When The Hollywood Reporter named me one of the 49 best cosmetic doctors in the country, I was honored to be included among physicians and dental specialists whose work is trusted by some of the most discerning patients in the world. But recognition like that is never the result of one case, one technique, or one particular type of smile. It reflects years of listening closely to patients, refining a process, and treating every smile as its own design problem.
It speaks volumes to our team approach to collaborate with you, our patients, our treatment coordination team, our lab team and all of our clinical team members that make this type orf recognition possible.
Our approach to cosmetic dentistry begins with a simple belief: the best result should not look like a dentist’s idea of a perfect smile. It should look like the patient, only more balanced, more confident, and more at ease. A successful smile makeover should complement the face, preserve individuality, function comfortably, and feel natural in conversation, photographs, and everyday life.
That is why we do not begin with a standard veneer shape or a predetermined number of teeth. I begin with the person. I study how the lips move, how much tooth shows at rest and in a full smile, how the teeth relate to the face, and how the bite functions. Just as importantly, I listen to what the patient notices, what they want to change, and what they want to keep.
Patients today are more involved in that process than ever before. They want to understand the design, see the possibilities, and give feedback before anything permanent is completed. Through digital smile planning, temporary previews, and close collaboration with our laboratory, we can refine the result together. The goal is not simply to create beautiful teeth. It is to create a smile that feels unmistakably personal.
That philosophy applies whether I am refining a few teeth or planning a more comprehensive smile restoration. But veneers are often where patients have the most questions, particularly about how to achieve a result that looks polished without looking artificial.
Natural-looking veneers reflect the proportions, movement, coloring, and character of the person wearing them.
That means considering far more than tooth color. I look at tooth length, width, edge position, surface texture, translucency, gum display, lip movement, facial shape, speech, and the way the teeth come together when the patient bites.
No single feature creates a natural result. It is the relationship between all of them.
Patients sometimes arrive with reference photos. These are useful because they reveal what a person responds to. Perhaps they like the softness of a particular smile, the shape of the front teeth, or the amount of tooth that shows when someone speaks.
But I do not copy another person’s teeth.
A smile that looks beautiful on one face may feel entirely wrong on another. Teeth exist within a larger composition. They have to relate to the lips, cheeks, jaw, facial proportions, skin tone, age, and personality of the patient.
My job is to understand what the patient likes about the reference, then interpret that preference in a way that belongs to them.
The result should look personal, not selected.
Most cosmetic decisions are initially discussed using still photographs. That is only a starting point.
People do not experience your smile as a static image. They see it while you are speaking, laughing, turning your head, and reacting. The amount of tooth visible at rest may be very different from what appears in a full smile. Certain shapes can look balanced in a photograph but too dominant during conversation.
That is why I pay close attention to movement.
Where does the upper lip sit when the patient speaks? How much of the front teeth appears at rest? Do the edges follow the curve of the lower lip? Does one tooth begin to take over the smile from certain angles? Does the design still feel natural in an unposed photograph?
Good smile design has to survive real life.
Technology is an important part of our process at One Manhattan Dental, but it does not make the aesthetic decisions for us.
We use digital scans, facial photographs, and smile-design tools to create a virtual version of the patient’s proposed smile. We can adjust the length, position, proportion, and general character of the teeth before beginning treatment.
This gives the patient something specific to respond to.
It is much easier to discuss whether a tooth feels too square, too long, or too prominent when we are both looking at the same design. Instead of asking someone to imagine a result from a verbal description, we can show the direction and refine it together.
Technology should not decide what a smile looks like. It should make the conversation between the patient, dentist, and laboratory more precise.
This collaborative digital workflow was central to the process I discussed with The Hollywood Reporter: a digital design is created, the patient participates in its revision, and the design is tested again as a temporary smile before the final restorations are made.
The temporary stage is one of the most valuable parts of a smile makeover.
Once the initial design has been developed, we create a temporary version that the patient can wear. I think of this as a functional prototype rather than a placeholder.
The patient gets to see the smile in normal lighting, speak with it, eat with it, take photographs, and observe how it feels outside the dental office. They may notice that they would like slightly less length, a softer corner, more variation between the front teeth, or a different amount of tooth showing when they smile.
