- 30-year-old Ellie Webster revealed she was born without any adult eye teeth
- The chief stewardess on a superyacht, from Berkshire, wanted to change this
- She was close to spending £4000 on what she thought were veneers from a cosmetic dentist in Turkey, before a UK dentist stopped her
A woman has revealed how she nearly had £6,000 worth of unnecessary dental work done in Turkey before a concerned UK dentist stepped in.
Ellie Webster, 30, from Berkshire, was born with a genetic condition that meant that she was born without any adult eye teeth.
Consequently, after losing her milk teeth she was left with obvious gaps where new teeth failed to grow.
When she was about 13 or 14 an NHS orthodontist did a fantastic job of closing the gaps and filing the fang teeth down so that they looked like the missing eye teeth.
However, Ellie, who works as chief stewardess on a superyacht, remained extremely self-conscious about her teeth and avoided showing them in photographs or smiling.
She was close to spending a total of £6,000 to have extreme dental work in Turkey, after a friend recommended it.
The clinic in Turkey quickly sent back a suggested treatment plan, which allowed Ellie to choose different veneer options at varying price points.
The Turkish dentist recommended that she have 16 ‘veneers’ done, with eight on the top and eight on the bottom.
Keen to have the best smile for her wedding day, Ellie accepted his advice and spent £4000 on the veneers and approximately £2000 on flights and accommodation.
Her father and step-mother agreed to accompany her to Turkey in case she needed support whilst there.
Ellie said: ‘I know they weren’t keen on me going to Turkey for treatment, but they knew how much I hated my teeth and how important it was for me to be able to smile on my wedding day.’
However, as the trip got closer Ellie started to wonder if she had made the right decision.
She explained: ‘Having eight lower teeth ground down for veneers when it was only the ones at the top that I didn’t like seemed a bit extreme.’
So instead she began researching for UK alternatives and came across The Vice President of the British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry and leading cosmetic dentist, Dr Sam Jethwa.
During a consultation Dr Sam Jethwa pleaded with Ellie not to go to Turkey for dental work that was not only unnecessary but also putting herself at huge risk.
He was extremely concerned that the work the Turkish dentist had recommend wasn’t actually what they were telling Ellie.
The dentist is Turkey had advised that Ellie have ‘veneer’s but when she explained the process to Dr Sam, he quickly pointed out that these were in fact crowns.
The Turkish dentist described the treatment as wrapping a veneer around the whole tooth claiming ‘they are stronger and better for the bite’.
Dr Sam said that was ‘basically a cheeky way of describing a crown but calling it a veneer.’
Also they wanted to place a lot of crowns on lots of healthy teeth, which Dr Sam subsequently got looking great just with whitening around the ultra thin veneers.
‘He told me that there was absolutely nothing wrong with my bottom teeth,’ explained Ellie.
‘And that he could transform my smile by adding ultra thin porcelain veneers to my top six teeth, which would leave me with a natural-looking smile rather than a big Hollywood shiny one.’
So with the holiday to Turkey booked, in September 2020 Ellie flew from airport to Bodrum airport with her dad and step mum.
They stayed in a villa in Fethiye for a week, but instead of going to the clinic to get her teeth done there, Ellie cancelled the appointment and put the money towards having the work done in the UK instead, which cost £7,000.
‘We still had a lovely holiday in Turkey but I never stepped foot in the clinic,’ said Ellie.
‘Then when we got back in the October (2020) I went to see Dr Sam Jethwa for the treatment with him.’
Dr Sam hand crafted, using his signature smile sculpting technique, a temporary trial smile for Ellie to wear whilst her bespoke ultra thin veneers were being produced by his master ceramist, so she could preview the result, and then she returned to have the six ultra-thin porcelain veneers fitted to the front top teeth.
‘The result was incredible,’ said Ellie.
‘My teeth looked natural but amazing and for the first time in my life I didn’t feel self-conscious about them.’
Ellie tied the knot in September this year south of Barcelona and smiled proudly for her wedding photos.
She said: ‘I’m so glad I didn’t go to Turkey for my teeth, if I had done I would have had teeth ground down unnecessarily and been left with a fake, Hollywood smile.
‘Thanks to Sam my teeth look perfect but natural and from someone who used to hate smiling, now I can’t smile enough.’
The Vice President of The British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry and founder of leading dental training academy and clinic, Bespoke Smile, Sam Jethwa explained: ‘When Ellie reached out to my team, I immediately knew I could help her using our smile sculpting technique, and ultra thin porcelain veneers instead of what she had been planned for abroad.
‘Much like most people thinking about heading to a destination for cosmetic dentistry, I felt that she could achieve her dream smile and confidence, without causing irreversible damage.
‘To carry out a treatment like Ellie’s, with an ultra thin porcelain veneer not only demands high levels of skill for the dentist, but also my ceramist too.
‘It is always worrying when we hear that a smile can be transformed in a few days abroad, using veneers.
‘My advice is to confirm that a crown will not be placed in any circumstance, with any clinic operating in the way Ellie has described.
‘The last thing I want is for people to make a decision, and regret it later, which leads to a huge amount of distress and repeat treatment that was unnecessary in the first place.’
Source: The Daily Mail Online