I went to Turkey to fix my teeth on the cheap – it was the worst decision of my life and left ‘rotting’ holes in my gums

A mother who claims she had ‘rotting’ gums after going to Turkey for a new set of teeth says it was the worst decision of her life.

Sarah Watson, from Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, wanted to fix her teeth after they ‘crumbled’ during cancer treatment and was too embarrassed to smile.

But unable to afford the £27,000 price quoted to her by a London dentist, the 51-year-old decided to spend £3,500 in September 2020 to have veneers fitted in Marmaris, Turkey.

The mother-of-two was initially pleased with the results after the dental team assured her that some obvious gaps between her teeth would disappear as her gums healed.

But a few weeks after returning to the UK, Ms Watson said she was ‘afraid’ to eat because it would cause her teeth to move – meaning food got in between.

The owner of the cleaning company eventually turned to a dentist in the UK after she was completely unable to eat, who discovered that the clinic in Turkey had plugged holes in her gums with cement and allowed them to ‘rot’, Ms Watson claims.

She is now urging others not to travel abroad for the same procedure.

Ms Watson was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2018.

After surgery, she underwent 18 rounds of intense radiotherapy and used chemotherapy drugs, which “ruined” her teeth – leaving them “broken” and “loose.”

The cancer treatments can cause changes in the lining of the mouth and salivary glands, which make saliva. This can upset the balance of bacteria in the mouth, which can lead to mouth sores, infections and tooth decay.

Ms Watson said she ‘just wanted a nice smile’ and would have done ‘anything’ to look and feel better.

She initially looked at veneers – new veneers for teeth – in the UK, but thought it was too expensive, so she decided to go to Turkey.

The procedure involves drilling out part of the tooth and applying a thin layer of porcelain over the front of the tooth.

Ms Watson said: ‘I was so excited about the procedure.

“My teeth were horrible at the time and I had been going through such a rough time with the cancer.

“My husband told me not to go to Turkey and have them done, but my cousin had just come back from hers and they seemed good, so I had no reason to doubt them.”

She flew out with her sister Bridie Murphy, 49, in September 2020 to undergo her dental transformation.

Mrs Watson said: ‘You are being told to pay cash for the procedure and my husband took it from our savings.

‘[In the Turkish hotel] I slept with the money under my pillow one night because I was in a panic that someone would grab it in my sleep.’

The day after arriving in Turkey, Ms Watson visited the dental clinic opposite her hotel and was told to hand over the £3,500 in cash.

Ms Watson claims that ‘within seconds’ of payment she was told to sit in a chair and dentists injected her mouth and pulled out some of her teeth, causing her to ‘move and cry’.

She said she was left with eight teeth on her top row and 10 teeth on her buttocks, which were then shaved for the next step of the procedure.

A temporary bridge was placed on her upper teeth and she returned the next day to have the same procedure done on her lower teeth.

Ms Watson was then given a three day break before returning to the dental office to have permanent veneers fitted.

She immediately noticed gaps on the top and bottom of her front teeth, but claims the dentist told her these were normal and they would disappear once her gums healed from the procedure.

That evening she flew home.

Mrs Watson said: ‘[After having your procedure done] someone else is already in the chair at this point getting their teeth set.

“They took out my temporary and put in my permanent. They were done in two minutes. They just pushed them into place.

“I had never seen so many people waiting to have their teeth set. Everyone in my hotel was there for the same reason to get their teeth set.’

Ms Watson said she was initially happy with her new teeth, which looked ‘nice’.

But after her return to the UK, they got progressively worse.

Three months later, her teeth began to move, creating thumbnail-sized gaps around the edges of her teeth, she claims.

This caused food to get stuck in the holes and rot, says Ms Watson.

She was “scared” of eating because she feared her veneers would fall out and constantly used mouthwash to gargle and “blow” food out of the gaps in her teeth.

Ms. Watson contacted the Turkish dental company. It offered to fix the problem but said it would cost £3,000.

Too anxious to visit the clinic again and with Covid restrictions in place, Ms Watson instead spent nearly two years enduring her sensitive and riddled teeth.

She said, ‘Towards the end [when my teeth were at their worst] I couldn’t eat meat and I was so scared to eat anything in case they did [my veneers from Turkey] came out. I couldn’t even eat my dinner.

“I was trying to eat some roast potato and I felt one of my teeth move and it was hanging by the last thread.”

It wasn’t until her teeth got so bad that she couldn’t eat at all that she contacted a private British dentist in May 2023.

At her first appointment, her dentist told her he’d never seen anything like it before and wasn’t sure he’d be able to fix them, said Ms Watson.

She said, “My dentist is absolutely horrified and appalled by what he found in the cavities in my gums.

‘When I lay there [at the dentist]he said “look at this” and he pulled the holes out with cement.

“They had made the holes they had taken the teeth out of and filled them with cement.

“He said this had been rotting in my gums for years.

“I also knew there had to be a smell that haunted me because the food got stuck in the gaps between my teeth.

“When my dentist left the first time, he said the stench was unbearable.”

Now, almost three years later, she has spent around £10,000 to £15,000 on a British dentist to fix her teeth.

Ms Watson is now warning others not to go to Turkey to have the same procedure done.

Mrs Watson said, ‘I never would have gone if I could turn back time.

“I would like to tell them, please don’t do this and let them do it there.

“I’m not saying every dentist in Turkey is the same, but if you get your teeth done in a week from start to finish, there’s a problem.”