Welcome to Show the Receipts, a new series where we ask interesting people to share exactly how much it costs to make it. No matter the job, we track every last dollar from start to finish. Next: the price of a “megawatt” smile.
Bianca Laird* had no intention of getting veneers. Outwardly speaking, she didn’t even mind how her teeth looked. He just saw a set of perfect pearly whites that looked indistinctly natural, not random Jojo Siwa or the swag of former Bachelor contestants on Instagram, but rather her friend, who admitted to having them and recommended a dentist at a time when Laird was in the market for one.
Out of curiosity, she decided to follow up on the referral and made an appointment with Sivan FinkelDMD, cosmetic dentist and owner The Dentistry in New York City. They did a virtual consultation, which was free, and Dr. Finkel agreed: her teeth looked fine. Maybe it just needed a little bleaching. He then visited the office and discovered a host of underlying issues: old fillings and crowns, root exposure from years of clenching, and a dental condition called tetracycline staining, which creates a two-toned appearance.
“The idea of veneers started to make more sense in the long run,” says Laird. “They would fix the discomfort, the gaps, the other issues, and then make my teeth wider.” She marinated in thought for months, until Dr. Finkel suggested they draw a custom wax-up ($1,250) of what her results would look like with 10 porcelain veneers on her upper jaw. They would pass the bottom as well as her molars, which were not visible when she smiled. The Laird has been sold.
Priced per tooth, it wasn’t going to be cheap, and there were the cleanings, whitening and maintenance at home. The services of Dr. Finkel was also expensive, even by New York standards. However, the extra cost, he soon discovered, was worth every penny. “My only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner,” says Laird.
Here is the full cost breakdown.
Work: Download veneer
Work: Creative marketing
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Timetable: 2 months
The Receipts
Consultation: $0 (virtual)
Design Mockup: $1,250
Veneers: $3,200 per veneer or $32,000 total
Bleaching treatment: $450
Cleanings: $150 twice a year or $300 total
Insurance coverage: $0
Following: $600 (waiver)
Maintenance at home: $106
Total cost: $34,106
How I did it
Investing in your smile is just that: an investment. Here, Laird shares some of her biggest tips and tricks to make it worth it.
PS: What was the most surprising expense during the process?
Bianca Laird: Really, the surprising part was how much the veneer, the actual tooth, cost. They are porcelain and Dr. Sivan works with a talented artist who makes each one by hand and has been doing so for many years. That was important to me that they are done well. They model them from your natural tooth, right down to the opacity at the tip, so they look the most natural. It’s not just a solid white veneer.
To me, that makes it worth it. I don’t see the point in going somewhere that might cost a total of $5,000 less when you can get something that is better quality. At the end of the day, you’re making such a big outing anyway, so why not go that extra mile and make the most of it? With really good veneers, when you take care of them, they can last a long time. You really only need to replace them once in your life, even that.
PS: Where did you make sacrifices in your budget to cover costs?
BL: I have a decent amount of savings because I’d like to think I’ve been smart with my money over time. I have no school loan debt, so I didn’t add debt on top of debt. So the biggest blow was that I personally chose to put $20,000 upfront and watch my savings dwindle.
Again, when I think about the things I choose to buy and re-evaluate those priorities, I realize that I’m not really spending more, I’m just spending differently. The two things that are really important to me are my skin and my smile. If you have those two things, to me, that’s beauty. I personally don’t believe in putting money into a designer bag when you can just reinvest in yourself. I came up with my own financial plan to make it work and reviewed the budget where I put some of my extra money. This is my all around model. I don’t buy that many things, but when I do, I like to buy quality things, or if I’m going to invest in myself, I’m going to do it the right way.
PS: Do you have any budgeting tips to share?
BL: Dental Parlor offers a payment plan and they have some good options to help you pay it off, but I personally chose to deposit money up front because I could. I decided to put everything on my credit card because I thought, “Well, if I’m going to spend that much money, I might as well get Delta miles.” In a way, it’s like I made money.
If you have a credit card and if you have money in your savings account, put it on your card and then take that amount out of your savings to pay off what you can right away and then just keep paying monthly. Even if you don’t have a credit card, get one — get American Express or Chase or even if it’s Crate and Barrel and you need furniture. Get one and use the cost to your advantage.
PS: What is your home maintenance routine?
BL: Something that really struck me about Dr. Sivan was, how long your veneers last depends on how well you take care of them. I brush with the Philips Sonicare electric toothbrush ($50) and use it Waterpik Plus ($56) for my usual daily flossing, but your follow ups are also extremely important. You want to go for cleanings twice a year.
As far as whitening goes, I don’t need to do anything on my top teeth, but I’m going to try to whiten my bottoms a bit so they’re even. I bought the whitening trays and this solution lasts for a year so I will just use it to whiten other areas of my teeth or go for treatment because the solution only lasts for so long.
Final thoughts
For Laird, receiving veneers goes beyond the surface level. Ultimately, it’s not about the “perfect” smile or any of the “superficial things we put on ourselves,” she says. Rather, “It’s the foundation of how we look and feel.”
With this in mind, it’s important to invest in yourself. “Whatever you do for self-improvement, whatever helps you feel good about yourself, that’s when you’re your most beautiful self. Loving my teeth so much, I just smile and laugh in a different way. I think it helps your mental health, your confidence, your happiness, and it’s so important to have self-love, if we don’t have that, it affects everything in our lives, so when you invest in yourself, you won’t just see them feel the rewards too.”
*The name has been changed to protect the privacy of the person mentioned in this story.
Kelsey Castañon is a Brooklyn-based writer, editor, and content strategist with more than 13 years of experience in publishing. She’s currently the senior content director at POPSUGAR, where you can find her stocking (and reporting on) everything from skincare to wine. In the past, she has worked with the brilliant minds at Refinery29, Seventeen, Shape, Allure and Teen Vogue and has appeared in television segments on “The Dr. Oz Show” and “Good Morning America.”
