If you’ve had the displeasure of getting any sort of serious dental work, you know that it is NOT cheap in the west. Tons of people forego treatment for financial reasons in North America and in Europe, which can lead to some serious issues.
Nomads already optimize their cost of living by leveraging their location independence, so, what if you could do the same for dental work? This is where dental tourism comes in.
Now this is not a new concept, as places like Thailand and Mexico have been destinations for people looking to save on dental treatment costs for a while. However, what’s rather new, is Turkey’s unique position in this market.
Thanks to a combination of it’s low cost of living, devalued currency, and European standards (due to it’s geographic position), Turkey has quickly become one of the top destinations for dental tourism. Here you can find quality work, at a fraction of the cost you would pay in Europe or North America.
I’ve personally experienced this in 2022 as I made my way to Izmir to get a complete smile makeover.
After doing some research on various dental tourism sites and review aggregators, I picked a clinic called WestDent. I reached out to them and explained what I was looking for – they then called me a few days later for a video consultation with a dentist and translator. I was then given a video tour of the clinic, which made me feel a bit more at ease that this is a legitimate clinic with modern equipment.
Within a couple more days, I received a quote, which was about 20% of what I would have paid in Canada. We scheduled the appointment, and I booked tickets for a couple weeks on the Aegean coast!
Fast forward two months, and I land in Izmir, where the clinic’s translator picks me up. Normally the clinic books accommodations for their clients, but as an experienced nomad, I had already booked an AirBNB apartment, so they dropped me there. The next day, we went to the clinic for the initial inspection and some x-rays, where I met the dentists who would perform my dental work. We made some small changes to my initial plan based on the results of this initial exam, and scheduled the first treatment visit for the next day. I was then driven back home and did some exploring in the city.
Throughout the experience, the staff was great and the service exceeded my expectations. From being picked up and dropped off at my apartment for every visit at the clinic in a fancy Benz van with leather captain seats, to all the extra visits I had during my 2 week stay as the team wanted to make sure everything was perfect, it was a breath of fresh air to work with dentists who seemingly cared more about the result than how much they make off of me.
The smile makeover itself was fantastic and it’s improved my quality of life immensely. I used to cover my mouth when laughing because I was so self conscious of my bad teeth and smile, and since then I just smile all the time – with all the benefits that provides!
The before and after my dental treatment
As you can see, it’s night and day, and looks even better now that the crowns have settled in to my gums. The boost in confidence and just in dopamine from smiling more has had great benefits on my life overall.
If you’d like to find out more about the clinic I used, here is their website: https://westdentclinicturkey.com/
I’d also like to point out that I do not receive any compensation from this clinic, so this is a totally unbiased review based on my experience with WestDent in June of 2022.
If you have any questions, feel free to comment on this post and I’ll try to be as helpful as possible!
