Porcelain Veneers for Wicker Park, Chicago
Designed in harmony with your face — by a cosmetic dentist 15 minutes from Damen and Milwaukee.
Porcelain veneers are thin, custom-made shells of medical-grade ceramic bonded to the front of your teeth to refine shape, length, contour, and color. For patients in Wicker Park, the closest cosmetic studio doing this work at a truly elevated level isn't in Wicker Park — it's a fifteen-minute drive north into Lakeview, at the practice of Dr. Brittany Dickinson, where every veneer case is designed using Facially Driven Smile Design.
This page is for the Wicker Park patient who has been quietly considering veneers and wants an honest answer about whether the commute is worth it. It is.
Why Wicker Park patients trust the commute
If you live near Damen and Milwaukee, your standards are already extremely high. Your apartment is curated. Your jacket is curated. The coffee shop you actually like — the one without the line — is curated. You've spent the last decade choosing the small, designer-run version of everything over the chain version.
Cosmetic dentistry is the one category most people in your neighborhood haven't yet applied that same filter to.
Most Wicker Park patients I see have one of two backstories. Either they tried the closest convenient dentist for cosmetic work and got a result that looks like veneers instead of looking like them — too white, too long, too uniform — or they held off entirely because they didn't trust the local options to do it right.
Doing cosmetic dentistry well — at the level you're already used to in the rest of your life — is a small, specialized practice. It isn't a chain. It isn't the dentist with the biggest sign on Milwaukee Avenue. And it isn't usually walking distance from your apartment. The fifteen-minute drive is the tradeoff. The work is the reason.
Facially Driven Smile Design — what makes this different
Most cosmetic dentists design veneers by looking at your teeth. The lab gets a digital scan, the case is planned against a textbook ideal, and the porcelain comes back in a shape and shade that would look "correct" on any face.
I don't design that way.
Before I touch a tooth, I'm working from full-face photographs of you. I'm tracing where your upper lip drapes when you smile at a friend across a table, not when you're holding a forced pose. I'm looking at your jawline, your face shape, the way the corners of your mouth fall when you talk. I'm deciding how long your front teeth need to be so they actually show when you speak. Only then do I design tooth shape, contour, length, and shade.
This is Facially Driven Smile Design. It's the reason patients tell me six months later that their friends have asked if they did something but no one has guessed what — and it's the single biggest reason a Wicker Park designer or founder ends up booking with me instead of with someone closer. It also takes longer. I won't quote a final number until I've actually looked at your face.
If you've ever wondered whether veneers will look fake on you, this is the answer — and this piece on natural-looking veneers in Chicago goes deeper on the mechanics.
The 5-step veneer process
Smile Design Consultation (60 min). Full facial analysis, full-face photography, conversation about what you actually want — and what you don't want. You leave with real answers, not a sales pitch.
Digital design + mock-up. I design your veneers from your face photos, then we test the design in a temporary mock-up so you can see and feel the new smile in your own mouth before any porcelain is ordered.
Minimal preparation. Once we've approved the design together, I prepare the teeth conservatively. For the right candidates, no-prep veneers preserve even more natural enamel.
Temporaries. You wear hand-shaped temporaries for two to three weeks while your final porcelain is custom-crafted by our lab. This is also when small adjustments to shape or length get refined.
Final bonding. Porcelain veneers are permanently bonded to your teeth. The appointment is unhurried. You leave with the smile we designed together.
Veneers vs. Invisalign — which one first?
Case by case. If your teeth are crowded or rotated, doing Invisalign first means fewer veneers, less prep, and a more conservative final result. If your teeth are already in good position and only shape, length, and color are the issues, veneers alone are usually the right answer.
The full breakdown is here: Invisalign before veneers — when and why. For a lot of patients in their early thirties, a short Invisalign Express case followed by four to eight veneers is the most conservative path to the final smile they want.
No-prep vs. traditional veneers
Not every patient is a candidate for no-prep veneers — they require small natural teeth and no existing dental work on the front teeth. When the case is right, they preserve more natural enamel than any other cosmetic option. Full details on candidacy and cost: No-prep veneers in Chicago.
If you're worried about long-term tooth health, the honest answer is here: Do veneers ruin your teeth?
Real before-and-afters
The work speaks for itself, but it speaks quietly. Our cases are designed to look natural — which means the "after" doesn't shout. See real Wicker Park and Chicago veneer cases on our before-and-afters page.
Pricing — transparent, with the real conversation reserved for consult
Porcelain veneer cases are priced per tooth based on design complexity and the number of teeth involved. Full upper smile cases generally start in the $18,000–$25,000 range; smaller four-to-six-tooth cases are less. I don't quote final numbers from a chart — the right number depends on your face, your teeth, and what we design together. The Smile Design Consultation is where that conversation happens.
Wicker Park → Lakeview commute (the logistics)
Our studio is at 3346 N. Paulina St., on the corner of Lincoln, Paulina, and Roscoe — across the street from Starbucks, half a block from the Paulina Brown Line stop.
From Damen and Milwaukee:
By car: Damen north to Lincoln, then a quick jog over. Fifteen minutes in normal traffic, twenty in rush hour.
By train: Blue Line to the Loop, transfer to the Brown Line northbound, exit at Paulina. About twenty-five minutes door to door, mostly underground.
From a West Loop office over lunch: Brown Line direct from Merchandise Mart to Paulina is roughly twenty minutes — most veneer prep appointments fit cleanly inside a long lunch hour.
We're open Monday through Thursday. Most Wicker Park patients book the first appointment of the morning before work, a lunch-hour slot, or the last appointment of the day before dinner. Veneer prep visits run about ninety minutes; bonding is two to three hours; consults are shorter.
FAQs
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Dr. Brittany Dickinson's practice in Lakeview is a fifteen-minute drive or twenty-five-minute train ride from Damen and Milwaukee. She is a member of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (AACD) and has designed hundreds of veneer cases using Facially Driven Smile Design.
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Full upper smile cases generally start in the $18,000–$25,000 range. Smaller four-to-six-tooth cases are less. The honest number for your case depends on your teeth and the design we plan together — that conversation happens at the Smile Design Consultation.
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Not when they're designed correctly. The "chiclet" look comes from veneers that are too white, too long, all the same size, and unrelated to the face they're sitting in. Facially Driven Smile Design exists specifically to prevent that. Full breakdown here.
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Possibly — it depends on whether your teeth are crowded or rotated. If they are, Invisalign first usually means fewer veneers and a more conservative final result. The full decision framework is here.
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From consult to final bonding, most cases run four to six weeks. If we're combining Invisalign first, add three to twelve months for the alignment phase before veneers begin.
Ready to design your smile?
The first step is the Smile Design Consultation. Sixty minutes. Full facial analysis. Real answers on candidacy, timeline, and an honest number for your case. Book your consultationor learn more about Dr. Brittany Dickinson.
Prefer to talk first? Call us: (773) 883-1818