AFTER giving birth to her baby boy, pregnancy hormones had caused some serious damage to Amanda's teeth and she required dental work. Around this time, adverts on social media were popping up on the mum's phone, encouraging her to fly to Istanbul and get a Hollywood smile makeover. She told Truly: "Does it not make sense to have a full mouth of beautiful teeth? I would be pain-free, my life would be back to normal and I would be able to enjoy being a parent again?" But when Amanda landed in Turkey, the treatment she experienced was nothing like what she had anticipated. She revealed: "I was sold a dream and I was delivered an absolute nightmare." Enduring painful procedures and ending up with a botched smile, Amanda admitted: "I was in shock, I had no idea that's what was going to happen." Back in the UK, Amanda had to shell out even more money to get her teeth corrected, undergoing a process that took 60 hours in the chair. In this episode of Shake My Beauty, we'll hear the horror that Amanda experienced and why she wants others to seriously think before they consider opting for dental tourism. She said: "My message to the world is, no smile is worth dying for, no trend is worth following to be left in life-threatening situations."
Follow Amanda: @amandat1809
Follow Amanda: @amandat1809
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FunTranscript
00:00 My name is Amanda and my turkey teeth went horribly wrong.
00:03 I knew a lot of people who had been to Turkey before
00:05 and they all had teeth done.
00:07 Nobody that I knew had any problems whatsoever.
00:11 I saw my dream and I was delivering absolute nightmare.
00:14 The next one I know, he is drilling down my teeth.
00:17 My mouth was not numb.
00:19 I was crying.
00:20 It was horrendous.
00:23 What the hell have I done?
00:24 Hi, my name's Amanda
00:28 and my turkey teeth nearly killed me.
00:30 There we go.
00:32 Hello.
00:33 Did you have a nice wee sleep?
00:35 Hi, my love.
00:36 Oh.
00:37 I had had a lot of troubles during my pregnancy
00:40 with my teeth.
00:40 The pregnancy hormone had affected my teeth.
00:42 It made them crumble and break.
00:44 I did need a tooth extracted and a canal treatment.
00:47 I missed my dentist appointment
00:49 'cause the children had been in hospital.
00:51 I was gonna wait for a very long time
00:53 for another appointment.
00:54 It wasn't about the money.
00:56 It was about the time frame.
00:57 I want everything done yesterday.
00:59 I was going on Facebook, Instagram.
01:03 This one particular dentist in Istanbul,
01:05 it kept flagging up to me,
01:06 does it not make sense to have a full mouth
01:08 of beautiful teeth?
01:09 I would be pain-free.
01:10 My life would be back to normal
01:12 and I would be able to enjoy being a parent again.
01:15 I was in talks with them via WhatsApp.
01:19 I was like, you know, I need a root canal treatments done.
01:22 They said that that would all be included in the price.
01:25 Also, they were giving me free transfers
01:28 to and from the airport to the hotel.
01:30 The hotel was thrown in for free as well.
01:33 When I landed in Istanbul, the hotel was beautiful.
01:35 It was five stars.
01:36 It was better than I had imagined.
01:38 I was really impressed.
01:39 I loved it.
01:41 When I got to the clinic, it was amazing.
01:43 It was spotless.
01:44 I went into the dental room.
01:47 They were saying basically the crowns were the best option,
01:50 28 crowns.
01:51 And I was like, you know, are they individually crowns
01:53 so I could clean the floss between them and stuff?
01:56 And they were like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:57 Then with the root canal treatments
01:58 and the tooth I needed extracted,
02:00 I was told that I didn't need that done.
02:02 I did need work done.
02:03 But I trusted what I believed to be professionals
02:06 to deliver and do a good job.
02:08 Got all these injections.
02:09 You're going to have dental work here.
02:10 You would have the injections up around the gum
02:13 where the work's going to be completed.
02:14 He was doing injections literally in the roof of my mouth.
02:18 He was whacking these injections in everywhere.
02:21 And I just saw it was the apartment.
02:23 And that's when I know he is drilling down my teeth.
02:26 I was sore.
02:28 My mouth was not numb.
02:30 I was crying.
02:32 It was horrendous.
02:34 I remember my body got like shaking.
02:37 I felt like a fish out of water.
02:38 I was expecting to be fully froze, if not knocked out.
02:41 You know, I wasn't expecting the amount of pain
02:43 that I was in.
02:44 In the space of about two hours,
02:45 my teeth were filed down in the very sharp little points.
02:49 I was in shock.
02:50 I had no idea that's what was going to happen
02:53 from people I had spoken to at home.
02:55 I was showing these teeth.
02:56 It was like the way like a mannequin, like a skull head,
02:59 but it was a mouse.
03:00 And it had these little rows of teeth.
03:02 I thought perhaps were they my temps
03:04 because I hadn't been given any temporary teeth.
03:06 They were dropped on the floor.
03:07 And I laughed because I thought
03:09 there were these false little teeth
03:10 just to show me the shape and the color
03:12 that I was going for.
