Cosmetic Dentistry in Shelby Township, MI
An Award-Winning Cosmetic Dentist Serving Shelby Township, Macomb, Clinton Township, and Sterling Heights, MI
Cosmetic dentistry covers treatments that change how your teeth look: veneers, whitening, bonding, crowns, and clear aligners. At McKinley-Holloway Legacy Dentistry in Shelby Township, we design every case digitally first, so you see the result before any enamel is touched. Call (586) 685-0880 to book your free consultation.
You do not have to guess what your smile will look like. We scan your teeth with an iTero scanner and show you a projection of the finished result at your first visit. New patients get that initial cosmetic consultation free, a $200 value. Ask our office for details. Call (586) 685-0880 or book your cosmetic consultation.
Why Choose McKinley-Holloway Legacy Dentistry for Cosmetic Dentistry?
Award-Winning Cosmetic Training
Dr. Brittany McKinley-Holloway received the American Academy of Esthetic Dentistry Award at graduation from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Dentistry. She came to dentistry from a career in graphic arts, which is an unusual background for a dentist and a useful one when the work is about proportion, shape, and color. The practice holds 4.9 stars across 400+ Google reviews.
A Free Consultation That Shows You the Result First
Cosmetic work is permanent, and patients should not have to take it on faith. New patients get a free initial consultation, a $200 value, including an iTero scan and a digital projection of the finished smile. If the shape or length is not what you pictured, we adjust it on screen, not in your mouth.
Crowns Made and Placed in One Visit
Our in-office ceramic mill designs and mills porcelain restorations while you are in the chair. No temporary crown for two weeks, no second appointment, and no plastic placeholder in the front of your smile while you wait on a lab.
What Is Cosmetic Dentistry?
Cosmetic dentistry is dental treatment done primarily to improve how teeth look rather than to restore function. It covers whitening, porcelain veneers, bonding, tooth-colored crowns, gingival recontouring, and clear aligners. Most cosmetic cases at our Shelby Township office finish in 1 to 3 visits.
The line between cosmetic and restorative work is blurrier than most websites make it sound. A cracked front tooth is both a structural problem and an appearance problem. A crown that rebuilds a broken molar is restorative, and a crown that fixes a discolored, misshapen front tooth is cosmetic. Same procedure, different reason.
That matters for your wallet. Treatment done for a documented functional reason is often partly covered by insurance, and treatment done purely for appearance usually is not. We tell you which category yours falls into before you commit, not after the claim is denied.
Our approach starts with what bothers you, not with a menu. Some patients arrive knowing they want porcelain veneers. Most arrive knowing only that they do not like their smile in photos. Both are fine starting points.
What Cosmetic Dentistry Procedures Do You Offer?
McKinley-Holloway Legacy Dentistry offers 6 core cosmetic dentistry procedures at our Shelby Township office: porcelain veneers, professional teeth whitening, Invisalign clear aligners, dental bonding, same-day porcelain crowns, and full mouth restoration.
Porcelain Veneers
Thin porcelain shells bonded to the front of your teeth. Veneers correct color, shape, length, and small gaps at once, which is why they are the usual answer when a patient wants several things fixed. See porcelain veneers in Shelby Township.
Professional Teeth Whitening
In-office and take-home whitening that reaches shades over-the-counter strips cannot. Results last longer because the trays are made to fit your teeth. See professional teeth whitening.
Invisalign Clear Aligners
Straightens crowding, gaps, and bite problems without brackets or wires, currently $1,000 off with retainers included. See Invisalign clear aligners.
Dental Bonding
Composite resin, a tooth-colored filling material, applied and shaped directly onto the tooth in a single visit. The fastest and least expensive fix for a chipped tooth, a small gap, or a worn edge.
Same-Day Porcelain Crowns
Designed and milled in our office and placed the same day. Useful when a front tooth is cracked or a large old filling has discolored the tooth around it. See same-day dental crowns.
