What a Hollywood smile actually is
A Hollywood smile is a full set of veneers — thin porcelain or composite shells bonded
to the visible surface of your front teeth — usually 8 to 10 on the upper arch,
sometimes matched below. Done well, it corrects colour, shape, small gaps and worn
edges in one plan. Done badly, it looks like a row of bathroom tiles. The difference
is design: at our clinic in Mar Elias, Beirut, every smile is designed digitally and
mocked up on your own teeth first, so you approve the result before anything
is manufactured.
What determines the cost of a Hollywood smile in Lebanon
Emax (e.max) porcelain veneers start at $250 per tooth, so a typical Hollywood
smile of eight to ten upper teeth starts around $2,000 to $2,500.
Composite veneers start at $60 per tooth. Those are starting figures,
not quotes — any clinic naming your final number before examining you is either guessing
or hiding extras. What moves the price above the starting point:
The examination itself is $20, and it is deducted from the cost of treatment if you
go ahead — so if you are treated here, the examination has cost you nothing.
| Factor | Why it matters |
|---|
| Material | Composite is more affordable but lasts 4–7 years; e.max porcelain is colour-stable for 10–15 years |
| Number of veneers | A full Hollywood smile is usually 8–10 upper teeth; some smiles need only 4–6 |
| Laboratory quality | The ceramist's skill is most of what separates a natural result from bathroom tiles |
| Condition of your teeth | Gum treatment, old fillings or bite correction needed first changes the plan |
What we promise instead of a number: after your examination you receive a written,
itemised, per-tooth quotation — fixed before treatment starts, with nothing added later.
The process, visit by visit
- Consultation & design. Examination, photos, and digital smile design. We check gum health first — veneers on inflamed gums fail early.
- Mock-up. The designed smile is placed over your teeth in temporary material. You see it, speak with it, photograph it. Changes cost nothing at this stage.
- Preparation. Under local anaesthetic, a thin layer of enamel is shaped — often less than half a millimetre. Suitable cases can have minimal-prep or no-prep veneers.
- Fitting, 2–3 weeks later. The lab-made e.max porcelain veneers are bonded, the bite is checked and polished.
- Review. A follow-up visit to confirm everything has settled — included, not extra.
What the price includes, and what is quoted separately
Most Hollywood smile packages advertised around Beirut and abroad are cheap because of
what they leave out. Here is exactly what the per-tooth price at this clinic covers,
so you can compare like with like.
| Included in the per-tooth price | Quoted separately, before you decide |
|---|
| Examination, photographs and X-rays, with the $20 fee deducted | Hygiene visit or gum treatment if the gums are not healthy enough to veneer |
| Digital smile design and the mock-up on your own teeth | Fillings or root canal treatment a tooth needs before it can be veneered |
| Preparation under local anaesthetic and temporary veneers between visits | Whitening of the teeth that are not being veneered, so the shades match |
| The e.max veneers themselves, made by a named laboratory | Crowns on teeth too broken for a veneer |
| Bonding under isolation, bite check, polish, and the review visit | A night guard if you grind, which protects the veneers for years |
Everything in the right-hand column is visible at the examination. That is why the
written quote is issued after it, and why a total quoted to you on WhatsApp before
anyone has seen your teeth cannot be compared to it.
Before & after, from this clinic
These are our patients, photographed in this clinic and published with their written
consent. Drag the handle to compare, and see more in the
full case gallery.
One dentist, from the first photograph to the review visit. Dr. Fatima Nasser examines you, designs the smile digitally, places the mock-up, prepares the teeth, checks every veneer against the design when it comes back from the laboratory, and bonds it herself. There is no hand-off between a consultant who sells and a dentist who treats.
The ceramics are made by a named laboratory she has worked with on every case on this page, and the review visit after fitting is hers too. If something feels high in week three, the person who answers is the person who fitted it.
- 2022Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS)Saint Joseph University of Beirut (USJ)
- 2020Began clinical dentistryRestorative and cosmetic focus from the start
Lumineers, snap-on smiles and the "no drilling" promise
The loudest Hollywood smile advertising in Beirut runs on three words:
no drilling. It is worth knowing what is behind them, because one of the
three things being sold is excellent, one is situational, and one is not dentistry
at all.
- Lumineers are a brand of very thin porcelain veneer, made by
DenMat from a ceramic called Cerinate. The pitch is that they are thin enough to bond
over your teeth with little or no enamel removed. That is genuinely true for some
mouths — and genuinely wrong for others. Bonding a shell on top of a tooth that is
already the right size makes that tooth bigger, and the result is the bulky, too-white
look people mean when they say a smile looks fake. Prepless works when your teeth are
small, worn or set back. It does not work when they are already prominent, crowded or
dark, and no brand changes that.
- Prepless in general is not a brand, it is a decision. We do it
whenever the mock-up shows it will work, because keeping enamel is always better than
removing it. Whether your case allows it is visible at the mock-up stage, before
anything is made — which is the whole point of doing a mock-up.
