Porcelain Veneers in Overland Park, KS
Porcelain veneers at Overland Park Dental Design are thin, hand-made ceramic shells bonded to the front of the teeth to change their shape, length, and color. Dr. Patrick B. Lillis, DDS, plans each set around the patient's bite and face, uses minimal-prep techniques that keep most of the enamel, and has the ceramic made at a small studio in West Hollywood, California. Our office is at 109th and Roe in Overland Park, on the Leawood line.
“They don't want chiclets. They want teeth that look like teeth. Pretty, but natural.”
- Minimal-prep porcelain veneers, most of your enamel stays
- Ceramic made by hand at a small West Hollywood studio
- The final veneers are made to match a design you have already worn and approved
- Dr. Lillis trained under the dentists who developed porcelain veneer bonding
- Practicing in Overland Park since 2004, one dentist, one location
- 5.0 on Google
Porcelain veneers vs composite veneers
| Compare | Porcelain veneers | Composite veneers |
|---|---|---|
| What they are | Thin ceramic shells made in a laboratory and bonded to the tooth | Tooth-colored resin shaped directly on the tooth, or made in a lab and bonded |
| How they are made here | By hand at a small ceramics studio in West Hollywood | In the chair by Dr. Lillis, usually in one visit |
| Visits | Two to three, plus a design visit where you wear a trial smile | One for direct composite |
| Tooth preparation | Minimal, usually a fraction of a millimeter of enamel | Often none |
| Lifespan in published studies | About 96% still in place at five years, with ten-year results from 64% to 95% across studies | 75% still in place at ten years in one ten-year clinical trial, against 100% for ceramic in the same trial |
| Stain resistance | High. Ceramic does not absorb stain | Lower. Resin picks up stain over time and needs polishing |
| Repairs | A damaged veneer is usually replaced | Chips can often be repaired in the chair |
| Best for | Changing shape, length and color across several teeth for the long term | One chipped tooth, a small gap, or a trial run at a new shape |
| Cost | Higher per tooth | Lower per tooth |
What our porcelain veneers can fix
Most people who ask us about veneers are bothered by shape rather than color. The front teeth look short because the edges have worn down, or a gap opened between two teeth, or dark triangles appeared where the gum pulled back. Sometimes one tooth sits behind the others, or the whole smile reads as narrow because the side teeth are in shadow. Veneers rebuild those edges and close those spaces with ceramic.
- 01
Short or worn front teeth
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Gaps between teeth
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Dark triangles from receded gums
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One tooth sitting behind others
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Narrow smile with shadowed side teeth
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Stains whitening cannot remove
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Chips on front teeth
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Small size differences between neighbors
Veneers also cover staining that whitening cannot remove, chips on the front teeth, and small size differences between neighboring teeth.
“It's really shape. People don't like the shape of their teeth. Closing spaces, closing gaps where the gum tissue has receded. Done correctly, it can look really good and last a long time.”
What veneers do not fix
Teeth that are worn down across the whole mouth, a bite that has never felt right, or old dental work that keeps failing are bite problems, and ceramic placed over a bite problem chips. Those cases are planned as full mouth rehabilitation.
- A cracked or heavily filled tooth needs a crown rather than a veneer.
- Missing teeth are replaced with dental implants first.
- Crooked teeth that are healthy are usually better straightened than veneered.
Why our Overland Park veneers look like your own teeth
Veneers look fake for three reasons:
- one flat shade across every tooth
- teeth that are too white and too uniform for the face
- a design made from a photograph instead of a bite
Each is a planning or laboratory failure, and each is avoidable.
Dr. Lillis has worked with the same ceramist for over a decade.
The studio is in West Hollywood, California, and it is small on purpose: five or six technicians, all doing high-end ceramic work, no advertising, and a client list the owner chooses himself.
Each veneer is made by hand, with the small variations in color and translucency that real enamel has, sized to your face rather than to a stock shade tab. Because the finished work ships back to Kansas, patients here pay Kansas City fees.
“They're getting the same ceramics that people in Los Angeles pay a fortune for, and they're getting it in Kansas City for Kansas City prices.”
Many of our patients have seen a friend's veneers, decided they never wanted that, and put the idea away for years. What went wrong with the friend's case was almost always the laboratory and the planning.
THE PORCELAIN VENEER PROCEDURE IN OVERLAND PARK,
STEP BY STEP
You see your new smile on a screen, then wear it in your mouth, and the final veneers are made to match what you already approved.
