Teeth

This is an extract from the book, ‘Things I wish my Mother had told me – Lessons in grace and elegance’ by Lucia Van Der Post

Good teeth do more to take years off than almost anything else – and they can also be life changing, affecting both career and romantic prospects. There are now clinics all over the land that will whiten your teeth, straighten them, cap them and – if you can afford the gold standard – give you light, pearly–perfect veneers. Whilst teeth whitening with a laser costs about £700 all in, crowns cost £695 per tooth, and pearly veneers £675 per tooth. So this kind of dentistry is not cheap but if your teeth are bad, my goodness the difference it makes.

I had my teeth whitened by Dr Joe Oliver at the Welbeck Clinic (0870 241 6903 and at www.thewelbeckclinic.co.uk). Dr Oliver’s Power Whitening treatment takes one and a half hours from start to finish and it really works, though the result may vary from person to person.

Dr Oliver has also developed a fast system for veneers, which he calls his ‘perfect smile’ in a single day. Most veneers take a minimum of two weeks to make, which is usually enough for most of us, but if you have a serious emergency (a film premiere? a wedding? a vital job interview?), they can be done in a day. It’s more expensive, costing £1075 per tooth as opposed to the usual £675. If you have uneven, crooked or gappy teeth, you’ll probably need between eight and ten veneers. The quality is identical to that of the usual veneers and they usually last about fifteen years. See him one day, pick them up the next.