I read Rhiannon S's review and decided to write my own, it might serve as a "note of concern" for…read moreanyone reading. I got my veneers done by Dr. Connelly about 5 years ago. They turned out pretty good--but only because I bypassed Dr. Connelly and visited the lab directly.
This is because the temporary veneers he made honestly looked awful. Flat, unnaturally white, and no shape. I know its plastic and thats normal, but since I was going to be wearing the temps for 2-3 weeks, I wanted them to look better. I requested a change in the temps to make the front teeth slightly longer (like 1-2mm), to make it look like a normal smile design, which took a whole week to create. But once I got them fitted they looked way worse than the first, almost like horse teeth (i swear, just the front two teeth were 2-3 mm bigger than the rest). Straight up bugs bunny look..... When I asked if he genuinely thought they looked good, he said yes--so did his assistants. That was a super red flag to me. Doesn't matter how nice they seem, or their social media testimonials, you really don't know someone's expertise until you see it for yourself, and theres a wave of nervous concern when your sitting in a chair with sore, shaved teeth, wearing temporaries that look SO bad, and being told to your face "they look great".
So I drove to the lab, which is in a different city, to see what the original plans for my veneers were. And yep, just as i thought, the original veneer plans Dr. Connelly gave was WAY to white and way too bulky for my mouth. I had to ensure with the lab technician that for the final design, all front teeth were 2-3 mm less than what was originally planned for (trust me, even a 1mm difference is BIG), and I also changed the white color BL2 to BL3 (honestly, i wish had gone to BL4 or lower). The person helping me decide these things also agreed with me that these original plans were definintely not aesthetically pleasing for me, and way too white. My gripe was that these are all things that should have been done at dentists office.
Here's another thing: When you meet Dr. Connelly for a veneer consult, you will not be "customizing" much. He says he already has in mind what you are looking for, and says that he "knows whats best" on what your teeth will look like and what color. I'm sure if u tell him NO, i want THIS COLOR, he will do it for you. But because most people don't know what length, color, shape they want, you'd probably just go with his recommendation, not knowing what BL1, BL2, BL3 actually look like in real life. There's little collaborative design compared to other dentists.
Just keep in mind, Dr. Connelly is a celebrity dentist in the heart of LA, working on celebrity's smiles, those are his real clients. So unless you want to have a "movie star" smile, where the teeth are really really white and u like that almost "fake" look, go for it. But if your a person who wants perfect looking teeth that also look very natural, I'd recommend seeing a different dentist who is more willing to work with you to customize your actual veneers in terms of length, color, fit, etc much more precisely. Dont look at videos and see "white" smiles and think they look great in real life. If they're noticeable on video, they're even more noticeable in-person.
My regrets are
1. I went too white. Even BL4 is whiter than natural teeth.
2. I did too many veneers. I should've just done the front 4-6 only and color-matched them to the rest. You most definintely DO NOT need to do more, especially the bottom teeth, unless you have actual staining on your teeth.
3. I should've chosen a different dentist. Would've saved me a ton of money and stress. $5K per tooth is overkill.
Pros: Office is very clean, staff is very nice and responsive. Dr Connelly is also nice and did not take away too much of my tooth structure. But this is my honest review
