Newport Beach patients drive about 25 minutes up Pacific Coast Highway to Goldenwest St for porcelain veneers at Safari Dentistry and Implants. The Huntington Beach office designs the smile on a scan, fits a trial version you can wear and judge, and has a periodontist even out the gum line where the teeth look different lengths.
How the veneer process works at Safari
Porcelain veneers take two main visits about two weeks apart, after a consultation where the smile is designed. Newport Beach patients see the proposed result twice before anything permanent happens: once on screen, and once as a temporary mock-up placed over their own teeth.
- Consultation and scan. Photographs, an intraoral scan, a bite check and a gum exam by the periodontist. You get the plan and the fee per tooth in writing.
- Design and trial smile. The new shape is designed digitally, then placed over your teeth in temporary material so you can see and feel it.
- Preparation. A thin layer of enamel, usually 0.3 to 0.7 mm, is shaped under local anesthetic, a final scan is taken, and temporary veneers are fitted.
- Bonding. The ceramic veneers are tried in, checked for shade in daylight, and bonded. A night guard is made if you grind.
Why the gums are checked before veneers
A veneer ends at the gum line. If the gum is inflamed it bleeds during bonding and weakens the seal, and if it later recedes, the edge of the veneer shows. A periodontist treats inflammation and recession before the veneers are made and can even out a gum line that makes teeth look different lengths. Most cosmetic offices refer that out; here it is the same building.
Why Newport Beach patients choose Safari for veneers
Newport Beach patients ask detailed questions: how translucent the ceramic is, whether the veneers will look like teeth or like veneers, what happens at the gum line in ten years. The answers are shown rather than described, with shade photographs, the trial smile and the periodontist’s exam of the gums. Esthetic crown lengthening, when a gummy or uneven gum line is part of the problem, is done in the same office.
Veneer cost and payment plans
Newport Beach patients leave the consultation with one written number: the fee per veneer, the number of teeth, and everything included, from the trial smile to the night guard if one is needed. Insurance does not pay for veneers. It often does pay toward a crown on a cracked tooth or toward gum treatment, and the front desk separates those lines so you can see what your plan covers. The balance can be spread over monthly payments.
What to bring to your first visit from Newport Beach
- Photos of a smile you like, and one of your own smile from a few years ago.
- Any veneer quote or plan from another office, to compare tooth by tooth.
- A note of whether you grind or clench; it decides the ceramic and whether a night guard is part of the plan.
- Your insurance card; veneers are not covered, but a crown or gum treatment in the same plan often is.
Getting to the office from Newport Beach
Safari Dentistry and Implants is at 16511 Goldenwest St, Unit 101, Huntington Beach, CA 92647, about 11 miles from Newport Beach and usually about 25 minutes by car. From Newport Beach take Pacific Coast Highway north to Goldenwest St in Huntington Beach and turn inland; the office is about four miles up Goldenwest at Heil Ave, on the right. From Newport Coast or Eastbluff the 73 to the 405 north, exiting at Goldenwest St, is faster at most hours.
- Hours: Monday to Thursday, 10 AM to 4 PM. Same-day emergency time is held each open day.
- Parking: free, in the lot at the door, with a level entrance.
- Patients come from: the Balboa Peninsula, Corona del Mar, Newport Coast, Eastbluff and the Back Bay and the Fashion Island and Newport Center area.