Turkey teeth: what to understand before cosmetic dentistry abroad

Travelling abroad for dental treatment is legal, common and, for plenty of people, uneventful. This post is not an argument against it. It is about one specific thing that goes wrong often enough to be worth writing down: people coming home believing they have had composite bonding or minimal-prep veneers, and discovering later that their teeth were prepared for crowns.

The distinction sounds technical. It is not. It is the difference between a treatment you can undo and one you cannot.

Bonding, veneers and crowns are not variations of the same thing

These three treatments sit on a spectrum of how much natural tooth is removed to make room for the restoration.

• Composite bonding. Tooth-coloured material is added to the surface of the tooth, usually with little or no enamel removed. Because it is additive, it is the most conservative of the three and is generally reversible.
• Minimal-prep or laminate veneers. A thin layer of enamel is removed, in the region of 0.3 to 0.5mm, and a porcelain facing is bonded on. Enamel does not grow back, so this is a permanent commitment, but the body of the tooth is left intact.
• Crowns. The tooth is reduced on all sides so the crown can fit over it. A substantial proportion of the natural tooth is removed, commonly cited as around 60 to 70 per cent. Crowns are the right treatment for a heavily broken down or root-treated tooth. They are a large intervention for a healthy tooth that is simply the wrong shade or shape.

All three have a legitimate place. The problem is not crowns. The problem is having crowns when you believed you were having something else.

Why the mix-up happens

Two ordinary pressures explain most of it.

The first is time. A treatment package built around a short trip has to deliver a finished result in days. Preparing teeth for crowns and fitting them quickly is a predictable way to do that. Bonding and minimal-prep veneers on a full smile are slower and more technique-sensitive.

The second is language. Terms like veneer, bonding and crown are used loosely in marketing everywhere, including in the UK. If nobody sits down and says how much tooth is coming off, it is very easy to agree to something you have not understood.

Neither of these is unique to any one country, and it is not our place to comment on individual clinics. What matters is that consent is only meaningful if you knew what was being removed.

What we see when it has not gone to plan

The British Dental Association has reported that 86 per cent of UK dentists surveyed had treated patients with complications following dental treatment abroad. At our own practice, the problems that come through the door most often are sensitivity or nerve pain in heavily prepared teeth, bite problems, gum inflammation around the margins of new crowns, and restorations that have failed sooner than expected.

Some of these are treatable. Some are not straightforward. Nerve damage in a heavily reduced tooth can lead on to root canal treatment, and occasionally to losing the tooth.

The long-term arithmetic

This is the part that is easiest to miss when comparing prices.

Crowns and porcelain veneers do not last forever. Estimates of 10 to 15 years are commonly quoted, and individual results vary widely with the tooth, the bite and how well it is cleaned. When a restoration reaches the end of its life, you do not return to your natural tooth, because that tooth was reshaped years earlier. You replace the restoration, and you keep replacing it.

So the honest comparison is not one price against another. It is one price against a lifetime of replacements, plus the cost of anything that needs correcting along the way. That is true of crowns done in Manchester as well. It is simply more consequential when a lot of healthy tooth was removed early in life.

The NHS will not fund cosmetic corrections

Worth knowing before you travel. NHS dentistry covers treatment that is clinically necessary, including pain and infection. It does not cover cosmetic repair or replacement of private or overseas cosmetic work. Some UK dentists also decline to take on corrective work where they cannot verify what materials or techniques were used, which is a liability position rather than a judgement about the patient.

Five questions to ask, wherever you are treated

1. How much tooth structure will be removed? Ask for it in millimetres or as a proportion, not as a reassurance.
2. Is this reversible? If the answer is no, you are not having composite bonding.
3. What are my more conservative options, and why are you not recommending them? There is usually an answer. You are entitled to hear it.
4. What happens when this needs replacing, and roughly when?
5. Who fixes it if something goes wrong six months from now, and what would that cost? Aftercare across borders is the part most packages do not cover.

Ask these of us as readily as you would ask them of anyone else.

If you have already had treatment abroad

If something feels wrong, get it looked at rather than waiting. Bite problems, ongoing sensitivity and sore gums are all easier to deal with early. Bring anything you were given: treatment notes, receipts, a materials list, before and after images. It all helps.

A new patient examination is £35 and is the right appointment for an assessment and a second opinion. We will tell you what we can see, what we would do about it and what it would cost, including the option of doing nothing for now if that is reasonable.

Our approach at Sale Dental Spa

We start with the most conservative option that will actually achieve what you want, and we say so when a conservative option will not achieve it. Sometimes crowns genuinely are the answer.

Current fees: composite bonding from £300 per tooth, Smile Design Bonding £400 per tooth, porcelain veneers £1,200 per tooth as a complete package, and Invisalign from £2,200 where straightening the teeth first would reduce how much work is needed. A Smile Design consultation is free. Everything else is on the fees page.

Read more about composite bonding, porcelain veneers and Smile Design, or book at sale-dental-care.portal.dental. You can also call us on 0161 969 7464.

Thinking about implants abroad as well? Read dental implants abroad: what to know before you book, and Jade Morgan’s story of veneers abroad.