When we first moved from Australia to Bali, I never thought I would get a veneer in Bali. We were told by several Australian dentists that the density methods and technology in Bali were not up to the mark. After living on the island for seven years, visiting various dentists and learning about different procedures, we are here to tell you that the treatments, services and clinics we have visited in Bali have been incredible.

In the early years, when we visited dentists in Bali, it was for simple things like cleanings, fillings, and pulling baby teeth (for the kids). Each treatment was professional, friendly and much cheaper than similar treatments in Australia.

I have always had a slight overlap of my upper central teeth, this has never really worried me. About two years ago when sliding down the Aling Aling waterfall, I managed to hit my front teeth on my slide down. This resulted in one of my back teeth shifting back slightly. Looking at my teeth didn’t look much different, but every time I took a photo if I wasn’t looking directly in front of the camera, one tooth would cast a shadow on the other and I would photograph as if I had a missing tooth. . Needless to say, after many photos looking like Cotton Eye Joe, I decided it was time to consider my options for getting my teeth done.

I turned to Dr. Indra, a dentist I had known for a long time and had been actively following his Instagram. In recent years he opened his own clinic not far from Seminyak called Smile Ready. I have been watching Dr. Indra on Instagram training other dentists and showing amazing results before and after the home dentistry he performed on his patients.

When I visited Dr. Indra and told him about the problem, he told me that I had two options: braces or veneers. It was an easy choice for me, as he was 40 years old and hospitalized, I decided to explore the option of getting veneers (which made me pretty nervous!).

Dr. Indra explained the whole process to me. How we would shape them, what would be the best way to choose the color, what would happen at each stage and all the other 100 questions I asked him. My process would be to take casts and then glue in some temporary teeth and file them down until I was happy with the shape. After this, I returned for the first procedure of shaving my original teeth. Which turned out to be painless and surprisingly fast (about 1.5 hours for six teeth). I then had temporary teeth (which looked completely normal) for around 8 days. During this time, my veneers were made in the best dental lab in Java (there are currently no labs to do this in Bali).

Before veneerAfter veneer

Once my veneers arrived in Bali, I went back to Smile Ready to replace my temporary teeth with my permanent veneers. This was an even quicker procedure than the first and not painful at all!

Veneer before and after KarlieSide view of the veneer before and after

When I first saw my new smile, my first thought was: why didn’t I do this two years ago when I first knocked my tooth out? They looked so natural and felt so normal that I couldn’t have been happier with the results. Now, eight months later, I still feel exactly the same way.

After my Bali Insider podcast co-host Emma saw my teeth, she loved them too and booked an appointment with Dr. Indra. Her teeth had shifted a lot during her pregnancy and she was anxious to fix her smile before her 40th birthday. Emma’s treatment was to get crowns instead of veneers, but she too is delighted with the results.

Emma before VeneerEmma after Veneer

Now our family uses Smile Ready for dentistry and my youngest daughter is in the middle of her braces treatment, which so far has been a seemingly minor experience.

In all my questions to Dr. Indra, a few key points stood out if you want to get a veneer in Bali:

– Do not assume that choosing the whitest veneers will improve your smile. It is important that the color of your veneer is not drastically whiter than the color of the eyeball. If they are, it will give you the general appearance of being sick.

– If you come from abroad to undergo dental treatment, the most important thing is to allow yourself enough time. There are labs that make veneers faster (so the wait time between temporary teeth and veneers is quicker), however if you want the best veneers, the best labs take longer.

– Having a dentist who takes their time and has state-of-the-art technology to show you projected images of what your new smile will look like makes taking the step towards a new smile that much more comforting.

– Book early! This is a super busy dentist clinic and you need to book well in advance.

– Listen to your dentist when he makes suggestions when choosing the color and shape of your veneers/crowns.

The big question: how much did the whole process cost me? 24 million (approximately $2400 AUD) for six veneers and all visits and checkups… and it was worth every rupee!

Book an appointment in Seminyak here.

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