How Turkish dentists are filling the rotten NHS gap | World | News

When David Brown, 61, accidentally bashed himself in the mouth with a spanner while tightening up a compression joint on his central heating system last year, his lower front tooth snapped off at the gum line. He also had 13 rotten molars that had been troubling him for years.

“Eating was awful, I was constantly trying to get food out of my teeth as I had so many missing fillings,” he says. “Punching myself in the mouth was the spur I needed to sort out my teeth.”

Unable to find an NHS dentist accepting new patients, the Mancunian builder determined his best option for affordable private treatment was in Turkey “Manchester is terrible for dentists now,” says David. “They have wiped my entire family off the books, after only doing emergency work during Covid-19.”

A private dentist in Manchester quoted £33,000 to fix his teeth – but in Turkey, the same work cost £13,000, including the four-hour flights and full-board accommodation.

“I didn’t want a Rylan Clark ultraviolet smile,” says David. “I just wanted to fix the broken tooth and look as if I have normal teeth, which now I have got.”

Over the course of a week, he had 13 implants, replacing his decayed and broken teeth, as well as six crowns – a system that covers an existing nub of tooth with a gleaming new, ivory-coloured, fake tooth.

“Now I can eat what I want without getting things stuck in them,” he says.

During the pandemic, most British dentists were forced to close their doors. Some never opened them again, and this has proved disastrous for the nation’s dental health.

Almost 70,000 people were admitted to A&E in 2022-23 with tooth decay.

Government figures from the same period showed a 17 per cent rise in the number of children having rotten teeth removed in hospitals – tooth extractions are now the leading cause of hospital admissions for children aged six to 10 in England.

Last year, NHS England reported that 25 per cent of UK residents who needed an NHS dental appointment had been unable to get one. And it is estimated that up to 60 per cent of the population haven’t had a check-up in the last two years. No wonder then Health Secretary Victoria Atkins has called the pandemic-led outcome “devastating”.

Mani Singh, 50, from Wolverhampton, who was forced to go abroad for treatment, says: “I don’t think there is a problem with the NHS. I know there is a problem.”

He had nine teeth extracted inTurkey in preparation for Nobel Bio Care Implants costing £600 each – less than half the price in the UK. “My teeth were loose and could not be saved, and some had fallen out as I’d not taken much care with eating sweets,” he explains. “But no NHS dentist could help me.”

In February this year, ministers vowed to get a grip on the escalating situation, with Rishi Sunak unveiling a blockbuster plan to free up millions of NHS appointments.

However, the reality is that recovery in the sector is likely to take years.

An extensive survey by the BBC earlier this year found 90 per cent of NHS dental practices were not accepting new patients. In the meantime, frustrated patients, often in atients, severe pain, are resorting to extreme, sometimes gruesome measures to find relief.

Istanbul dentist Dr Gulay Akay, 37, who is founder of Turkish dental group Dentakay, says: “We have had patients who have actually pulled out their teeth with shoelaces and pliers, or used glue or putty in their mouths to hold teeth in place. But teeth are not something you can DIY. Some patients use so much alcohol to numb the pain that they become alcoholics.”

Others can only eat soft food. Dr Akay tells of one British patient who devised a homemade brace to stop her teeth moving following an accident. “Teeth should not be in motion,” she says. Another patient pulled out their own tooth in the dentist’s chair after Dr Akay turned away for a moment after applying local anaesthetic.

“They said they couldn’t wait a moment longer,” she recalls. “Because of the problems with the NHS these patients are being forced to live with serious issues. From a functional and psychological standpoint they are in need of help; when patients lose a lot of teeth that are not replaced, they end up with gastric problems and obesity as they cannot chew their food property.”

Chewing on the jaw, when teeth are missing, also degrades bone.

Some of the patients Dr Akay sees are so desperate to sort out these problems they are prepared to fly 2,000 miles to find available appointments and affordable prices.

Before the pandemic, Dentakay was seeing up to 20 British patients a week. Now it is around 75 – or 500 a month. Many are unable to find an NHS practice and they arrive with two main problems – advanced gum disease and problems with misalignment of the teeth caused by losing teeth when young and not getting treatment.

