No matter where you’re getting your dental treatment, you need to do your research. Doing a few things can help you find the best dentist in Turkey even if you’re unfamiliar with the health systems and infrastructure of the country.
It’s important to note that a dentist can make or break your procedure. It’s true that the specialisation and experience of your dentist greatly matter. But it’s also important that you know how to verify their credentials.
How To Find the Best Dentist in Turkey?
You can try and find a qualified Turkey dentist by doing the following:
Check Out Online Reviews
For any online business, reviews are essential. The customer of a company will tell you how good or bad it is. And you can find many reliable, authentic reviews online on different third-party platforms.
If you’re going with a clinic that has different doctors offering different treatments, you can’t just find a Google business review section for one dentist in Turkey in particular. However, what you can do is go to the reviews and find the said doctor with the simple find command.
However, don’t just rely on Google, as it isn’t as efficient at detecting fake reviews. Trustpilot is even more reliable because it uses independent, automated software to make sure that the reviews are trustworthy.
In addition, it has Content Integrity Agents and Investigators to manually review the reviews.
Other than that, you can check out ProvenExpert, and the social media pages of the company on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. You’ll surely find legitimate customer testimonials there.
You can also ask the clinic to set up a meeting with a previous patient of the dentist in Turkey. If the clinic refuses to do so, you need to look for other options.
Check Out The Before/After Images
One of the best ways to determine whether or not a dentist in Turkey will meet your needs is to check out the before and after pictures of their patients.
Many clinics have uploaded these galleries on their websites, but you should specifically request the dentist’s patient portfolio from the clinic.
In addition, you can check out the patient photos in Google Reviews.
Many patients also record and post about their whole journey on Instagram and YouTube. You can easily look them up through their hashtags.
Seeing images of patients whose “before” is similar to yours, you can get an idea of the final outcome of your own surgery.
You should closely look at the photos to see how the patient is healing at different stages of recovery and if the overall results are satisfactory.
With cosmetic dentistry, many patients worry about the results looking “unnatural.” The before and after images of patients are a great way to determine if that would be the case.
Look Up Your Dentist’s Experience & Specialisation
Most clinics have dedicated pages on their websites about their medical team. From there, you can get more information about the education, experience and specialisation of your dentist. You should also ask if your dentist in Turkey has insurance against malpractice.
In Turkey, dentists need to be registered with the Turkish Dental Association (Türk Dişhekimleri Birliği – TDB) in order to practice.
The clinic should be able to share documents with you that verify the credentials of the dentist, or you can look up information about them on TDB’s website.
Additionally, you should also know if the clinic where the dentist will perform the treatment is registered with the Turkish Dental Association. This organisation has certain guidelines and codes of conduct that the dentist needs to follow in order to ensure patient safety.
Lastly, you should always ask the clinic if any part of the dental surgery will be performed by a non-medical practitioner and whether or not it is legal to do so.
There are some dental clinics that have non-medical staff performing dental treatments after claiming that their dentists would be doing so.
Ask Questions From Your Dentist
Before undergoing dental treatment, you must have a consultation session with your dentist. In this, the dentist will examine your teeth and check the results of your dental X-ray.
They would ask about your specific needs and requirements, and you must communicate these to your dentist. That way, they’ll be able to convey realistic expectations to you.
Before getting the treatment, many people are also unaware of how the treatment will take place, its potential side effects and its recovery timeline. These are some things that you should be clear on.
Ask your dentist questions, as that will also help you gauge their level of expertise. You need a dentist in Turkey who you can trust and rely on to give you honest answers and the results that you’re looking for.
You must try to evaluate how they’re communicating with you. Many clinics have translators accompany the patients to ensure that there is no error in communication. This is even when the dentist is proficient in the language.
You should also see if the dentist is engaging with you and trying to understand your problem rather than rushing things.
If you have dental phobia, you should discuss this with your dentist and ask them what they will do to help you with it.
Inquire About The “Real” Cost
Bait-and-surcharge is as old as time itself. Even though customers have shown an extreme dislike for this marketing practice, it continues to this date. Before booking your treatment with a dentist in Turkey, you should clearly ask them about the actual cost of the procedure.
Be clear on any hidden costs, if there are any. If a company’s saying that their medical travel plan is “comprehensive” find out if that’s truly the case. Does it actually include the cost of your hotel accommodations, transfers, temporary restorations, and anaesthesia?
Dental clinics in a particular area in Turkey will usually have an average cost. If the price that you’re being quoted is way less than the average, there’s something that’s not right. Either the clinic is not registered, the “dentists” are inexperienced, or there are hidden costs that you haven’t been made aware of.
Find Out If You Get Telehealth Aftercare Services
One of the biggest concerns of many patients travelling to another country is whether or not there will be any follow-up of aftercare. How do you know if you’re recovering normally from your dental treatment?
To avoid this situation, find out if the dentist in Turkey has telehealth aftercare services. A good clinic would regularly ask for health updates and assess your recovery via messages, emails, or even video calls.
Here, you should also find out if there are necessary arrangements in place if you need face-to-face treatment.
Medical tourism companies have the advantage of having operations in different countries, so you can avail of health services if you had the treatment in Turkey but are living in the UK.
Ask People You Trust
Considering the popularity of medical tourism these days, many people you know may have had dental treatment in Turkey. A lot of people decide to come after their friends or family members had a successful procedure.
Some even decide to come with their friends as a group. So, as a part of your research, you should ask about the experience of your friend, co-worker or family member with the particular dentist in Turkey.
They’d easily be able to tell you a great deal about them, and it would be coming from someone you can trust.
Evaluate the Staff
A good dental practice depends on a good team, which includes the medical and non-medical staff members. Before you book your treatment with a dentist in Turkey, you should be able to get an idea of that.
- Is the staff responding to your queries promptly and not being too pushy about making the booking?
- Are they fluent in English?
- Are they kind, patient, and considerate of your needs?
These things are important because different members of the staff will be interacting with you throughout the journey.
And you’d be relying on them for different things, which is why it’s important that you can trust them too, along with your dentist in Turkey.
Conclusion
When it comes to finding the best dentist in Turkey, there are a lot of things that you need to look out for.
Reviews are a good place to start, but you need to find out about the credentials of your dentist and make sure to verify them. You should be able to trust your dentist and have a comfortable relationship with them.
When it comes to finding the best dentist in Turkey, it certainly doesn’t hurt to hedge your bets and come up with a list of several candidates you like the look of.
Again, read reviews, look at prices and testimonials, ask previous clients and patients if possible, and trust your own intuition and judgement. Once you have a list of several candidates, narrow them down until you have one clear winner.