision, and no reason to make it in the chair on the day.

Looking after cosmetic work

None of it is maintenance-free, and most of what shortens its life is avoidable.

Whitening fades. Coffee, tea, red wine and smoking bring the colour back sooner, and most people top up with their trays occasionally rather than repeating the whole course.
Porcelain does not stain, but the natural teeth beside it do — which is how a veneer that matched perfectly at fitting stops matching four years later.
Composite stains and chips more readily than porcelain, and is easier and cheaper to repair when it does.
Grinding at night ends more cosmetic work than anything else. If you grind, a night guard is not an upsell, it is the thing that protects what you have just paid for.
Nothing here changes the six-month check-up. Cosmetic work has margins, and margins are where decay starts.

Common questions

Cosmetic Dentistry: your questions answered

Where do I start if I do not know what I want?: With a consultation and a description of what bothers you. Most people arrive naming a treatment they have read about, and a fair proportion of them leave having been told something simpler will do. Bring a photograph of yourself that you dislike, if you have one — it is more informative than any amount of description.
Will cosmetic dentistry look obvious?: It should not, and the commonest way it goes wrong is teeth that are too white and too uniform for the face they are in. Shade and shape are chosen against your own remaining teeth, your skin tone and your age, and we will push back if what is asked for will read as dental work from across a room.
Does private health cover any of it?: Some of it, partly. Purely cosmetic items are usually excluded or poorly covered, while work with a functional reason — a crown on a cracked tooth, a filling that happens to be on a front tooth — is generally claimable. It depends on your policy rather than on the treatment name, which is why we give you the item numbers to check with your fund before you commit.
How long does the whole thing take?: Anything from one appointment to about a year. Bonding is often same-day; whitening is a fortnight; porcelain veneers are two appointments about two weeks apart; aligners run months. If there is a date you are working towards, say so at the consultation, because it changes which options are realistic.
Can you fix one tooth without touching the others?: Often, yes, and it is usually the right instinct. The difficulty is matching a single new tooth to five neighbours that have aged, and the answer sometimes turns out to be whitening the neighbours first so there is a cleaner shade to match. A single chipped corner is generally straightforward.
I have had cosmetic work elsewhere that I am unhappy with.: Come and be looked at. What is possible depends heavily on how much tooth is left under the existing work, so the first job is an examination and X-rays rather than an opinion. We will tell you what can be improved, what would have to be redone, and what is better left alone.
Do I have to decide on the day?: No, and we would rather you did not. You will leave with the options, the costs and the item numbers in writing. Nothing about elective treatment gets worse for a fortnight's thought.
Is there an age at which this stops being sensible?: No, but the reasoning changes. In younger patients the emphasis is on doing as little as possible, because whatever is removed is gone for the next sixty years. In older patients cosmetic and restorative work usually overlap — the tooth needs strengthening anyway, and improving how it looks is part of the same appointment.

All frequently asked questions

Cosmetic

Other cosmetic treatments

Conservative changes to shape, shade and alignment.

Booking

Book a consultation

Come and talk to us about cosmetic dentistry. We will go through the options, what each costs, and what your health fund covers, before anything begins.

Call (08) 9306 2755

Which system do you use?

Which system do you use?

Cosmetic Dentistry

Which system do you use?

Start with what is bothering you, not with a procedure

The options, and what each one is actually for

The order things are done in, and why it matters

What a cosmetic consultation involves

Looking after cosmetic work

Cosmetic Dentistry: your questions answered

Other cosmetic treatments

Book a consultation

Which system do you use?

Which system do you use?