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 was left with ‘rotting’ gums after jetting off 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 cancer treatment saw them ‘crumble’ and she was left 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 to get veneers fitted in Marmaris, Turkey in September 2020.

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

But within weeks of arriving back in the UK, Ms Watson said she was left ‘frightened’ to eat as doing so would cause her teeth to move — meaning food was getting stuck between them.

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

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

Sarah Watson (pictured before getting dental work in Turkey), from Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, wanted to fix her teeth after cancer treatment saw them ‘crumble’ and she was left too embarrassed to smile

But unable to afford the £27,000 price quoted to her by a London dentist, the 51-year-old (pictured after the procedure) decided to spend £3,500 to get veneers fitted in Marmaris, Turkey in September 2020

Ms Watson had been diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2018.

After surgery, she underwent 18 rounds of intense radiotherapy and was taking 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 may lead to mouth sores, infections and tooth decay. 

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

She initially looked at getting veneers — new facings for teeth — in the UK but thought it was too pricey, so decided to go to Turkey.

The procedure involves drulling away part of the tooth and fitting a thin layer of porcelain over the front of the tooth. 

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

‘My teeth were awful by this point and I had gone through such a tough time with the cancer.

‘My husband had told me not to go to Turkey to get them done but my cousin had recently just come back from having hers done and they seemed good, so I had no reason to question it.’

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

Ms Watson said: ‘You are told you have to pay in cash for the procedure and my husband took it out of our savings.

‘[In the Turkish hotel] I slept with the money under my pillow overnight because I was panicked that someone would take 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 paying, she was told to sit in a chair and dentists were injecting her mouth and pulling out some of her teeth, which left her ‘shaking and crying’. 

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

A temporary bridge was fitted to her top teeth and she then returned the following day to have the same procedure done on her bottom teeth.

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

Straight away, she noticed gaps at the top and bottom of her front teeth but claims she was told by the dentist that it was normal and they would disappear when her gums healed from the procedure.

She flew home that evening.

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

‘They took out my temporary ones and brought in my permanent ones. Within two minutes they were done. They just pushed them into place.

‘I had never seen this many people waiting to get their teeth done. Everyone in my hotel was there for the same reason to get their teeth done.’   

The mother-of-two (pictured before the dental work) was initially pleased with the results after the dental team reassured her that some obvious gaps between her teeth would disappear as her gums healed

But within weeks of arriving back in the UK, Ms Watson (pictured after the work) said she was left ‘frightened’ to eat as doing so would cause her teeth to move — meaning food was getting stuck between them

Ms Watson said she was initially pleased with her new teeth which looked ‘beautiful’. 

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

Three months later, her teeth began to move, leaving gaps the thickness of a thumb nail around the edges of her teeth, she claims.

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

She was left ‘frightened’ to eat as she feared her veneers would fall out and was constantly using 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 worried to revisit the clinic and with Covid restrictions in place, Ms Watson instead spent almost two years enduring her sensitive and gap-riddled teeth. 

She said: ‘Towards the end [when my teeth were at their worst] I couldn’t eat meat and I was so frightened to eat anything in case they [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 on the last thread.’ 

It was only when her teeth got so bad she was left unable to eat at all that she reached out to a private UK dentist in May 2023.

At her first appointment, her dentist told her he had never seen anything like it and he was not sure if he would be able to fix them, according to Ms Watson.

She said: ‘My dentist is absolutely horrified and shocked about what he found in the holes in my gums. 

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

‘They had put in the holes where they had taken the teeth out of and filled it with cement.

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

‘I also knew there must have been a smell that followed me because of the food getting stuck in the gaps in my teeth.

‘When my dentist took the first set off, he said the smell was unbearable.’

Now, almost three years later, she has forked out around £10,000 to £15,000 for a UK dentist to fix her teeth.

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

Ms Watson said: ‘I would have never gone if I could reverse time.

‘I would tell them please do not do this and get them done there.

‘I’m not saying every dentist in Turkey is the same but when you’re getting your teeth done in one week from start to finish there’s a problem.’