“Turkey Teeth” and Dental Tourism
Published in the guardian this week https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/04/one-dead-and-two-critically-ill-after-dental-treatment-trip-to-turkey documents a scary president for the levels of healthcare patients are exposed to.
Social media influencers and the appeal of low cost dental care are the main draw to travelling abroad to have dental treatment carried out. However do not let this sway you to make poor decisions for your health.
Do you really know what standards of care you will be subject to should you choose to have your treatment abroad? What guarantees do you have should your treatment fail? Dentists in the UK are registered with the General Dental Council and must conform to strict guidelines of care and have indemnity in place should serious problems arise following treatment.
The most common cosmetic dental treatment carried out abroad are:
Teeth Whitening which is an affordable option to have at a UK based practice.
and
Veneers, however be sure what you are paying for. Veneers are wafer thin porcelain that normally require very little drilling of your natural tooth. Patients returning from abroad who think they have had “veneers” have often been misinformed and had crowns, while crowns are an excellent restorative option for some teeth they require substantially more drilling of your natural teeth.
Your teeth are important so please make good decisions on how you care for them. Dental tourism now may seem appealing but what happens in a few years time when it fails and your UK based dentist says they are sorry but your tooth is no longer restorable?
Why not explore more conservative options of restoring your teeth than drilling them away. More often than not the 3 main things people don’t like about their teeth are:
Position - so many people dislike the fact that one or two teeth may be crowded and not in line with the rest of the teeth. The best option is normally to move those teeth and align them with some form of cosmetic tooth alignment or orthodontics.
Colour - some people’s teeth are naturally a darker shade than others, other peoples teeth have picked up discolouration from their habits like drinking coffee or red wine or from smoking. Whitening your teeth is usually a simple process and not something you need to fly abroad to have done.
Shape - chipped edges, small teeth and other small imperfections can usually be corrected without any drilling down of your tooth at all. An injection free, pain free way to improve your teeth is with composite bonding, where shade matched white resin is bonded to your enamel and shaped to your desired position.
It’s as easy as
A - Align
B - Brighten
C - Contour
Please ask your UK based and registered dentist about the options available closer to home. It may not be as expensive as you think.