Scores of UK citizens seek dental treatment abroad as NHS decays

London/Istanbul — Once Marion Parks discovered she needed intensive dental work, the 55-year-old decided her best course of action was to leave her small English village to have implants — in Istanbul.

Parks is one of thousands of British people going abroad for dentistry. While once they travelled for cosmetic work to achieve the perfect smile, now many are going for basic dental treatment that they say they cannot get in Britain.

“It’s just a sign of the times,” she said from her home in eastern England, before the trip. “It’s a bit sad.”

Famously the butt of jokes about bad teeth, Britain has a shortage of dentists, ranking third from bottom among 22 of the mostly rich nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in terms of access in 2021.

As problems with a government funding system have compounded the issue, millions of people cannot access a low-priced dentist in the state-run National Health Service (NHS).

With the cost of private dentistry prohibitive for many, the crisis has added to a sense of malaise in Britain, where a treasured national institution such as the NHS is in perma-crisis, with staff on strike, and the cost of living rocketing.

A parliamentary report in July reads in extreme cases, people are pulling out their own teeth — something it called “totally unacceptable in the 21st century”. Charities warn that other ailments will be missed without regular dentistry access.

“I just feel sorry for the people who are in pain in the UK,” Parks later said as she arrived in Istanbul to have one tooth removed and two implants fitted, paying a fifth of the cost she was quoted by a private British clinic.

There are no official statistics on dental tourism from Britain, but interviews with six companies in the highly fragmented industry show UK dental tourism is either at record highs for those companies, or growing rapidly.

Strong demand

Parks’ Tower Dental clinic in Istanbul has treated more than 500 British patients this year, up from 200 in 2022, and it expects that to continue to grow, helped in part by a weak lira.

Other dental companies operating across Turkey and in Hungary and Romania said they are experiencing strong UK demand.

Medical Travel Market, a UK-based consultancy, received more than 1,500 inquiries up to mid-November, up more than 450% over 2022. Dental Implants Abroad says it has served a record number of British people in 2023, helping fly “hundreds” to Romania to get dental implants.

Dental Departures, which says it is the world’s largest dental tourism company by revenue, is expecting bookings from Britain to jump 15% to a record high in 2023. And Dent Royal expects to have booked 600 UK patients to the Turkish seaside city of Izmir in 2023, up from 350 last year.

Eddie Crouch, chair of the British Dental Association, said that the closure of British clinics during Covid-19 lockdowns created a huge backlog and people are no longer just going abroad for cosmetic work.

“Now, anecdotally I’m hearing that many patients are going abroad simply to access general dentistry,” he said.

Vedat Etemoglu, who manages the Tower Dental clinic used by Parks, said there is a “staggering difference” in Turkish and UK dentistry bills, when an NHS dentist is unavailable.

In her case, Parks has an NHS dentist, but the service only provides implants in rare cases — such as when a patient has had mouth cancer — due to the cost. “Implants are usually only available privately and are expensive,” the NHS website reads.

Not working

She was quoted £5,000 for two implants by a private clinic in Britain, as opposed to Turkey where she will pay £923 for treatment including an extraction. The bill includes the cost of accommodation. The flight cost less than £200.

The BDA industry body says the UK system no longer works due to a dental contract that the government introduced in 2006.

It says the payment structure does not distinguish between the complexity of treatments. Many dental practices thus operate on a loss, and supplement NHS income with private work. Many do not accept new NHS customers. Some simply leave the service, reducing access for patients.

“We have a contract that isn’t fit for purpose,” BDA’s Crouch said. “We have a workforce that is leaving in large numbers.” He puts the number of those unable to access an NHS dentist at 12-million.

Parliament’s health committee has said reform of the contract is essential.

The government did not comment on the agreement but said it is making progress and will “shortly” set out measures to improve access to NHS dentistry.

A spokesperson said 1.7-million more adults and 800,000 more children are receiving NHS dental care compared with last year. The spokesperson also pointed to plans, announced this year, to increase dental training places by 40%. Critics have said that hiring more dentists without reforming the dental contract will achieve nothing.

Parks plans to return to Istanbul in April for further treatment. She said going abroad has been a “no-brainer” and she has been impressed with the service.

“It was outstanding,” she said, walking through the streets of Istanbul two days after the procedure. “It has been a very worthwhile experience.”

Reuters