Woman describes dentist operation in Turkey as ‘biggest mistake of her life’

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Lisa Martyn, 48, paid £1,800 to have her top set of teeth replaced while on holiday in Kusadasi. She was given a leaflet about the procedure at the resort but claims no one ever explained the risks associated with it.

The care assistant, from Ireland, thought she was having veneers on the top row of teeth but was left “traumatised” when one of her teeth cracked in 2021, some years after the surgery.

So she returned to the resort to find the same dentist who performed the initial operation, Mirror reports. 

But the dentist allegedly told her she just couldn’t just replace the one tooth which had a crack in it, and could only give her a full set of 26 teeth – at a cost of £3,500.

Lisa described how the dentist hammered out her entire set of teeth in a horrendous procedure that left her “traumatised”.

“I never in my life experienced anything like it,” she said.

“They were drilling then, banging and hammering. I was jumping out of that chair for two hours. No one asked how I was or even offered me a drink of water. My mouth was so swollen it was like a horror movie.

“I was numb from my neck up to the top of my nose but I could still feel the sensation. I still didn’t know that all my natural teeth were filed down and these were crowns, not veneers. It was only after I returned home, that I was told by a UK dentist.

“I’m still in pain and I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I will have to have dentures and live with pain every day. I wanted to look nice for my son’s wedding but now I would give anything to just know that day I won’t be in agony.”

Not only have I been in crippling pain every day since, but it has also cost me thousands. It’s the biggest mistake of my life

Lisa Martyn

Lisa continued: “I was duped into the dream of having a full set of perfect teeth that I was never going to have any issues with but I was grossly misled about what I was having done – they were sold to me as veneers not a full set of crowns.

“No one sat down and told me the risks or if there were any other options. I thought that once they put the new teeth into my mouth that would be it – there would never be any more problems.

“But not only have I been in crippling pain every day since, but it has also cost me thousands. It’s the biggest mistake of my life.”

Nearly 60 per cent of UK’s under-pressure dentists have been asked to fix problems caused by patients flying abroad for cheap overseas cosmetic treatment, new figures reveal.

This shocking statistic is believed to be fuelled by a social media trend for “Turkey teeth” – a full mouth of bright white veneers – with videos having been viewed more than 100million times.

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Users show the before, after, and the inbetween stage where the full mouth is filed down to tiny stumps.

It also comes as 35,000 Brits and Irish have flown overseas for treatment in the past year alone as the cash-strapped NHS dentists have struggled to meet post-pandemic demand, with the Mirror last month revealing that an exodus of around 3,000 dentists since the last Covid lockdown, with NHS appointments in England down from 3.5 million a month pre-pandemic to just 2.3 million. It’s caused long waits for patients and has seen people travelling across the UK to get an appointment.

Now it’s feared this boom in dental tourism will put yet more pressure on the ailing service.

Top NHS dentist Dr Trishala Lakhani, who works in London, said: “On TikTok alone, the hashtag Turkey Teeth had over 100million views. You can see why it seems an attractive proposition – some clinics even throw in a luxury hotel included in the price.

“But it is shocking that people on social media have no clue what they have done to their teeth. Everyone talks about veneers – mouldings bonded to the front surface of a tooth – but in reality, they are having crowns placed, which means much more aggressive tooth reduction.”

Dr MJ Rowland Warmann, a dentist in Liverpool and co-founder of cosmetic teeth company Smileworks, receives one to three calls a day from people with issues with their teeth after going abroad – but says her clinic is unable to treat them.

He said: “Some can’t floss because their crowns are stuck together or they’re in pain because they have bleeding gums, but it’s easier for us not to take that patient. At the point when you inherit that patient and do any work, that’s when the problems really start and that’s when the UK dentist becomes liable. A risk we cannot take.

“This leaves patients in very vulnerable positions trying to scrabble around for help and it becomes very costly trying to fix the damage.”

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