Offaly woman reveals how Turkish dentist left her with ‘shark teeth’

Majella Hehir, from Birr, Co Offaly, travelled to Kusadasi in Turkey in August 2020 to have crowns fitted on her teeth and was “over the moon” with the results.

She forked out more than €2,750 for her new gnashers after finding a dental practice on Instagram, but things went south when four of the crowns fell out 15 months later.

The 41-year-old claims the clinic offered to fix the broken teeth for free as they were “still under warranty” – but when she returned to Turkey earlier this month, she was asked to cough up thousands in cash.

“I went down to the clinic and they said to me that it would cost €5,000 to fix my teeth. They wanted to take them all out and put in implants,” she said.

“They gave me dentures instead and I can’t for the life of me get them out.

“I wouldn’t have went back to them if I knew they were going to give me dentures. You can get dentures here in Ireland. It was a complete waste of time.

“I went back to the hotel room and I cried for two days straight. I didn’t know anyone over there and just felt so alone.”

Ms Hehir said while the dentures didn’t cost her a cent, she still had to pay hundreds of euro in travel expenses.

“It cost me €280 for the hotel, €100 for my transfers to and from the hotel, and €150 for my flights there and back.

“I asked them to send me back the money for the teeth that fell out but they said they weren’t going to give me any money.

“It’ll take me a year to save that money up again.”

Ms Hehir admitted she has lost her confidence since she returned to Turkey and is worried that her teeth won’t be fixed by the time she ties the knot next summer.

But getting her pearly whites examined in Ireland is proving to be difficult as dentists “won’t touch” patients that have been treated abroad.

“Irish dentists won’t go near my teeth because they’re ‘Turkey teeth’. I couldn’t afford to get it done in Ireland. I went down the cheaper road and I wish I never did,” she said.

Ms Hehir said she’s looking into dentistry clinics “somewhere in Croatia”, but in the meantime, she wants to spread the word about having procedures abroad.

“My biggest regret is even going over in the first place. I put a lot of trust in them,” she said.

“I just want to make people aware so it doesn’t happen to anyone else. I don’t want them to be conned like I was.

“Think twice about who you’re choosing before you go to a different country to get your teeth done.”