Consultation and records
Photographs, intraoral scans, and a record of how your jaw moves and how your teeth meet. Dr. Lillis looks at the whole system rather than the six teeth that show when you smile, because a veneer placed on a bite that loads it wrong will chip.
Diagnosis and options
You'll learn whether veneers are the right answer for what bothers you, and if they are, how many teeth are involved and what it costs. Usually there are two or three paths at different price points.
Digital design
Your records go to the design team the practice works with, and they return a design file, typically within about half an hour. The design is printed as models on the 3D printers in the practice's own laboratory.
Trial smile
The printed design is transferred into your mouth as a trial you can see, wear, and show people. If the shape or length is not right, we change the design.
Minimal preparation
Most veneer cases in our Overland Park office are minimal-prep, meaning we smooth a thin layer of enamel to make room for the ceramic, generally between 0.3 and 0.5 millimeters. Staying in enamel matters because ceramic bonds most predictably to etched enamel. The area is numbed, and you leave in temporaries made from the design you approved.
The ceramist makes your veneers
Our ceramist builds the final veneers by hand to match the trial smile you already wore. That takes longer than a high-volume laboratory, and it is the reason the finished tooth has depth instead of a painted-on surface.
Bonding
Each veneer is tried in, checked against the adjacent teeth, then bonded to the enamel with a light-cured resin cement. Dr. Lillis checks the bite with the veneers in place because that determines whether they last.
“They leave with the same design that they saw on the computer. The final restorations are a replica of the temporaries.”
Minimal-prep veneers in Overland Park and what happens to your teeth
Minimal-prep veneers keep most of the enamel because the ceramic is thin and the preparation stays in the outer layer of the tooth. Under a well-bonded veneer, the enamel is sealed, protecting the tooth rather than weakening it.
No-prep veneers, where nothing is removed at all, are possible when the teeth are small or set back, and Dr. Lillis will tell you if you are a candidate. In most mouths a small amount of preparation gives a better result, because a veneer added on top of an unprepared tooth can look bulky at the gumline.
Where enamel has been removed, a porcelain veneer is a long-term commitment. The tooth will need a veneer, or eventually a crown, for the rest of its life. Direct composite placed on an unprepared tooth can be removed.
How long porcelain veneers last
“If you bought a Porsche 911, you still change the oil, and at some point the engine needs work. Veneers are the same. You bought a really nice luxury good, and eventually that luxury good needs service.”
Published survival for porcelain veneers is about 96% at five years, with ten-year results ranging from 64% to 95% across studies. The material is the same everywhere, so that spread comes down to the bite, the laboratory, and the preparation.
Patients sometimes arrive believing a set of veneers placed at thirty will last the rest of their life. That is not how ceramic bonded to a living tooth behaves, and you will hear that here at the first visit rather than at year twelve.
We check veneers at every hygiene visit. Each appointment includes an intraoral scan that gets stored, so a chip, a change at the gumline, or wear on an edge gets caught while it is still a small repair.
Veneers done somewhere else
A growing share of the veneer work at this practice is correcting veneers placed at another office: chipped within a couple of years, too white for the face, or never comfortable to bite on.
When Dr. Lillis takes one of these cases apart, the material is rarely the problem. The plan misread the bite, or the ceramic was made to a stock shade, or both.
“Every case I fix goes right back to the diagnosis. The diagnosis wasn't correct, and that's a domino effect.”
Dr. Patrick Lillis: The dentist who does your veneers here in Overland Park, KS
Dr. Patrick B. Lillis completed a two-year Advanced Education in General Dentistry residency at the UMKC School of Dentistry, treating complex cosmetic and reconstructive cases under attending faculty.
One of those attendings, Frank Gardner, helped develop the bonding techniques that made porcelain veneers predictable.
Through him, Dr. Lillis joined Bernie Williams's Overland Park practice, where Williams was an international lecturer on TMJ and occlusion, and later took it over. The porcelain veneer cement now used worldwide was beta-tested in this practice.
“They were the first guys to really crack the code on how to bond porcelain to teeth. We trained underneath them.”
He was in his grandfather's dental laboratory at thirteen, waxing and casting, and he still reads a lab case the way a technician does. He opened Overland Park Dental Design in July 2004 and teaches other dentists as faculty for Seattle Study Club.
What our veneer patients say
5.0 on Google · 32 reviews
Their team is detail oriented. You don't leave their office unless everything is perfect. I had major dental work performed. Since then I've received numerous compliments from family, friends & strangers about my new smile.
