A leading dentist has shared some of the dangers of ‘dental tourism’ and why people should always be cautious about getting veneers abroad for cheaper prices than the UK
More and more people are opting to go abroad for new teeth for just a fraction of the price they can have the work done at home – but a leading dentist has warned there could be severe effects.
The surge in Brits going to Turkey for new teeth – coined as ‘Turkey teeth’ promises perfect gnashers for much less than what you’d pay in the UK. But award-winning dentist Dr Safa Al Naher warned about the perils of what can happen if you get dentistry work done abroad. Dr Safa, Principal Dentist at Serene Knightsbridge urged people to decide whether it is worth opting for “dental tourism” or not as it can harm your gums and oral hygiene in the long run.
“The issues that I have with dental tourism – and those teeth that I have seen – are numerous. It’s a vast topic and many things can go wrong,” she told The Mirror. Firstly, the doctor said the clinic must provide the treatment “relatively quickly” to someone who has travelled abroad for dentistry – and is always done in just a few days. She said it also has to be done cheaply otherwise there would be no point travelling for it. “The issue with this is that you can’t plan a treatment properly. Within the limited time, the dentist must collect all of the information on the patient to discuss the treatment, then create a treatment plan and put it into action.
“Basically, they must create a comprehensive enough treatment plan that presents all of the options to the patient in a way that they’re going to understand.” Dr Safa said if major work is being done, there should be adequate time for planning to take place such as creating a mock-up of the design that is being done. She added: “It is essential to get a mock-up, firstly to ‘test drive’ it and make sure that everything functions properly, and secondly to allow the patient to visualise the result before any irreversible changes have been made.
“Generally, we would go back and forth a few times with the mock-up and the lab to make sure the patient is getting what they asked for and that we have perfected it before cutting into the real teeth,” and said these mock-ups are important as that’s what is going to be used to create the temporary crowns and bridges.
“If you have poor planning, people will often come back with a really uncomfortable bite – the teeth can chip off, or they can break if you’ve not planned the position of the new veneers properly. The dentist will be making something fit in when it doesn’t really fit in, and then the patients will suffer.”
The expert shared that because of this, she’s come across gum problems as the veneers are placed too deep inside the gums and irritate the gums long term. “I’ve seen many cases in which people leave their preparation appointments or the appointments where their teeth have been shaved down without temporary crowns on. This is often very painful as it leaves your teeth very sensitive and exposes them to bacteria in the mouth and temperature changes.”
This means you are causing your teeth to become hypersensitive and this increases the chance of them becoming infected in the future. The planning is also essential to make sure the bite is correct as well, Dr Safa explained. “You can destroy the work you’ve actually put in and can cause things like jaw problems, jaw pain, gum problems.”
The way these dentists abroad can make their costs so low is because they are reducing their chair time, and all of the planning and discussion is scrapped and “deemed unnecessary” but according to Dr Safa, it is very necessary. “When it comes to actually cutting down the teeth, they’re not going to spend their time doing it. They’re going to do it in the fastest, most haphazard way possible.”
She claimed they would just “grab a great big drill” to drill the teeth to “tiny pegs” which you don’t need much skill for, you just need to “make sure you can stick something on top of it”. The expert added: “The more you drill down, the more you expose your teeth to being damaged and having problems in the future.”
Another serious issue is that you don’t know how the crowns are being made and whether it’s done by a machine or by a lab technician. But when you pay higher costs in the UK, it’s because the materials are more expensive, as well as the labour, but you get what you pay for says the expert.
“Cheap dentists abroad are going to put the least amount of time and skill into making the veneers, which means they are likely to be opaque and blocky. There’s not much artistry that’s gone into layering these crowns or veneers to make them look as natural as they can look,” explained Dr Safa, and said they have to be done really carefully – not quickly. Of course there are exceptions, and you can find brilliant dentists in Turkey and indeed all over the world. But dental tourism as a concept, I think is a failed concept.”
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