A veneer is a thin shell of porcelain bonded to the front of a tooth. It changes the colour and the shape of the tooth without touching the back of it, which is what separates a veneer from a crown: a crown covers the whole tooth, a veneer covers the face of it.
No payment taken here. Your price is confirmed after a clinical assessment - and that is the price you pay.
01
What veneers actually are
A veneer is a thin shell of porcelain bonded to the front of a tooth. It changes the colour and the shape of the tooth without touching the back of it, which is what separates a veneer from a crown: a crown covers the whole tooth, a veneer covers the face of it.
The short answer. An E-max laminate veneer in Antalya is £210 a tooth, against about £795 privately in the UK. Most people have between six and ten across the front. One trip of about a week does it.
That distinction matters more than any other thing on this page, because a great deal of what is sold as "veneers in Turkey" is crowns. Crowns take more of the tooth away and they are not reversible. If a quote covers twenty teeth in five days, you are almost certainly being quoted crowns.
02
What veneers can and cannot fix
They work well on discolouration that whitening will not shift - tetracycline staining, a root-filled tooth that has gone grey, enamel that has simply aged. They work on chips, worn edges, small gaps and teeth that are slightly the wrong shape.
They are the wrong tool for a bite problem, for teeth that are badly crowded or rotated, and for a tooth with a large filling or a crack, which needs the full coverage of a crown. Straightening first with aligners and then veneering is often less destructive than veneering a crooked tooth to look straight, and we will say so if that is your case.
03
Your Veneer Journey in 7 Steps
A clear guide to transforming your smile. From initial design to the final reveal.
01Design
Consultation & Design
Photos, shade checks, and a 3D scan if helpful. We discuss goals and materials in plain English. For larger makeovers, we can do a digital or wax mock-up so you can preview the look.
02Plan
Planning & Consent
You receive a clear written plan with timelines, costs, and named materials. We confirm exactly how many teeth are in the smile zone and agree on a precise shade/shape brief.
03Prep
Preparation
Teeth are made numb if needed. We do conservative shaping of the enamel to create room for the veneer and smooth margins for bonding. In some cases, no-prep is used.
04Preview
Impressions & Temporaries
We take a precise mould or digital scan and fit temporary veneers that protect teeth and preview length/shape. We can tweak these to guide your final design.
05Craft
Lab-Made Veneers
The lab crafts your veneers in e.max or aesthetic zirconia, matching shade and translucency to look natural under different lights.
06Bond
Fit & Bonding
We remove the temporaries, try-in the veneers, and check fit, edges, and colour under natural light. Then we bond them with modern adhesive cements and polish.
07Care
Review & Maintenance
We check your bite, give cleaning advice, and book follow-ups. If you grind or clench, a night guard helps protect your veneers.
The record
Before & After Photos
05
Does having veneers hurt?
Preparation is done under local anaesthetic and takes a fraction of a millimetre off the front of the tooth - with minimal-prep cases, sometimes almost nothing. You feel pressure and vibration rather than pain.
Between the preparation appointment and the fit you wear temporaries, and those are the uncomfortable part: they are bulkier than the finished veneers, they can feel rough against the lip, and hot and cold register more than usual. It settles within a day or two of the real ones going on.
06
E-max, zirconia or composite: which veneer material
E-max laminate - £210 a tooth. Lithium disilicate. The most translucent, so it reads as enamel rather than as a white tile. The default for front teeth.
Zirconia - £170 a tooth. Stronger and more opaque. Worth it where the tooth underneath is dark and needs masking, or where the bite is heavy.
Composite bonding - £140 a tooth. Built up by hand in one visit, no lab. Cheaper and reversible, but it stains and wears faster and will want redoing in five years or so.
There is no best material, only a best material for your tooth. What matters is that the plan names which one you are getting, per tooth, before you pay anything.
07
Veneers vs crowns vs bonding
The honest comparison is about how much tooth you lose. Bonding takes almost none and lasts the shortest. A veneer takes a little from the front face. A crown takes the tooth down to a stump on all sides and, at £200 against £210, often costs about the same here.
That price similarity is exactly why so many clinics fit crowns and call them veneers: it is faster, it is more forgiving of a crooked tooth, and the patient cannot tell from the invoice. Ours says which one it is.
08
How long do veneers last?
Porcelain veneers carry three years of guarantee from us on laminates and five on full veneers, covering breakage, chipping and cement failure. In practice a well-made veneer on a well-behaved bite lasts ten to fifteen years before it wants replacing.
What shortens that is grinding, biting things that are not food, and gum recession exposing the margin. A night guard is £120 a jaw if you grind, and it is the cheapest insurance on this page.
09
Looking after veneers
Brush twice a day with a non-abrasive paste, clean between the teeth, and keep your hygiene appointments - a cleaning is £60 here and about £75 at home. Porcelain does not stain, but the natural tooth at the margin does, and that line is what gives an ageing veneer away.
Do not open packaging with your teeth, do not chew ice, and if you play contact sport, wear a guard. None of that is specific to Turkey; it is what anyone with porcelain on their front teeth is told anywhere.
Shade, shape and material
How your new smile is designed and made
Nothing is taken off a shelf. The colour, the shape of each tooth and the material are decided with you at the planning stage, then each piece is made for you in the laboratory inside the clinic building and tried in before it is fixed. This is what each of those decisions involves.
01
The shade
Tooth colour is chosen from a standard shade guide, the same one dentists and laboratories use worldwide. It runs from the bleached whites, BL1 to BL4, into the natural range, where B1 and A1 are the brightest shades a tooth is born with and A2 is the most common colour in adults. The tabs are held against your own teeth, your skin and the whites of your eyes in daylight, because a shade that looks right under a lamp can look wrong outside.
