The trend of travelling to countries like Turkey for dental treatment has been dubbed “Turkey teeth”. It is popular on social media, where a TikTok hashtag has reached more than 130 million views, and with several reality TV influencers.
Lisa Martyn never expected she would contemplate getting dentures at the age of 48. But after travelling abroad for an invasive cosmetic dental procedure, she believes there are few other options.
“My teeth are gone. They’re filed down so much,” she says. “They never said your teeth can die, that you can get an abscess.”
Last year, Lisa flew to Turkey for 26 veneers, usually thin shells placed around teeth that are minimally shaved down, hoping to achieve a perfect smile for her son’s wedding.
Months later she discovered she had actually been given crowns. These involve 60% - 70% of the natural tooth being filed down to fangs or stubs, before a tooth cap is glued on top. Patients can choose the shape, material and colour of these caps, often opting for a bright, white, symmetrical smile.
But 10 months on, Lisa, from Ireland, has been plagued by ongoing nerve sensitivity and excruciating pain. She has lost more than two stone (12.7kg) as she is unable to eat properly and has spent months relying on painkillers.
The pain culminated in an infection and abscess which Lisa says nearly paralysed half of her face. Her original procedure in Turkey cost her 3,500 euro (£3,000) but her private remedial treatment, which includes two rounds of root canal surgery, will cost her more than 2,000 euro.
She has been told the only long-term treatment available is implants or dentures.
Personally I would not even go to Turkey (again - once was more than enough) and with the exception of Israel and Switzerland to no foreign country for any surgical treatment.
Turkey has never appealed to me, it’s not somewhere I would want to go on holiday never mind for cosmetic surgery. I’d be too scared it went wrong. I would love my teeth doing though, straightening, but it’s very expensive so I suppose I’ll live with what God gave me.
My teeth are the only cosmetic surgery that I’ve considered but not done anything about. Now if I came into some money I might, but then again I might not, I’m terrified of dentists!
By coincidence l was only talking to someone the other day and he was telling me about someone he knew that had his teeth done in Turkey. I knew what was going to come next… he said the man’s new teeth were shocking.
He had gone from having bad and missing teeth to a mouthful of brilliant white gravestone teeth!
It sounds like he might have been better off with those goofy ones you used to get out of a Lucky Bag, or a Christmas cracker!
My view is that anything like this is a big health risk. It’s not covered by healthcare safeguards we have in this country or regulated. Once they have their hands on you, you are powerless until the dental work is complete and if you don’t like it what do you do? This is compounded by the health conditions that result from shoddy work.
Smile makeover dentists in the UK should carry a health warning because some are simply money-grabbing crooks, never mind those in a loosely regulated country such a Turkey.
I hate the sight of those glaringly brilliant white lumps of whatever some people have put on their teeth. They look so false. I wonder if they glow under UV light?
My 4 front teeth are all crowns but none of them are brilliant white, they were colour-matched to the rest of my teeth.
Would never consider it. Never been to Turkey and don’t intend to. A few years ago my friend and her husband and 2 teenage daughters went and she said it was totally spoilt by Turkish men trying it on with her and her daughters even though her husband was with them. Shudder!
She said it was non stop and really annoying, on the beach, by the pool, around the shops, on the markets etc.
Someone i new had his teeth veneered some time ago,he reminded me of Bingo out of the 70s cartoon The Banana Splits.
I honestly didn`t know where to look,
Had i have stayed for a chat i would not have kept a straight face,there was nothing wrong with his own,maybe a little discoloured but that comes with age
I’ve only been to Turkey once and that was for a consulting visit on behalf of the World Bank. The company I was visiting had applied for a WB load to buy a new rubber mixing machine (they cost from around £350k for an industrial sized m/c). The town where the company was based is, more or less, in the centre of the country - all wagons and horses, peasants, etc. Not a great visit in general all told.
I watched the BBC documentary about this last night and it was shocking.
We don’t know how good or bad their original teeth were but the totally unnecessary treatments that are being offered in Turkey was really hammered home when the BBC used the Presenter’s photos to see if any Turkish dentists would recommend that she needed work doing,
“The BBC contacted 150 dental clinics in Turkey and 50 cosmetic dental clinics in the UK via Instagram with a picture of our documentary presenter’s teeth with the following message: “Hi, hoping to come to Turkey to get my teeth done for my 26th birthday. I’m not happy with my bottom teeth and want them more in line with the rest of my mouth. What do you recommend, how much would it cost in pounds and how long will it last? Here are some pictures of my mouth.”
Seventy of the 120 Turkish clinics that responded offered treatment that involved shaving down the natural teeth, such as crowns or veneers.
None of the 34 UK clinics that responded offered a treatment plan of veneers or crowns, although some did suggest less invasive treatments such as aligners or composite bonding.”
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When I watched this, I was gobsmacked - the young presenter’s teeth were lovely - they were not at all discoloured or damaged - nothing wrong with them at all - she had a beautiful smile. When she was revealing the responses to her messages, she was with a UK dentist who had examined her teeth and said she did not need any treatment at all.
One of those Turkish dental practices had replied
“Crowns. You definitely need them” - and had suggested she needed to have all of her teeth crowned.
That’s just criminal. How can a trained dentist suggest such a thing.
Same goes for me although a friend of mine did in her 60’s because she had to put her specs on before she could get out of bed . Her glasses were discarded and she behaved like a new woman .
A few years later she seemed to be developing symptoms of Alzheimers but it turned out to be an inoperable tumour in her brain and she died . Not saying the two were connected but it does make you think a bit.
