A lot of the price difference between cheap veneers and expensive veneers comes down to the dentist鈥檚 skill and experience. Veneers are not taught in dental school and they are extremely tricky to get right. They take a high level of technical skill and an artistic eye that not every dentist has.
We like to think of it like this: if you want to have your portrait painted, you could do a Google search for 鈥減ainters near me.鈥 You鈥檇 find a lot of painters. However, some of them would specialize in painting houses, some in landscapes, and some in portraits. You could hire a house painter or landscape artist to paint your portrait, and it might be cheaper, but the results won鈥檛 look nearly as good as they would have if you hired the portrait painter. Of course, with veneers, the art in question will shape your smile for the next 20-30 years! With those kinds of stakes, investing in yourself is definitely worth the extra expense.
The other major factor in veneer cost is the materials used for the veneers and where they are manufactured. For example, porcelain veneers are going to be more expensive than 鈥渃omposite veneers,鈥 which is really just another name for Artistic Bonding. Of course, with that increased price comes significantly better longevity and durability. When well taken care of, porcelain veneers should last 20-30 years, while you鈥檙e lucky if you can get 10 out of composite veneers. And, even among porcelain veneers there is some variance in cost. For example, we use an aesthetics lab to manufacture our veneers, which produces better looking veneers than a standard lab.