Overseas care alert
A leading dental professor has issued a stark warning to people travelling abroad for dental treatment following a surge in patients experiencing painful and botched outcomes
A leading dental professor has issued a stark warning to people travelling abroad for dental treatment following a surge in patients experiencing painful and botched outcomes
Professor Phil Taylor, the Dean of the Faculty of Dental Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, claimed dental tourism was having a huge impact on the sector in the UK.
Professor Taylor said: “Some people have erroneously turned to travelling to places around the world for cosmetic dental treatment attracted by slick advertising showing supposedly massive savings on UK prices. However, this continues to have serious ongoing consequences.”
He warned that increasing numbers of patients who have had dental work carried out abroad were being left in long-term pain both from their teeth and in their pockets when they had to repair the damage caused.
Professor Taylor said the types of procedures being offered overseas could often result in overtreatment, ranging from offering unnecessary procedures to grinding down perfectly good teeth that could have been improved with much simpler, less invasive treatments.
He continued: “With dental implant treatment the failures can be very serious indeed, requiring very advanced surgical interventions to repair the damage that’s been done.
“UK dentists are seeing an increase in this problem and of course the patient has very little recompense, if any, for the poor treatment.”
Most reputable dentists, he added, did not advocate invasive cosmetic treatment as this was invariably unnecessary. “It is important to emphasise that there is no such thing as a registered specialist in cosmetic dentistry in the UK. The profession will though, wherever possible, provide an aesthetic solution to any problem.
“Patients need a detailed quote and explanation of what the dentist is going to do for them, and it would be wise to obtain advice from more than one professional before you make your final decision.”
2 Comments
Dear all,
I would like to write an article for this Scottish Dental Magazine on the co-design of educational resources on oral health promotion for marginalised groups. Who would be the best person to speak about it. I am a lecturer in DPH at University of Dundee.
Kind regards, Andrea Rodriguez
Thanks for getting in touch Andrea, I’ve passed your message on to our Editor but if you want to drop him a note at will@sdmag.co.uk he’ll be able to discuss deadlines, content etc.