03:13 Honestly, it was riddling.
03:15 I can't even move my face.
03:17 It's just so sore.
03:18 It wasn't until the final fitting on the Friday
03:22 that I became aware that I wasn't in fact
03:25 getting my individual teeth.
03:27 The dentist was on his phone.
03:28 He was touching things.
03:29 It's cross-contamination.
03:31 And before I knew it,
03:32 the teeth had been glued into my mouth.
03:33 And they never cleaned my pegs.
03:35 They never numbed me up.
03:38 I was like, "Where's my teeth?"
03:39 And they were like, "Yeah, this is gorgeous.
03:40 It's gorgeous."
03:41 "Where are my individual teeth?"
03:42 As soon as I got home,
03:43 I went to the dentist the next day.
03:45 They said they'd never seen a worse job.
03:47 They didn't even fit my mouth.
03:48 There was gaps.
03:49 They were hanging off my gums.
03:50 That side there is in.
03:52 This side isn't.
03:54 Look.
03:55 I'm not happy at all.
03:59 Like, it's not even all right, like.
04:00 It was just horrendous.
04:02 He had told me he would refer me
04:03 to the School of Dentistry in Northern Ireland.
04:06 They do not fix failed cosmetic dental work abroad.
04:09 I was searching everywhere that I could possibly think of,
04:12 contacting all private clinics.
04:13 I just even was looking for somebody
04:15 who was willing to remove the teeth.
04:17 I just wanted them off.
04:19 And my own teeth pulled.
04:20 Just wanted the pain to stop.
04:22 So I took to TikTok in order to share my experience.
04:25 So basically, I'm running out of my dentist
04:27 and knew that I'd got a bad job,
04:29 but it's gonna cost me 18,000 pounds,
04:31 maybe more to get my (beep) mouth fixed.
04:34 The damage that they have done is so bad.
04:36 The teeth aren't even in right.
04:38 It's just (beep) brutal.
04:40 Honestly, please, if anybody else thinks of going there,
04:43 (beep) don't.
04:45 (phone chimes)
04:47 In the process, I came across Dr. Rona Scandler.
04:57 She contacted me.
04:59 So basically, this is Dr. Rona.
05:01 She's given me a complimentary consultation,
05:04 which I am absolutely buzzing about.
05:07 I could actually give her a wee call now
05:08 and let you hear her side of the story.
05:10 Hi, Dr. Rona, how are you?
05:11 - When I saw the desperate situation you were in,
05:14 it was really, really important to intervene and help you.
05:17 She couldn't clean between the crowns
05:19 because they were all joined together.
05:21 What we saw underneath was shocking.
05:24 Some of them were already experiencing reinfections.
05:27 She was getting bleeding and inflammation
05:29 and also experiencing bite problems
05:31 'cause the bite had been done improperly.
05:33 She couldn't chew properly and she couldn't eat
05:35 and had also lost a lot of weight.
05:37 The process to fix this all started
05:39 and involved six dentists, 60 hours in the chair,
05:43 and lots of different factors.
05:45 - Basically, it's taken six hours in the chair
05:49 to get the top three ridges off.
05:51 Financially, it should have cost me
05:53 between 70 to 80,000 pounds.
05:56 I did get a discount.
05:57 We made an agreement.
05:59 I was raising awareness in dental tourism.
06:01 - Young people don't understand
06:02 what they're getting themselves into.
06:04 They look online, they think to themselves,
06:06 I want to have that.
06:07 People are not being given all of the treatment options
06:10 and also they're not being given the aftercare.
06:12 - Papa wants to go to the park.
06:14 Get down, man.
06:16 So we're just heading down to the park now.
06:17 I'm just gonna let the child go on swings for a wee while,
06:19 meet up with my sister.
06:21 Park, you swingies.
06:23 Wanna go on a wee swing?
06:25 Do a funny dance.
06:26 (imitates a swing)
06:28 - So what's happening with everything now then?
06:31 - Basically, that's the correction work's now done.
06:33 I was talking to Dr. Rona.
06:34 We're thinking of setting up like a charity
06:36 to help other people in the same position that we're in.
06:39 I feel good because I've helped so many other people.
06:42 I don't understand why our government
06:45 aren't putting more laws down.
06:47 There was like 23 people from Ireland and UK
06:51 who had actually lost their lives from dental tourism.
06:54 You know, I've nearly became one of their numbers.
06:57 I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason.
06:59 I do have the strength to speak out,
07:02 to raise awareness on dental tourism
07:04 and to prevent the same suffering
07:06 happening to somebody else.
07:07 My message to the world would be that
07:08 no smile is worth nearly dying for,
07:10 no trance is worth falling to
07:12 be left in life threatening situations.
07:14 You know, if it's not broke, don't fix it.
07:16 (gentle music)
07:19 (gentle music)
07:21 (gentle music)
07:24 (upbeat music)
07:26 [BLANK_AUDIO]