Dental tourists face corrective surgery

UP to 80 “dental tourists” will this year have to pay for expensive corrective surgery when they get home because of botched procedures abroad.

Two doctors from the Dublin Dental Hospital have gathered figures for the first quarter of this year which show that 21 patients had to undergo costly and lengthy corrective surgery in Ireland during the three-month period. They said these figures are probably the same for the rest of the year.

In one case, a patient who had travelled abroad had to pay €80,000 on returning home to correct a mistake made by a foreign dentist who gave them extensive bridge and route canal treatment that was not needed.

It is unclear how many Irish people travel abroad for dental treatment each year, but the “dental tourist” search engine, RevaHealthNetwork.com, says it is receiving 100 inquiries a week from prospective dental patients in Ireland.

The prices abroad are significantly cheaper. Dental implants which cost around €3,000 in Ireland cost around €800 in Hungary and €1,265 in Poland. A crown, which costs €600 here, is just €270 in Hungary and €165 in Poland.

One of the major problems was patients being “over-treated”. In one case a patient was given 19 crowns when they only needed four. In another case a patient had 11 teeth extracted and replaced with dentures, when only two teeth needed to be removed.

Author of the report, Professor Brian O’Connell from the Dublin Dental Hospital, said: “Many dental tourists believe their treatment is a once-off event. But the more complex the treatment, the more important it is to maintain regular contact with their dentist.”

There has been no investigation into the number of people “over-treated” by dentists in Ireland.