Sorrento's Nearest Coastal Dental Practice

Because the number depends on things we cannot see down a phone line: how many teeth, whether they need alignment first, whether existing fillings have to be replaced, and whether your bite would destroy the porcelain within a year. Any practice that quotes a firm per-tooth figure before examining you is either guessing or planning to revise it later. Come in for a consultation, get a written plan with item numbers, and take it away to compare. That is the only quote worth having.

It depends on why they are dark. Yellowing from age, coffee, tea and red wine responds well — most people get several shades. Grey tones from tetracycline exposure in childhood respond poorly. A single dark tooth after an old knock is usually a dead nerve, which needs internal treatment rather than external whitening. And existing crowns, veneers and white fillings will not change colour at all, so if you whiten around them they will suddenly look wrong. We check all of that before you spend anything.

For mild to moderate crowding, spacing and rotation of the front teeth — the typical adult case — they are genuinely comparable, and far easier to live with. For significant bite correction, impacted teeth or major skeletal discrepancies, fixed braces or an orthodontist referral is the right answer and we will say so. The catch with aligners is compliance: they need 20 to 22 hours a day. If you are the kind of person who will leave them out through dinner and a night out, they will not work, and it is better to know that before you start.

The chemist versions are boil-and-bite and they are a poor idea for grinding specifically, because they are soft. A soft guard gives your jaw something pleasant to chew on and can make clenching worse. A properly made night guard is hard acrylic, made from a scan of your teeth, designed to let the jaw slide rather than lock. It protects your enamel, your fillings and your jaw joint. If you are waking with a sore jaw or headaches at the temples, that is worth an appointment.

Yes, and we would rather you asked than quietly went ahead with something you were not sure about. Bring the written plan and, if you can, the x-rays — you are entitled to a copy of your own records. We will tell you what we would do and why, including when we agree with the original plan, which happens often. A second opinion is a normal part of medicine and no reasonable practitioner is offended by one.

Porcelain veneers typically run ten to fifteen years, sometimes longer, and composite veneers five to seven. What ends them is usually not the porcelain failing but the tooth underneath — decay at the margin, or gum recession exposing the join. They are not a one-off purchase; budget for replacement at some point. Anyone promising a lifetime result is overselling it.

We claim through HICAPS, which every major fund including HBF works with, so you swipe your card and pay only the gap. What varies is the rebate, which depends on your level of extras cover and how much of your annual limit is left. If you want to know precisely what you will pay before you book, ring us for the item numbers and give them to HBF — they will tell you the exact rebate on your policy.

Straightforward. North on West Coast Drive along the coast, right onto Mullaloo Drive, then left onto Koorana Road — we are past the shops on the right. About five minutes. Free parking outside the practice, and the street itself is unrestricted.