Bleached shadesNatural shades
BL1
BL2
BL3
BL4
B1
A1
B2
D2
A2
C1
C2
D4
A3
D3
B3
A3.5
Where most patients landThe most common natural shade
Two or three steps brighter than your ownThat reads as fresh. Much more than that, and the teeth start to look brighter than the face around them.
Bleached shades suit a full setA single veneer or crown is matched to the teeth beside it, not to the chart, so it disappears among them.
Whiten first if you are keeping natural teethPorcelain does not change colour later. If some of your own teeth stay, they are whitened first and the shade is chosen against the result.
03
The shape
Front teeth come in four broad families, and a smile design starts by choosing the one that suits your face. Length, width and how the edges sit against your lip when you speak are set at the same time.
SquareStraight edges and flat corners. Reads as strong and assured, and suits a broad or angular face.
OvoidSoftly rounded corners on a longer body. The most natural choice for most faces, and the most often chosen.
TaperedNarrower at the gum, widening towards the edge. Delicate and youthful, and suits a slim face.
RoundedFull curves at every corner. Gentle and friendly, often chosen to soften a strong jaw.
Before any tooth is prepared, the design is built in wax on a model of your teeth and then placed over your own teeth as a temporary mock-up. You see the shade, the shape and the length in your own mouth and in your own photographs. Anything you want changed is changed then, before the porcelain is made, not after.
05
The material
There is no best material, only the right one for each tooth. Front teeth are usually about how the light passes through; back teeth are about the bite. Your plan names the material for every tooth before you pay anything.
Material
How it looks
How strong
Best for
E-max (lithium disilicate)
The most lifelike. Light passes through it the way it passes through enamel.
Strong enough for any front tooth and for single crowns.
Veneers and front crowns, where looks matter most.
Zirconia
Bright and slightly more opaque, which is useful over a dark tooth.
The strongest ceramic there is. It does not chip.
Back teeth, bridges, full arches and heavy biters.
Layered zirconia
A zirconia core with porcelain layered on by hand for a natural surface.
The strength of zirconia underneath, the finish of porcelain on top.
Full smile makeovers that need both strength and looks.
Metal-ceramic
Porcelain over a metal cap. A dark line can show at the gum in time.
Proven over decades.
Back teeth where cost matters more than looks.
Six steps in the laboratory upstairs
How each piece is made
Every veneer and crown is made for one tooth in one mouth, in a laboratory inside the clinic building, so a try-in and an adjustment happen the same day rather than after a courier. Machines do the measuring and the cutting; people do the colour, the surface and the final check against your own teeth.
01The scanA digital scanner records your prepared teeth in a few minutes. No trays of impression putty.
02The designA technician designs each tooth on screen against your photographs and the trial smile you approved.
03MillingThe design is cut from a solid disc of zirconia, or pressed from an E-max ingot, to a tenth of a millimetre.
04LayeringPorcelain is painted on by hand in thin layers to build the depth and translucency of a real tooth.
05Firing and glazingEach piece is fired, then stained and glazed by hand and checked against your shade tab in daylight.
06The try-inEvery piece is tried in and adjusted before it is bonded. You approve it in the mirror first.
Answered plainly
Veneers in Turkey: your questions answered
Still not sure? A clinician talks it through before you commit to anything.
An E-max laminate veneer is £210 a tooth and a zirconia one is £170. Composite bonding, done in a single visit, is £140. The UK private equivalent for E-max is around £795.
How many veneers do I actually need?
Whatever shows when you smile - usually six to ten on the upper front teeth. Anyone quoting twenty without seeing you is quoting a product, not a plan.
Are "Turkey teeth" veneers or crowns?
Almost always crowns. The horror stories that made the phrase come from healthy teeth being filed to pegs for full-coverage crowns. If a quote covers a full arch in under a week, ask which it is, and get the answer in writing.
Do veneers ruin your teeth?
A properly planned veneer removes a fraction of a millimetre of enamel and is not reversible, but the tooth underneath stays a tooth. A crown is a different matter, which is the whole reason we insist on the distinction.
Will they look fake?
Only if you choose a shade that is whiter than any real tooth. We match to your face and your remaining teeth, show you a mock-up before anything is made, and will tell you when a shade is going to look like a bathroom fitting.
Can I whiten my other teeth to match?
Yes, and do it first. Porcelain does not lighten, so the veneers are matched to your whitened shade rather than the other way round. Whitening is £200 a course.
How long does a veneer trip take?
About a week. Preparation and scans early, temporaries in the middle, the finished veneers bonded before you fly home.
Antalya or Istanbul for veneers?
Antalya: direct flights from most UK airports, ten minutes between hotel and clinic instead of an hour, and somewhere pleasant to sit while the lab works.
What if one chips when I am home?
Message your patient manager in the UK. Chipping is covered by the guarantee, and if returning is impractical we contribute up to £90 toward a local repair, agreed in writing first.
Can I get veneers on the NHS?
Only where there is a clinical need. Cosmetic veneers are not routinely funded.
Why choose us
Why Choose Opus Smile for Veneers
01UK-backed aesthetic care
02Minimal-prep focus
03Named materials & digital design
We set clear expectations, use digital diagnostics, and work with internationally trained clinicians. You keep the best of both worlds-significant savings versus typical UK private fees plus a written warranty and UK-based aftercare. No bait pricing. No pressure. We confirm exact costs only after proper diagnostics and list named materials in your plan.
Tell us what you need. We will price it in writing.
One message and a coordinator replies with an indicative plan and price. Send a photograph of your smile if you have one - it makes the answer better, and it is never a call unless you ask for one.
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