The tourist

Hello again, I hope that you are well. As I write it’s really windy with another wintery and windy storm on the way. In my wisdom I thought that it would be a good idea to book a trip up to Northumberland in my touring caravan. With weather warnings galore I’ve taken the sensible decision to bail out. It was enough having a caravan tyre blow out on the M1 last summer and having the motorway closed. My adrenal gland does not need any extra stimulation I reckon. I don’t want to be this.

The Tourist

So, what is Branfield about to ramble on about regarding being a tourist. Well, it’s something I’ve never mentioned before in Cottingham times in nearly 13 years and hardly at all anywhere else to be honest. However, I think that it is time that I just mentioned something. It’s about dental tourism.

On the forums

I’m a member of a few dental forums and Facebook groups etc. It often comes up about the dilemmas of trying to sort out failed dentistry that has arisen after cut price dental treatment abroad (dental tourism). A lot of the dentists do not want to get involved as they do not want to take ownership of other peoples’ work gone wrong. I have seen patients that have been abroad and had very extensive work done that has gone catastrophically wrong and they get upset when you explain that you have start all again from the start with planning and that there is no quick fix or patch up that can be done. So, I can understand the reticence of some. It is often more expensive to try and sort out than it would have been to do in the first instance. I am in no way saying that there is only good dentistry in the UK. Far from it. I have seen speakers from all over the world speak and teach me and their work is exceptional. However, I do not think that these people have adverts for cut price dentistry with air fares and hotels included and it only takes a few days to complete start to finish.

Minimally invasive dentistry

Over the years I have harped on about minimal invasive dentistry and trying keep as many of the teeth and as much of the tooth structure as possible to prevent teeth breaking or abscessing. Grinding teeth down a lot or too much leads to these complications and you can end up with tooth loss. I have gone about adhesive dentistry and bonding to minimise biological and structural complications. Veneers should be minimally invasive. However, Katie Price has openly shared pictures of herself online with the extensive grinding down her teeth to have extra white ceramic put on. Be warned it’s not that healthy and should be avoided if possible. However, I’ve seen this several times after dental tourism. People have got angry and aggressive with me when it has failed, and I cannot just fix it. You can only do what you can do with what you’ve got to work with.

Bottom Line

Do your research and ask questions. The thing is that in the UK there loads of regulation to the point of over regulation. Going cheap can often be a false economy. Doing things fast can often be a temporal false economy. Careful planning and slow and steady can win the race. You want things to work and to last.

That’s it. I’ll shut up now.

Until next time. Take care and be good.