Cosmetic dentistry, privacy and public speculation

Media item: press speculation about cosmetic procedures among public figures

Media item: a newspaper feature speculating about cosmetic and dental procedures undergone by prominent Melbourne figures, originally headlined "Who's been nipped and tucked among Melbourne's elite"

Date published: 17 June 2025

Format: print and online feature, with a link to the publisher's site

This page records the existence and date of the media item. The article is the property of its publisher and is not reproduced here.

What this page deliberately does not do

It does not repeat the individuals named or implied in the article, and it does not state or suggest that any named person is or was a patient of this practice.

That is not evasion. It is what the law and ordinary professional obligation require:

• Patient confidentiality. Whether a named person has attended a dental practice, and what treatment they had, is health information. Under the Privacy Act and Victorian health records law it may not be disclosed without consent — and confirming or denying attendance is itself a disclosure. Our privacy policy sets out how records are handled.
• Testimonials are prohibited. Under section 133 of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, advertising a regulated health service may not use testimonials about clinical care. A page implying that recognisable people chose this practice and were pleased with the result would function as exactly that, whether or not anyone was quoted.
• Association is not endorsement. Presenting media speculation as evidence of a practice's standing would create an unreasonable expectation of benefit, which the same provision prohibits.

A practice that publicly confirmed which public figures it treated would be committing a privacy breach and an advertising breach at once. The right answer to "who do you treat?" is that we do not say.

The substantive subject: cosmetic dentistry in a culture of speculation

Speculation about who has had work done is a permanent feature of celebrity coverage, and it shapes what people ask for in a dental chair. A few things are worth stating clearly.

The images driving demand are usually not achievable

• Photographs are edited. Phone cameras, filters and retouching routinely whiten and reshape teeth. A great many people arrive asking for a result that does not physically exist in the person they saw.
• Screen lighting flatters ceramic. Restorations that look flawless under studio lighting frequently read as artificial in daylight, because natural enamel is translucent and slightly irregular. The very uniformity that photographs well is what makes veneers identifiable in person.
• "Digital smile design" renderings are proposals, not predictions. What can actually be achieved depends on the position of the teeth, how much enamel is available, the bite, the lip line and the gum. A trial in temporary restorations in your own mouth tells you far more than any screen.

What cosmetic dental treatment actually costs you

• Most porcelain veneers are irreversible. Preparing a tooth removes enamel that does not grow back; that tooth needs a veneer or a crown for the rest of its life.
• They are not permanent. Chipping, debonding, marginal staining and eventual replacement are expected. Commonly cited service lives sit in the ten-to-fifteen-year range, with wide individual variation.
• Making crooked teeth look straight with veneers costs enamel — sometimes enough to require a crown or root canal treatment. Orthodontics moves the tooth instead and removes no enamel, though it takes longer and requires lifelong retention.
• Whitening comes first. Porcelain and composite do not lighten, so the natural shade must be settled before restorations are matched to it.
• Untreated grinding breaks ceramic. A night guard is part of the plan, not an upsell.

Composite bonding — resin shaped directly onto the tooth, with little or no preparation — is reversible, repairable and much cheaper. For a young adult it is usually the right first step, because it defers the irreversible decision.

On age and pressure

Australian regulatory guidance places specific restrictions on advertising cosmetic procedures to people under 18, and on the use of images and testimonials generally. A practitioner should be willing to say that a procedure is not indicated, and should not be persuadable by a photograph.

Feeling rushed is a reason to pause, not to proceed. Elective cosmetic dentistry is never urgent. You are entitled to a written itemised plan, to take it away, and to a second opinion — and no reputable practitioner objects to any of that. What the consenting conversation should cover is set out separately.

Your own privacy as a patient

• Your dental records are health information, and a practice may not disclose them without your consent.
• You are entitled to access your own record, including radiographs and clinical photographs, and to have it transferred to another practitioner. A practice may charge a reasonable fee for copies but cannot withhold records over an unpaid account.
• Clinical photographs require separate, specific consent to be published — consent to treatment is not consent to publication, and consent can be withdrawn. That applies to every image in our before and after gallery.
• A reception desk is audible to a waiting room. You may ask to discuss anything sensitive privately.

Privacy complaints go to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, or to the Health Complaints Commissioner in Victoria for health records.

Common questions

The whitening kit I can buy online is far cheaper. Is it the same product a dentist uses?