I've been to a number of dentists over the years. This past year I had to have some major work done. Since it affected my smile, I really wanted a top-level dentist on the job. I also have extreme anxiety about having impressions made like when you need a crown.
First let me say that all the staff at Overland Park Dental Design. are friendly and helpful. Dr. Lillas is truly a top-tier highly skilled dentist with a support team to match. They also have some type of 3d scanning software that means I didn't have to have traditional impressions which was incredible.
My teeth look perfect and the process was super smooth and painless!
I highly recommend Overland Park Dental Design!
A very professional doctor and staff. They also deliver very caring and compassionate care. I highly recommend this great cosmetic doctor with his great team!😀
What porcelain veneers cost in Overland Park
The cost of veneers depends on how many teeth are involved, whether any of them need a crown instead, and whether the bite needs work first. So as much as we would love to provide that information, there is no single figure, and an office that quotes one over the phone is simply guessing.
What you get here is a written plan with costs after the diagnostic visit, usually with more than one option.
Porcelain veneers near Leawood, Prairie Village and Kansas City
Overland Park Dental Design is in the Foxhill Medical Building at 109th and Roe, just off I-435 at Roe Avenue, on the line between Overland Park and Leawood. Veneer patients come from Leawood, Prairie Village, Mission Hills, Olathe, Lenexa, and across the Kansas City metro.
The office is roughly five minutes from Leawood, ten from Prairie Village, and fifteen from Olathe.
4601 West 109th Street, Suite 318, Overland Park, KS 66211
(913) 451-7330
Porcelain veneer FAQs
How much do porcelain veneers cost in Overland Park?
The cost depends on how many teeth are involved and whether the bite needs work first, so there is no single figure. After the diagnostic visit, you receive a written plan with costs, usually with more than one option at different price points.
Do veneers hurt?
No. The teeth are numbed for preparation, and most patients describe the visit as no worse than a filling. Some sensitivity to cold in the days after preparation is normal and settles once the final veneers are bonded.
Are porcelain veneers permanent?
Yes, where enamel has been removed. A prepared tooth will need a veneer, or eventually a crown, for the rest of its life. Minimal-prep techniques keep that removal to a fraction of a millimeter, and no-prep veneers on an unprepared tooth can be removed.
How many veneers do I need?
It depends on how many teeth show when you smile and which ones bother you. Some patients need two to close a gap or fix a chipped front tooth. Many need six to eight across the upper front teeth so the shape and color match from corner to corner. Dr. Lillis tells you the number at the consultation, and the trial smile shows you what it looks like.
Which veneers look the most natural?
Hand-made porcelain veneers with the color variation and translucency of real enamel, sized to the face, and designed around the bite. Veneers look fake when they come in one flat shade, when they are too white or too uniform for the face, and when they were designed for a photograph rather than a jaw.
Do porcelain veneers stain?
Ceramic does not absorb stain the way natural enamel or composite does, so porcelain veneers hold their color for years. The edges where the veneer meets the tooth can pick up stain if the margin is rough or the bond breaks down, which is one of the things checked at every hygiene visit.
Porcelain veneers or crowns?
A veneer covers the front of the tooth and suits a tooth that is healthy but needs a change in shape, length, or color. A crown covers the whole tooth and suits a tooth that is cracked, heavily filled, or too weak for a veneer. Crowns here are made at the same studio and layered to match the teeth beside them.
Can you get veneers with crooked or missing teeth?
Mildly crooked teeth can sometimes be veneered to look straight. Teeth that are significantly out of line are usually better straightened first, because veneering them means removing more tooth. Missing teeth are replaced with implants or a bridge first, and the veneers are planned around the result.
Why do some dentists advise against veneers?
Because veneers placed on the wrong teeth, or over an unchecked bite, fail. A healthy tooth that only needs whitening does not need a veneer. A worn bite needs rebuilding rather than covering. At this practice, the consultation starts with whether veneers are the right answer at all, and many people leave with a different plan.
Does dental insurance cover veneers?
Typically no. Veneers are considered cosmetic, therefore elective.
Can you fix veneers done at another office?
Yes. Correcting veneers placed elsewhere is a growing part of the practice. The process starts with a fresh bite diagnosis and a design you approve in your mouth, rather than remaking the same veneer.
Book a veneer consultation in Overland Park
If the shape of your teeth has bothered you for years, or veneers you paid for have not held up, the consultation gets you a diagnosis, a design you can see in your mouth, and real numbers.
You decide from there.