What Else You Can Do Instead

People look abroad for many reasons. The British Dental Association reports that 98% of dentists in its survey cited cheaper costs as the main reason patients go abroad.¹ That is dentists’ opinion, not a survey of patients, and it is not specific to Turkey.

This section is not an argument that the UK is better, cheaper or safer, or that going abroad is wrong. It is the counterweight: a plain account of the options at home, so that whatever you choose, you choose it knowing what the alternatives were.

Nothing here is personal medical advice. Our editorial standards explain how sources are chosen, and a dentist who has examined you is always better placed than a website to say what applies to your teeth.

Start with what the teeth actually need

The first step in any plan is to separate what your teeth need from what you would like to change. The NHS describes its dental services as the treatment that is clinically necessary to keep your mouth, teeth and gums healthy, and says that cosmetic dentistry is usually private.² The same line is a useful test for a quote: if a plan cannot say which items are for health and which are for appearance, ask.

The Competition and Markets Authority’s guide to choosing and paying for dental care adds two habits worth keeping wherever you are treated: ask for a written treatment plan, and check the dentist’s registration.³

Less invasive options first

Permanent changes deserve the longest thought. The NHS page on dental treatments explains that to fit a crown the old tooth has to be shaped, and that for some veneers the front of the tooth is drilled away a little; not all veneers need this.⁴ Enamel does not grow back.

Lifespans and the number of visits differ too; our overview of cosmetic dental treatments compares them, and our page on tooth preparation explains why the permanent part matters most.

Before agreeing to that, it is reasonable to ask whether an additive option could achieve enough. Our page on composite bonding instead of crowns sets out where bonding can do the job, where it cannot, and how the lifespans compare. Some teeth do need crowns, and we say so. For how the treatment itself works, see composite bonding.

The NHS route

NHS dentistry is still the route for clinically necessary care, though getting a place takes effort. The NHS’s guidance on finding an NHS dentist says you may be asked to join a waiting list, and you may find it difficult to find a local dentist offering NHS appointments; you can contact any NHS dentist directly.⁵ In England, NHS charges fall into three bands.⁶ Our page on NHS dental access explains how to find care, what it covers, and what to do while you wait. It lists no practices and ranks none.

Spreading the cost

If the care you want is private, you can often do it in stages instead of all at once. Treating in priority order, with urgent problems first and appearance last, lets you pay as you go and keeps the most important work ahead of the least. Our guide to phased private treatment explains what can wait, what cannot, and what to agree in writing. Phasing spreads payments; it does not, by itself, make the total smaller.

We give no prices in this section; pounds appear on this site only in the cost section. There you will find advertised starting prices from our own survey of clinic and practice websites, accessed October 2026, with what they include and leave out: see what treatment costs in the UK and what it costs in Turkey.