- Snap-on smiles are a removable plastic shell that clips over your
teeth, like a retainer with teeth printed on it. Nothing is bonded and nothing is
changed. They photograph well and cost very little, and some patients genuinely want
one for a wedding. They are not veneers, they are not permanent, you cannot eat
properly in them, and a clinic that lets you believe otherwise has misled you.
So when a clinic advertises a Hollywood smile with no pain, no anaesthesia and no
drilling, the honest question is which of those three it is selling — and whether
anyone examined your teeth before promising it. Some smiles can be built with no
drilling at all. Ours are, when the mock-up says so. The promise that should worry you
is the one made before anyone looked in your mouth.
Who a Hollywood smile is wrong for
A good cosmetic dentist turns some people away, or sends them somewhere first. We will
say so at the examination if any of these apply:
- Gums that bleed or have receded. Veneers on inflamed gums fail early and the margins show. Gum treatment comes first, then we design.
- Teeth that are badly crowded or protruding. Veneers cannot move teeth, only mask them, and masking a large crowding means removing a lot of enamel. A few months of aligners first usually gives a better smile with thinner veneers.
- Heavy grinders who will not wear a night guard. Porcelain does not survive an unprotected grinder. We can still treat you, but the guard is part of the plan, not an option.
- Teeth with large fillings or root canals. These need crowns, not veneers. A mixed plan is normal and looks identical once made in the same ceramic.
- Under 18, or a smile that is still changing. Gums and tooth position are still settling. Whitening and small composite corrections tide most teenagers over.
- A shade that would look painted. If the shade you want is whiter than the whites of your eyes, we will show you on the mock-up why it will not look like a real tooth, and we will not make it.
The Turkey question
You've seen the packages. Here is the fair comparison: a veneer is not a purchase,
it's the start of a relationship with whoever bonded it. Veneers need bite adjustments,
occasional repairs, and a dentist who answers in week three when something feels high.
Once flights and hotels are priced in, Lebanese work is cost-competitive — and your
dentist stays a 20-minute drive away, not a flight away. If you do choose treatment
abroad, at minimum insist on knowing the veneer brand and getting your case records.
Lebanon, Turkey, Dubai, Europe: what the per-tooth number hides
| Where | What you are usually comparing |
|---|
| Beirut, this clinic | From $250 per e.max veneer, quoted per tooth in writing after an examination. Two visits, the mock-up, temporaries, the fitting and the review are in the price. The dentist who made it is twenty minutes away for the next fifteen years. |
| Turkey packages | Advertised as an all-inclusive total for 16 to 20 teeth with hotel and transfers, which is why the per-tooth figure looks low. Often crowns rather than veneers, which removes far more tooth. Compressed into five to seven days, so the laboratory stage is rushed and adjustment visits are a flight away. |
| Dubai and the Gulf | Roughly two to four times the Beirut per-tooth price for the same e.max ceramic, which is why so many Gulf-based Lebanese time their smile for a summer at home. |
| Western Europe and North America | Roughly three to eight times the Beirut price per tooth, with the same materials and often the same laboratories' ceramics. The saving pays for the flight several times over, but only if the work is planned around a stay long enough for the laboratory. |
The multiples above are drawn from clinics' own published 2026 price ranges and change
often. The Beirut figure is the one we put in writing.
Coming from outside Beirut
A good share of the smiles we design belong to people who do not live in the capital —
Saida, Tripoli, Nabatieh, Zahle, Jounieh, the Bekaa. When you are driving in, the
question that actually matters is not only what the treatment costs but how many trips
it costs you.
A porcelain Hollywood smile is realistically two working visits two to three weeks
apart, plus a short review afterwards. Tell us when you book that you are travelling in
and we will put the examination, the digital design and the preparation into one longer
appointment instead of spreading them across a week, and keep the review flexible. What
we will not compress is the laboratory stage — the ceramist's time is most of what
separates a natural result from an obvious one, and no amount of driving changes that.
Visiting from abroad: a Hollywood smile in a two-to-three-week stay
- Before you fly: send photographs and any X-rays on WhatsApp. We tell you honestly whether veneers, crowns, aligners first or whitening alone is the right plan, and roughly how many teeth.
- Days 1 to 3: examination, hygiene visit if needed, digital design, the mock-up on your teeth, your approval, preparation and temporary veneers. You go out in Beirut with the temporaries.
- Days 4 to 14: the laboratory makes the veneers. You are free.
- Days 15 to 17: fitting, bite check and polish.
- Days 19 to 21: review visit, final photographs, your records to take home.
A ten-day stay can work if you book the examination for the day after you land and
accept that the review happens by video. Under ten days, we will tell you to plan two
trips rather than compress the laboratory. The guide
for expats and visitors covers what fits in a week and what does not.
Common questions