The temporary may be perfect. But it is almost always a little off compared to what we want. It may be a little too dark or white, too round or too boxy, etc. This is great and gives us a reference to modify it and then get it as perfect as possible in the final restorations.
We make those changes in the temporary design first.
By the time the final porcelain is created, the patient is not approving an abstract idea. They have already experienced a physical version of the smile and helped shape it.
The process can actually be enjoyable. Patients begin to develop a visual vocabulary. They understand what they are responding to and become active collaborators rather than waiting to see what is delivered at the end.
Natural-looking veneers do not have to be dark, muted, or deliberately imperfect.
Natural is not a shade. It is coherence.
A bright smile can still look completely believable when the color works with the patient’s complexion and the porcelain has appropriate translucency, texture, and depth. Conversely, a conservative shade can still look artificial when every tooth has the same shape, the surfaces are too uniform, or the proportions do not fit the face.
Real teeth interact with light in complex ways. They are not flat blocks of color. Their surfaces have subtle texture. Their edges may transmit light differently from the center of the tooth. The front teeth are related, but they are not identical copies of one another.
These details matter because the eye detects repetition very quickly. Slight variation creates vitality.
The objective is not to manufacture flaws. It is to avoid removing every trace of individuality.
I am a prosthodontist, so I approach veneers as both an aesthetic and restorative treatment.
A smile can look excellent in a photograph and still be unsuccessful if the teeth interfere with speech, feel bulky, create bite problems, or place unnecessary stress on the underlying tooth structure.
Before designing veneers, I evaluate the health of the teeth and gums, the patient’s bite, existing restorations, signs of grinding or wear, and the amount of healthy enamel available. In some cases, the cosmetic concern is connected to a larger functional issue. In others, a more limited treatment is appropriate.
The design must account for both.
Prosthodontists receive advanced specialty training in treatment planning, esthetics, occlusion, implants, laboratory procedures, and complex restorative care. That background shapes how I evaluate a smile makeover. I am not looking at ten separate veneers. I am looking at how the entire system will function over time.
Every smile makeover begins with a diagnosis, not a predetermined procedure.
Depending on the patient, treatment may involve whitening, orthodontic movement, bonding, gum treatment, veneers, crowns, replacement of older dental work, or a combination of approaches. Some patients need only a few targeted changes. Others have wear, failing restorations, missing teeth, or bite problems that require a broader restorative plan.
Even when veneers are appropriate, the number should be based on the patient’s anatomy and goals.
There is no ideal number that applies to everyone. We consider which teeth show naturally, where the smile transitions to untreated teeth, whether the existing shades can be blended, and what is required to create a stable, cohesive result.
The most responsible treatment is the one that solves the actual problem without treating teeth that do not need to be treated.
A patient does not need to know dental terminology to provide useful feedback.
I ask practical questions:
The answers help me refine the design. A patient may not be able to identify that a line angle needs to move or that an incisal edge is slightly too long, but they can tell me that something feels dominant or unfamiliar. It is my job to translate that reaction into a clinical adjustment.
The feedback I value most is rarely, “My teeth look perfect.”
It is more often, “This feels like me,” “I stopped thinking about my teeth,” or, as one of our patients described it, “For the first time in my life I love my smile.”
Every case is different, but my process generally follows the same principles.
A successful smile makeover can change how a person carries themselves. They may stop covering their mouth when they laugh. They may smile in photographs without preparing for it. They may feel more comfortable speaking closely with another person.
But the smile should still be recognizably theirs.
I am not trying to impose my preferred tooth shape on every patient. I am trying to understand the person in front of me, identify what will improve the smile, and design a result that respects their anatomy, function, and point of view.
That is what makes the work interesting. There is no universal template.
There is only the question: What belongs on this face?
A consultation is an opportunity to understand what is possible before deciding what, if anything, you would like to change.
At One Manhattan Dental, we use digital planning, temporary smile previews, and direct collaboration with our on-site laboratory to design porcelain veneers around your face, your bite, and your preferences.
Schedule a consultation with Dr. Robert Raimondi at One Manhattan Dental, located at 800A Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