No, and in Australia that is a matter of law rather than marketing. Schedule 10 of the Poisons Standard lists substances considered of such danger to health as to warrant prohibition of their sale, supply and use outside specified exempt circumstances. It states that teeth-whitening products containing more than 6 per cent hydrogen peroxide, or more than 18 per cent carbamide peroxide, may only be sold, supplied and used by registered dental practitioners as part of their dental practice. Those provisions are formalised in every state and territory's poisons legislation.

The two numbers are the same threshold expressed two ways: carbamide peroxide breaks down to roughly one-third its concentration in hydrogen peroxide, so 18 per cent carbamide approximates 6 per cent hydrogen peroxide. Anything a retailer can lawfully sell you over the counter therefore sits at or below that line. In-chair and dentist-supplied take-home products can sit well above it — concentrations in office-based bleaching run considerably higher.

That explains the price difference and the difference in result, and it is also the honest reason a supermarket kit underperforms rather than a failure on your part. Two practical consequences: a product advertised online as ‘professional strength' but sold without a dental practitioner involved is either below the threshold or being supplied unlawfully; and whitening bought while travelling is not subject to Australian scheduling at all.

Does whitening damage teeth?

The Australian Dental Association's position is that peer-reviewed studies indicate peroxide-containing bleaching products ‘are safe and effective when used by or under the supervision of a dentist and according to the professional directions for use', and that the most common side effects are ‘transient tooth sensitivity and soft tissue irritation during or immediately following treatment'. Transient is the operative word: those effects typically settle.

The qualifiers matter more than the reassurance. Weak solutions below 3 per cent hydrogen peroxide have been used in mouthwashes and toothpastes for many years with few problems, but ‘the potential for adverse effects on the oral tissues is increased when higher concentrations are used'. And the ADA is specific about a harm that has nothing to do with the gel itself: incorrect application of heat or other energy during whitening — light from a plasma arc lamp, or a high-power Class 4 laser — ‘may cause nerve damage to the tooth and burns to adjacent soft tissues', and failure to use appropriate protective eyewear ‘may also cause irreversible injury'. An Australian standard, AS/NZS 4173:2018, sets requirements for the safe use of lasers and intense light sources in health care, including training standards, and it applies to the cosmetics industry as well as to dental practices.

So the risk sits less in bleaching than in who is doing it, with what equipment, and whether anything was examined first. Whitening a tooth with untreated decay, an exposed root surface, a cracked restoration or active gum inflammation is where discomfort stops being transient — which is the argument for an examination before a shade guide, not after.

Can I get copies of my own clinical photographs, and can I have one taken down?

Yes to both, and the two operate under different rules.

Access. Your dental record — including radiographs and clinical photographs — is your health information, and you are entitled to obtain a copy and to have it transferred to another practitioner. A practice may charge a reasonable fee for the copying itself. It cannot hold the records hostage over an unpaid account, which is worth knowing if you are moving practices after a disagreement. Ask in writing, say what you want and where it should go, and keep the request.

Publication. Consent to treatment is not consent to publication. Publishing a clinical photograph requires separate, specific consent, and that consent can be withdrawn — you do not have to give a reason, and you do not have to have changed your mind about the treatment. If you want an image removed, put it in writing to the practice that published it; the obligation sits with whoever controls the site.

One limit worth understanding. Where an image has been reproduced somewhere the practice does not control — a third-party directory, a social platform, a news outlet — the practice may not be able to remove it, and it is not the practice's to remove. That is a request to the platform, not to the clinic.

If you cannot resolve either, the routes are already on this page: the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner for privacy, or the Health Complaints Commissioner in Victoria for health records.

Related reading

• Cosmetic dentistry options and what's new in cosmetic dentistry
• Turkey Teeth: the real risks of getting veneers overseas
• I want a smile makeover. Where should I start?
• How can I change my smile naturally?
• What happens to my teeth after dental veneers, and will I ever get cavities?
• Cosmetic dentistry under specialist care
• 'Like a set of piano keys': why Australians are opting for veneers
• Dental veneers on the rise and a cosmetic dentist explains what to expect when getting veneers
• More coverage in Our Media

Practical details

Smile Solutions, Level 1, 220 Collins Street, Manchester Unity Building, Melbourne VIC 3000. Phone 13 13 96, or theteam@smilesolutions.com.au. Monday–Friday 8.00am–6.00pm, Saturday 8.30am–1.30pm, Sunday by appointment.

Every practitioner's registration can be verified free on the AHPRA public register at ahpra.gov.au.

This page records a media item and its date, with general information on the subject. It names no patients and confirms no individual's attendance. It is not a diagnosis, a treatment plan or a promise of any particular clinical outcome. Third-party media content is not reproduced.

Smile Solutions trades under ABN 28 193 514 103.