Turkey Teeth Gone Wrong

Read This First

The smile in the video is perfect. Even, bright, every tooth the same size. The caption says "veneers". What the caption doesn't say is that some of those smiles are crowns, not veneers, and that to fit a crown the dentist files your own tooth down to a small stump. Healthy enamel you were born with goes into the suction tube in a few minutes. It never grows back. Nobody mentions that in the advert.

That is what this book is about: the part of the package nobody puts in the post.

What this book is

You'll find out what is actually done to your teeth, your scalp or your body in a cheaper treatment package abroad, what goes wrong and how often (when anyone has counted), what happens when you fly home with a complication, and how to plan a trip that protects you if you still decide to go.

This is a harm-reduction book. That means three things.

We don't judge the decision. Dental care at home can be hard to get and expensive. Surgery waiting lists are long. Prices abroad can be a fraction of prices at home. Those are real reasons, and chapter 1 says so plainly.

We don't soften the consequences. Teeth filed for crowns don't come back. Overharvested hair doesn't regrow. People have died after treatment abroad, and we tell you how, using coroners' reports and public-health investigations.

We assume you're an adult who may go ahead. So instead of only saying "don't", we tell you which questions sort a safer plan from a dangerous one, what to bring home, who to line up before you fly, and which signs mean you stop reading and get emergency care.

If you have already decided, this book is for you too. It's mostly for you.

What this book is not

• It is not medical or dental advice. It can't examine your mouth, your scalp or your health. Use it to prepare for a conversation with a licensed dentist or doctor who can.
• It is not a diagnosis. If something is wrong after treatment, see a clinician. The book tells you what to say when you get there.
• It is not a shopping guide. We don't name, rank or recommend clinics, surgeons, agents or countries. Where a clinic or company is named, it is because a coroner, court or public-health agency named it, and we cite that record.
• It is not a how-to. No doses, no do-it-yourself fixes, no tips on getting round the rules at home or abroad.
• MediQuestAI does not sell, arrange or broker treatment. The link at the back of the book helps you keep your records and questions together before you travel. That's all it does.

Danger now?

If you have had treatment abroad (or are on your way home) and you have any of these, stop reading and get emergency care now:

• Chest pain, sudden breathlessness, coughing up blood, or one swollen, painful calf, during or after a flight.
• Swelling of the face or neck with fever, or trouble swallowing or breathing, after dental work.
• A severe headache with fever, a stiff neck or vomiting after an operation done under a spinal or epidural anaesthetic.
• Fever with a wound that is red, spreading, leaking pus, opening up or smelling bad.

Call your local emergency number (999 or 112 in the UK, 911 in the US, 112 across the EU, 999 or 112 in Kenya) or go to the nearest emergency department. Tell them what you had done, where and when.

The full list is on the Go-Now Card at the back of this book. Read it before anything else, and photograph it.

How to read this book

You don't have to read it in order.

• Chapter 1 is about why people go and how the industry finds you. Read it first.
• Chapters 2 to 7 each cover one kind of treatment. Read the one you're considering: veneers and crowns (2), dental implants (3), hair transplants (4), cosmetic surgery (5), weight-loss surgery (6), and fertility, stem-cell and "cure" clinics (7).
• Chapters 8 to 12 apply to everyone who travels, whatever the procedure: flying after surgery (8), infections that show up weeks later (9), coming home with a complication (10), contracts, refunds and complaints (11), and the planning checklist (12).

At the back you'll find the Go-Now Card, the Medical Travel Plan (the checklist the whole book builds towards), a glossary and the full list of sources.

Where are you right now?

• I'm looking. Read chapter 1, your procedure chapter, then 11 and 12.
• I've paid a deposit. Read chapter 12 before you pay the balance, then chapters 8, 10 and 11.
• I'm there now, or flying home soon. Read chapter 8 today, then the Go-Now Card.
• I'm home and something isn't right. Go to chapter 10. If anything on the Go-Now Card applies, go to an emergency department first.
• I'm going with someone as their companion. Read chapters 8, 9 and 10, and keep the Go-Now Card on your phone. You may be the one who notices first.

About the stories

Many chapters open with a real event: a coroner's inquest, a public-health investigation, a financial ombudsman's decision or a published medical case report. We say so, and we cite the source. We give only the details that are in the public record.

Some stories are composites; names and details are changed. Every composite is labelled as one. No composite contains a real patient's words, a real clinic's name or a statistic. The numbers live in the main text, with a source for each one.

About this book

This book is educational. It is not medical advice, and it is not a substitute for a clinician who knows your history. If you have warning signs now, use the Go Now card or call your local emergency number. For everything else, take the questions in this book to a doctor, nurse or pharmacist.

*Facts in this book were checked against sources available in October

1. Regulations on health tourism, travel advice and death counts change. Check the date on any warning before you rely on it.*

Why Abroad

It's 1 a.m. and Jade is on her fifth "Turkey teeth journey" video in a row. Same shape every time: the nervous before shot, the airport, the hotel breakfast, the dentist's chair, then the reveal. White, even, perfect. The comments are full of people asking "which clinic?" and "how much?".

Three weeks ago her dentist at home quoted for the work on her front teeth. She laughed when she read it, not because it was funny. Tonight she messaged a clinic through a link in someone's bio. A "patient coordinator" answered in four minutes. By 1.30 she has a price that covers the treatment, a hotel, a car from the airport and a translator, and the total is a fraction of the quote at home. There's a voice note: "Don't worry, darling, we do this every day. Send us photos of your smile and we'll make your plan."

She sends the photos. She hasn't spoken to a dentist yet. She doesn't know the name of the person who will treat her. Nobody has mentioned what happens if something goes wrong once she's home.