Full Mouth Restoration
For patients with widespread wear, missing teeth, or bite collapse, this combines cosmetic and restorative work into one plan. See full mouth restoration. Cases involving missing teeth often also involve dental implants.
Which Cosmetic Treatment Is Right for Me?
Choosing among cosmetic dentistry procedures depends on what bothers you. Discoloration usually calls for whitening, a chip calls for bonding in 1 visit, and several issues at once usually call for veneers. Crowding and gaps are often better solved with Invisalign than with veneers.
There is a common mistake worth naming. Patients often ask for veneers when what they actually need is alignment. Putting porcelain over crowded teeth can mean removing more enamel than necessary to make the shells sit straight. Straightening first, then whitening, sometimes gets the same result with less enamel removed and less money spent.
Shade matching is the other thing patients do not think about until it is too late. Whitening only lightens natural enamel, so we whiten first and match any new porcelain to the lightened shade afterward. Done in the other order, your new veneer is permanently darker than the teeth beside it.
That is the conversation we have at the consultation. Dr. McKinley-Holloway will tell you when the cheaper option will get you where you want to go.
What Patients Come In Wanting to Fix
- Teeth that look yellow or gray in photos
- A chipped or broken front tooth
- Gaps between the front teeth
- Crowded or overlapping teeth
- Teeth that look short or worn down flat
- Old fillings that have darkened over time
- A single tooth that does not match the ones next to it
- An uneven or gummy smile line (gingival recontouring)
- Teeth stained from coffee, tea, wine, or tobacco
Who Is a Good Candidate for Cosmetic Dentistry?
Good candidates for cosmetic dentistry have healthy gums, no untreated decay, and realistic goals. Active gum disease or decay is treated first, because porcelain bonded to an unhealthy foundation fails early. Age is rarely the limiting factor.
Health comes before appearance, and not as a formality. Porcelain bonded to a tooth with decay underneath will fail. Veneers placed along an inflamed gum line will look wrong within a year as the tissue recedes. If you need gum disease treatment first, we will say so.
Grinding is the other thing we check for. Patients who clench or grind at night can crack porcelain, and the fix is usually a night guard printed in our office rather than abandoning the treatment.
We treat cosmetic patients in their twenties who want alignment and patients in their seventies who want their smile rebuilt after decades of wear.
How Much Does Cosmetic Dentistry Cost in Shelby Township, MI?
Cosmetic dentistry procedures vary in cost by treatment. In the Shelby Township, Macomb, MI, Clinton Township, and Sterling Heights area, bonding generally runs about $300 to $600 per tooth, professional whitening about $400 to $800, and porcelain veneers about $1,200 to $2,500 per tooth.
Insurance usually does not cover work done purely for appearance. It often does cover the same procedure when there is a documented functional reason, such as a crown on a cracked tooth. We check your benefits and tell you what will and will not be covered before treatment starts.
For uncovered work, the Smile+ in-house dental plan takes 15 percent off most treatments with no waiting period, and $500 off orthodontic treatment. Adult Essential runs roughly $41 a month plus a one-time enrollment fee.
CareCredit, Cherry, and LendingClub financing are available through our dental financing options, and Cherry lets you check what you qualify for without a hard credit pull.
Meet Your Shelby Township Cosmetic Dentist
Dr. Brittany McKinley-Holloway is a 2011 University of Detroit Mercy graduate, a recipient of the American Academy of Esthetic Dentistry Award, and the third generation of her family to practice dentistry in Macomb County.
She spent her first career in graphic arts. She went back for her dental prerequisites while working as an assistant in her father’s office, and that design background is the part patients notice. Cosmetic dentistry is proportion and color as much as clinical technique, and a tooth that is technically perfect but the wrong length for the face still looks wrong.
Her father, Dr. Ray Nelson McKinley, built this practice over nearly 48 years and worked until his last day. You can read about the McKinley family dental legacy here. She is the only dentist in the practice, which means the person who designs your case is the person who does the work and the person who sees you at the follow-up.
