First of all, I do not blame anyone for going to Turkey to have their teeth “done”.
The treatment fees in the UK are very high, and even though I provide these treatments daily, I would have to think long and hard if I was going to spend this kind of money on my teeth.
Admittedly, I will spend more freely if its a health item, as I do prioritise health.
Every week, we will get emails from people who have had treatment carried out abroad, and they have had lots of problems, what can we do to fix it?
This depends on the situation, but lets look at this one which we treated this week.
This young lady is in her 20’s. She went to have 3 teeth replaced.
In the UK, this would have probably cost £8-10,000. She went on a family members advice, and this family member also got her teeth done at the same time.
This is what the implants look like after 6 months:
Just in case this is not clear, you should not be able to see any metal work after the dental implant treatment.
Here we can see the metal work, and the implants itself (the dark grey screw threads).
This patient had three implant placed, and you can see them on the x ray.
The photo is of the two implants on the left (but right as we look at it, the L on the x ray is for the patients left side).
There are a few things on this x ray, firstly, one of the implants on the left looks like its going through the tooth behind, and secondly, the front dental implant is actually in the air sinus.
Maybe on the day that the implant was placed, it was okay, but now, the infection goes straight up to the sinus.
All three implants were loose, painful and there was pus coming from the sides of them. These are all signs that they have all failed and need to be removed.
This is exactly what we did, and because of the sinus issue, we had to carry out a little extra surgery to close the connection from the mouth to the sinus.
Cosmetically, one of the teeth was visible, and luckily we were able to make a temporary tooth to close that space, this is what it looked like on the day.
How much did this cost and what’s next?
We charge about £350 to remove implants, and the soft tissue surgery was a little more. So in total it was just over £1000.
This is in addition to what she paid in Turkey and she is now in a worse position than before she went.
We are going to leave this for 6 months , and hope that some of the bone recovers – the implant infection has eaten away a LOT of bone around the implants.
You can see this on the side where there are more stitches, it looks like there is a hole where there should be gum.
If she chooses to have these teeth replaced with dental implants, its very likely that we will need to bone graft the area first, then wait, then place the implants at a later stage.
This will increase the complexity and cost of the overall treatment.
The Big Problem
Many of the people who seek treatment abroad are not able to afford the treatment in the UK.
Its not that they are just looking for a good deal.
Some are, but I don’t think this is the majority.
Then when it comes to correcting it, often you have to pay a significant amount of money just to get back to the same situation you were in when you left to have the treatment! (This kind of stuff is usually out of the scope of the NHS)
There is little to no chance of recovering the money you spend abroad for botched dental treatments. The clinics abroad who are providing this conveyor belt type of dentistry know this.
All of the patient who we have helped to remove implants and correct poor quality work have tried to get solicitors involved to get some money back, and I don’t think anyone has done this successfully.
From the comments I get on some social media posts on this subject, not every case is a disaster like this one, but it really does seem like its a lottery as to what you will actually end up with when you go abroad.
As for the family member who went with this lady. She also has lots of problems with the final result that she has received.
That’s is a 100% implant failure rate.
We have only once had more than one implant fail for any one patient, and that person had lots of medical conditions that lower his immune system.
If you are thinking of going abroad, all I can say is please be careful. It is impossible to explain all the risks.
Dental Implants can fail if carried out by the most competent dentist, so don’t underestimate the value of having this stuff carried out locally, so if there is a problem, it can be addressed quickly, easily and with little or no extra cost to you.
