Looking Like Yourself, Only Better: What a Smile Makeover Actually Involves
TREATMENT FINDER
04 / 05 / 2026
There’s a worry that stops people booking a smile makeover, and it’s almost never about the dentistry. It’s this: what if it looks obvious?
Nobody wants the row of identical, too-white, too-perfect teeth that announces itself across a room. For most people the goal is quieter. They want to stop hiding their smile in photos. They want the chipped tooth gone, the gap closed, the years of coffee and red wine lifted — and they want it to still look like their smile, just on a better day.
That’s exactly what a good makeover is built to do. Here’s how it actually works.
The term is a little misleading. A smile makeover isn’t a single procedure you book — it’s a plan that combines several treatments to suit one specific mouth. No two are the same.
Depending on what you’re starting with, that plan might include:
Whitening to lift staining and even out tone
Composite bonding to repair chips, close small gaps and reshape teeth — added directly to the tooth, often with little or no drilling
Veneers for more significant changes to shape, colour or alignment
Invisalign to straighten teeth first, so the cosmetic work has a proper foundation
Implants or where teeth are missing or heavily worn
The skill isn’t in any one of these. It’s in knowing which combination gets you the result you want with the least possible.
Here’s something that people: the best makeovers often start with the least glamorous work.
If your gums aren’t healthy, cosmetic work won’t sit right or last. If your teeth are crooked, covering them in veneers means cutting away more healthy tooth than necessary — when a few months of Invisalign first could have done the heavy lifting and left the tooth underneath intact.
This is where Dr Saara Majid’s work with Invisalign often comes in early. Straighten first, then refine. It’s slower than going straight for veneers, but it’s gentler on your natural teeth and the end result tends to look far more convincing.
Dr Keiron Thompson takes a similar view on the restorative and cosmetic side, favouring minimally invasive work that preserves as much of your own tooth as possible. The instinct throughout is to add and adjust rather than grind away.
The “what if it looks wrong” fear largely disappears once you realise you don’t have to take a leap of faith.
Using digital and smile design, the team can show you a preview of your new smile before any treatment begins. You see the proposed shape, length and proportions on screen, and you get a say. Too white? Dial it back. Want the front teeth a touch longer? there and then. You become the co-designer rather than a passenger.
For something as visible and as your smile, that matters. There are no surprises at the end, because you signed off on the plan at the start.
Anyone can make teeth white. Making them look like white teeth — with the slight at the edges, the subtle variation in shade, proportions that suit your face and age — is where the craft sits.
That’s why the planning conversation counts as much as the treatment itself. A good clinician will talk you out of going too far as readily as they’ll help you go for it. The aim is a smile people notice without being able to say exactly why.
You don’t commit to up front. The sensible first move is a consultation: a proper look at what you’re working with, an honest conversation about what’s achievable, and a digital preview so you can see where it could go.
Ready to find out what’s possible for your smile? Book a consultation at Kirby Dental. The smile you’ve been hiding in photos might be closer than you think.
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