Patients who are anxious about cosmetic work should know that laughing gas and oral conscious sedation are available. See sedation dentistry in Shelby Township.
Do You See Cosmetic Dentistry Patients From Macomb, Clinton Township, and Sterling Heights?
Yes. McKinley-Holloway Legacy Dentistry is at 45665 Village Blvd in Shelby Township, MI, and treats cosmetic dentistry patients from Macomb, MI, Clinton Township, Sterling Heights, Washington Township, Utica, and Harrison Township.
Cosmetic cases often mean several appointments, so the drive matters. Patients looking for a cosmetic dentist in Macomb, MI, Clinton Township, or Sterling Heights are usually 15 to 20 minutes away, and we open at 7 AM on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for people who cannot take a midday appointment.
Same-day crowns matter more the farther you drive. A patient coming from Sterling Heights for a cracked front tooth leaves with the finished porcelain in place rather than making the trip twice.
See Your New Smile Before You Commit to It
Cosmetic dentistry at McKinley-Holloway Legacy Dentistry starts with a digital scan and a projection of your finished result, planned by an award-winning dentist who is the only dentist in the practice. New patients get that first consultation free, a $200 value. Ask our office for details. We are rated 4.9 stars across 400+ Google reviews and see patients from Shelby Township, Macomb, MI, Clinton Township, Sterling Heights, Washington Township, Utica, and Harrison Township.
Call (586) 685-0880 or book your free cosmetic consultation.
Cosmetic Dentistry FAQs
Cosmetic dentistry is dental treatment done mainly to improve how your teeth look rather than to restore function. It includes whitening, porcelain veneers, bonding, tooth-colored crowns, gingival recontouring, and clear aligners. Many of these treatments also improve function, which can affect whether insurance covers part of the cost.
Look for three things: documented cosmetic training, a way to preview your result before treatment starts, and continuity of care. Dr. McKinley-Holloway received the American Academy of Esthetic Dentistry Award at graduation, shows every patient a digital projection of the finished smile at the consultation, and is the only dentist in the practice, so the person planning your case is the person doing it.
A smile makeover takes anywhere from one visit to 18 months depending on the treatments involved. Bonding and same-day crowns finish in a single visit because we design and mill porcelain in our office. Whitening takes one visit plus take-home trays, veneers usually take two to three visits, and Invisalign clear aligners run 12 to 18 months.
Porcelain veneers last 10 to 15 years with good maintenance, and many last longer. What shortens their life is grinding, using teeth as tools, and gum disease that changes the tissue line around them. A night guard is the single most effective thing you can do to protect them if you clench or grind. See porcelain veneers.
No. Whitening gel only lightens natural enamel, so crowns, veneers, bonding, and tooth-colored fillings keep their original shade. This is why shade matching runs in a specific order: we whiten first, then match any new restorations to the lightened shade. Doing it the other way leaves you with restorations that no longer match.
Most dental insurance does not cover treatment done purely for appearance. Insurance often does cover the same procedure when there is a functional reason, such as a crown on a cracked tooth or a filling replacing decay. We verify your benefits and tell you what is covered before you commit to anything.
Most cosmetic procedures involve little or no discomfort. Whitening and bonding usually need no anesthetic at all. For veneers and crowns we use The Wand, a computer-controlled anesthesia system that delivers numbing medication slowly to one tooth, which removes the sting patients associate with a dental injection. Laughing gas and oral conscious sedation are available through our sedation dentistry if you are anxious.
Yes. We scan your teeth with an iTero intraoral scanner and show you a digital projection of the proposed result at your consultation, which is free for new patients and normally a $200 value. If the shape, length, or proportion is not what you had in mind, we change it on the screen before any treatment begins.
Often, yes. Placing veneers over crowded teeth can require removing more enamel than necessary to make the porcelain sit straight. Straightening first with Invisalign clear aligners sometimes gets you the result you want with less enamel removed and a lower total cost. Dr. McKinley-Holloway will tell you which approach fits your case.