“This is one of the most saddening things, as the effect on your confidence impacts all areas of life,” says Dr Akay.

This was the case for Stefan Hobman, 34, from Barnsley who went to Turkey for two root canals, one extraction, four implants and 22 crowns. “I’ve got misshapen teeth and a bad smile and I’ve spent my life hiding it,” he says.

“I hated looking at my own mouth and couldn’t bear to see photographs of myself. I was quoted £25,000 to go private in the UK but in Turkey it’s cost less than £8,000. My confidence to smile again has been life-changing.”

Half of Dentakay’s patients are now from the UK, and demand is so great that the company has opened two more state-of-the-art clinics in Istanbul, catering to hordes of desperate Britons prepared to spend four hours on a plane to see an affordable dentist.

It has just opened its fourth Turkish clinic in Antalya.

“We observed the reactions British patients were having to our approach and decided post-Covid to expand,” says Dr Akay, who was recently invited to Brussels to discuss patient safety in medical tourism, which is a market worth an estimated £60billion a year globally.

In recent years, the rise of the so-called “Turkey teeth” phenomenon – where consumers in search of a “Hollywood” smile choose to have healthy teeth ground into pegs that can accept bright white crowns – has attracted controversy.

Dentakay has been independently verified to be on a par with the standards required of the Quality Care Commission and is attracting patients unable to find an NHS dentist or to afford private treatment in Britain, rather than those seeking unnecessary cosmetic procedures.

Many choose Dentakay’s pre-trip Q&A session with a clinician in London to discuss their treatment options – which offers additional reassurance given the distances involved.

Martin Barrett, 64, an inventor who lives in North Wales and whose front teeth were knocked out at the age of 20, says: “Seeing a dentist long distance you’ve no idea what problems will crop up, so it was reassuring to talk to someone in the UK before flying out here.

“I had crowns but after 40 years they were wearing out and my gums had recessed, leading to discomfort at the base of the crowns. Also, I had to brush my teeth every time I ate. My teeth have been a long-term irritation.”

Although he managed to make an NHS appointment, this was cancelled three times.

“On the fourth cancellation I was told I would have to go private at a cost of £17,000,” he says.

He spent a week in Turkey for treatment costing £7,500, including travel and accommodation.

As for David Brown, he is happy to have found a dentist he trusts – albeit one in Turkey.

“I’m not going to look for one on the NHS any more,” he says. “I can get to Turkey on a cheap flight for £100 return, walk into the clinic and get it sorted there and then.

“I’ll be coming back to Turkey every year for a check-up. My wife wants to join me next time – after all, it’s a holiday and a medical appointment rolled into one.”

‘When It Comes to Bridging The Gap, I Can’t Fault My Experience’

The marble atrium with its fruit mocktail bar, sweeping staircase and liveried staff feels like the lobby of a five-star hotel, writes Jane Warren. I am one of the first patients to try out Dentakay’s newly opened high-spec clinic in Antalya, on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, where 10 treatment rooms with curving walls of glass transform from clear to opaque at the touch of a button.

After a tomographic 4D scan of my head, I lay back in the massage chair while my teeth are meticulously polished. But the scan has revealed a problem. When a molar cracked two years ago due to the presence of a large, old amalgam filling, I had it removed by my NHS dentist who went private shortly afterwards. I was left with no dentist and a gap in my mouth. My new Turkish dentist explains that if I don’t fill the gap – with a bridge or implant – my teeth will start moving and gaps will appear.

Next thing I know, I am being whisked off to one of two underground surgical suites where a wall of plants behind plate-glass creates a feeling of psychological calm. Twenty minutes later, I have been fitted with stage one of an implant and invited to use the noise-cancelling meditation room to relax after my treatment. Provided with painkillers and antibiotics, it’s the most relaxing experience and I’ll be back in August for stage two when the crown is fitted to the implanted peg of my new Turkish tooth.

Jane Warren was a guest of com Dentakay.com