12 Questions to Ask a Dental Clinic in Turkey Before You Book, and What a Good Answer Looks Like

Send the same twelve questions to every clinic on your shortlist, including this one, and compare the written answers. They are the questions British dental bodies tell patients to ask before treatment abroad. How fast a clinic answers, in how much detail, and whether a dentist rather than a salesperson replies, tells you more than any gallery.

Which questions should I send, and to how many clinics?

Most people do this in one evening: five or six clinic websites, the same message to each, then bed. By morning two have replied with a brochure, one with a figure and a deposit request, and one with questions of its own. That last one is usually the one worth talking to, and our overview of dental treatment in Turkey sets out what happens next.

The point is not to catch anyone out, it is to make the answers comparable. The General Dental Council and the Oral Health Foundation publish lists like this for patients travelling abroad. Copy ours into WhatsApp or email, send it unchanged, and ask for written answers rather than a call.

1. Who will carry out my treatment? Please send the dentist's full name.
2. Where and when did that dentist qualify, and which professional bodies is he a member of?
3. Who places the implants, and is it the same person who fits the crowns?
4. Can I have a written plan, tooth by tooth, before I book anything?
5. Does the plan list every item, so nothing is added after I arrive?
6. Which material and which manufacturer for each crown, veneer or implant?
7. Will I get that in writing, so a dentist at home can identify what is in my jaw?
8. How many days in total, and on which days are the appointments?
9. What if the work runs over, or the laboratory needs another day?
10. If you find something at the examination that was not on the plan, do I approve it in writing first?
11. Is the guarantee a written document, and may I read it before I travel?
12. Who answers after I fly home, in which language, and how quickly?

Who will actually treat me, and will I know their name before I fly?

This is the question most quotes do not answer. You are told the clinic is excellent; you are not told who will be holding the handpiece. Dentists qualify at a university faculty of dentistry, so you are entitled to a name, a faculty and a year before you board.

Ask the second half too: who places the implants, since surgery and the crowns on top are usually different people. And a complaint, if it ever comes to that, needs an addressee. Our about us page names the dentist who reviews every plan, his faculty and his year of graduation.

Can I have the written plan before I book anything?

Yes, and if a clinic says no, stop there. It is the only document in this process that belongs to you alone. It should say, tooth by tooth, what is proposed and why: this one a crown because it is root-treated, that one a veneer because the enamel is sound, those two left alone.

A plan built from photographs is provisional, and an honest clinic says so in the plan itself. A photograph cannot show bone level, the depth of an old filling, a crack under a crown, or how you bite, which is what the examination and the digital X-ray on day one are for. Results vary from person to person. Our piece on treatment plans made from photos covers what a picture can and cannot show.

Then ask what happens if something extra is found. The plan should be rewritten and approved by you in writing before anything is done, not sorted out after you land.

Which material, and which manufacturer, for each tooth?

"Premium ceramic" is not a material. Zirconia and E-max glass-ceramic are, and they behave differently: zirconia is strong and usually goes on back teeth and heavily rebuilt teeth, E-max is more translucent and usually goes on front teeth. A plan giving every tooth the same material was not written for a mouth.

With implants the brand question is maintenance, not snobbery. An implant is a system: the part in the bone, the abutment and the crown must match, and the parts come from the manufacturer. A case report in the Australian Dental Journal describes the problem, unidentified systems that even experienced clinicians struggle with. Ask for the manufacturer and for the written record you can hand to a dentist at home. Our dental implants page names the systems we work with.

Not sure which of these apply to your own teeth? Send a photo on WhatsApp and we will tell you honestly, including when the answer is that you need less done than you thought.

How many days will it take, and what happens if it runs over?

Ask for appointments, not just days. Crowns, veneers and a smile makeover normally take one visit of 5‑7 days, with two or three appointments and temporary teeth in between. Implants are two trips: a short visit for the placement, 2‑4 months of healing at home and up to 6 months in the upper jaw, then a second visit for the final teeth. Our page on how many days dental treatment takes sets out the patterns.

Then the awkward version: what if it runs over? Shades come back wrong; a gum needs another day to settle. The honest answer is that a fitting is repeated rather than rushed and the clinic helps you move a flight. The answer to distrust is that it never happens.

What is the guarantee, and who answers at 11 pm when I am home?

Ask two things about a guarantee: is it a written document rather than a sentence on a website, and may you read it before you travel. A clinic that sends the document before you have paid anything is telling you how it expects to behave later. Read the wording, not just the number of years.

The aftercare question is the one people skip and later care about most. A temporary comes loose in the hotel; a crown feels high three weeks later; a gum is sore at midnight. Ask who replies, in which language, how quickly, and whether that person is a dentist. We wrote separately about what happens after you fly home.

Which answers should stop you booking?

Four patterns come up again and again. None proves bad dentistry; all are reasons to slow down.

• A complete plan within minutes, no questions asked. A clinic that can plan a whole mouth with no X-ray, no medical history and no question about grinding has not planned anything. The Oral Health Foundation lists an assessment that skips your medical history as a warning sign.
• A package name instead of a tooth-by-tooth plan. "Twenty units" is a product; your mouth is not, and healthy front teeth get crowned when a package counts in twenties. That is the complaint behind the phrase Turkey teeth.
• Pressure to pay a deposit before you have a plan. It commits you to a decision you have not been given the information to make. A clinic can hold dates for a few days without taking money.
• Nobody can tell you who the dentist is. Three messages in and still no name usually means an agency selling clinic time.

And the honest one, which applies to us as much as to anyone: if a clinic will not answer these in writing, do not book it, this one included. Our piece on whether dental treatment in Turkey is safe makes the same argument: the country is not the variable, the clinic is.

How would we answer these, so you can compare?

• Who treats you. Dt. Mustafa Yunusoğlu, Ege University Faculty of Dentistry, 2015, member of EDAD and TDB, in Side since 2015. He reviews every case and every plan himself. Three dentists work here, and implant surgery is carried out by a dental surgeon specialising in implantology.
• The written plan. Send 2‑3 photos on WhatsApp, with a panoramic X-ray if you have one. A written plan comes back within 24 hours, listing every item. It is confirmed in writing after the examination and digital X-ray on day one, and the amount you approve is what you pay.
• Materials. Nobel Biocare and Straumann implants, zirconia crowns, E-max porcelain veneers prepared at 0.3‑0.5 mm, each named on the plan tooth by tooth.
• Days. Crowns, veneers and a smile makeover: one visit of 5‑7 days. Implants: 3‑5 days for placement, 2‑4 months of healing at home and up to 6 months in the upper jaw, then 4‑7 days for the final teeth, with All-on-4 on the same two-visit pattern. The last day before your flight is a check-up day.
• Guarantee. A written document: 10 years on implants, 5 years on crowns and veneers. Ask and you can read the wording before you travel.
• Afterwards. WhatsApp +90 530 575 47 18 is answered at any hour, every day, in English, German, Russian or Turkish. Chair hours Monday to Saturday, 09:00‑19:00, all year, about 1 hour by car from Antalya Airport.

Finished cases are in the smile gallery, reviews on the reviews page, including a Google rating of 5.0 from 63 reviews, and the contact page has every way to reach us. Send the twelve to everyone on your list, ours included.