Woman warns against cheap plastic surgery in Turkey after spending $100K to fix ‘botched’ veneers

A woman has revealed how she spent more than $100K on her teeth after getting botched dental surgery in Turkey.

Kim Edwards, from Sydney, had a rhinoplasty in Sydney once before, but it didn’t go according to plan. When she broke her nose, she decided to get it fixed overseas.

However, she figured while abroad she would also get a facelift and veneers done — at a total cost of $30,00.

She decided to go to Turkey, researching clinics by checking Google Reviews, Real Self, Google Health and Trust Pilot reviews.

She settled on a clinic that had a 4.9-star rating and only one bad review.

“Turkey teeth” are a huge social media trend, particularly with people from the UK flying out to have the procedure.

But, due to being under various medications, not being able to understand the language and being in a rush to get back to the airport, she wasn’t completely aware of how the procedure came together.

“I booked for veneers, but that’s not what I came home with,” Ms Edwards told news.com.au.

“I came home with blocks of like four teeth in a row that were joined.”

It wasn’t long after coming home, a block of those teeth fell out, and when she tried to reach out to the surgeon and clinic, she was told she just hadn’t cleaned them properly.

But, she physically couldn’t because of how they were put into her mouth. When she reached out again, she discovered she had been blocked on all social media.

Her negative review quickly disappeared wherever she posted it. Ms. Edwards knew she couldn’t do anything about the Turkey dental practice, so she just needed to bite the bullet and get it fixed.

The bridges kept falling out; they were infected and close to necrosis and Ms Edwards felt “embarrassed” by the whole situation.

She went to many Sydney dentists to fix them but none of them were willing to touch the work of another surgeon.

Eventually, she found the Dental Boutique. It took 12 hours to remove the bridges and a year for her gums to heal. During that time, she had to wear false teeth. After spending more than $80,000 in repairs ove rmore than 18 months, Ms Edwards finally has the veneers she wanted.

Dr Ben Hargreave, principal dentist at the Dental Boutique Sydney, described Ms Edwards’ teeth as “massacred”, saying in Australia there would never be a surgery where so much natural tooth structure would be removed.

“We’re seeing an alarming trend of Australians having extensive, unnecessary crown work done overseas. This often results in irreversible damage to healthy teeth and gums,” he said.

Now, Ms Edwards is warning others who may be considering going overseas to have cosmetic work done. She thought it would save her time and money but it ended up being the complete opposite.

”It’s just a dodgy situation. Instagram is a fraud, TikTok a fraud. Everything’s filtered. It’s all lies. I try to stop my friends and things from going over,” she said.

“If we can help other people save their health and their money, then perfect.”