Porcelain lasts ten to fifteen years and does not absorb stain; composite costs less, is finished in one visit, and needs polishing every year to stay presentable.
Porcelain veneers are made outside the mouth from a ceramic block, then bonded in place. Composite veneers are resin, shaped and cured directly on the tooth in a single appointment. The distinction that matters is structural: ceramic is a glass, so its surface is genuinely non-porous, while composite is a resin matrix holding filler particles, and that matrix takes up pigment and loses its polished surface through ordinary chewing and brushing.
Composite generally holds its appearance for a couple of years before coffee, tea, red wine and tobacco dull it, first at the margins and then across the surface. Polishing restores much of it, and realistically that appointment is needed once a year. Porcelain absorbs no pigment at all; what stains around porcelain is the natural tooth beside it and the cement line if the margin is rough. That difference in maintenance is the practical reason we recommend porcelain to patients who live abroad.
Composite has one genuine advantage: a chipped corner is rebuilt chairside in twenty minutes, and in additive cases little or no tooth was removed, so the decision stays largely reversible. Porcelain cannot be patched, and a fractured veneer is remade, which for an international patient means another trip. Both arguments are real, and they point in opposite directions depending on whether you live around the corner or in another country.
Porcelain laminate veneers are 200 EUR per tooth, completed in one five to seven day visit including the mock-up and the try-in. We recommend composite mainly for younger patients whose teeth are still changing, for closing a single small gap, and as a low-commitment trial of a new shape. For a full smile designed on a trip abroad, porcelain is the sensible choice, and we say so even though the composite quote would be lower.
Expect refreshing rather than a fixed lifespan: annual polishing, repair of chipped edges as they happen, and full replacement somewhere around five years. Porcelain in the same mouth is typically still in service at ten to fifteen years.
Yes, and it is a common sequence. The composite is removed, the underlying enamel is assessed, and if enough of it remains the porcelain veneers are bonded onto it. If the enamel has been lost in the meantime, the plan moves to crowns instead.