Dental patients in the North East of Scotland are opting to fly to Turkey in a bid to save money on dental treatment and avoid ever-increasing NHS waiting lists.
Turkey has become the latest of several overseas destinations where dentists are willing to treat British patients for a fraction of the UK cost.
Dental 1 Holidays caters to such patients by organising holidays to Turkey with the cost of dental work included.
Forty nine-year-old Lee Noble, from Aberdeen, setup the company after being impressed with the facilities and quality of treatment by dentists in the country.
"I was out there a few years ago and needed work done on some teeth and a business partner suggested that I look at getting them done there," he commented.
"I was unsure, but I saw the facilities there and the treatment I got was very good. The training they get in Turkey is even stricter than dentists in the UK."
Aberdeen-based Dental 1 Holidays sends its customers to Fethiye, situated on the south west coast of Turkey, where cosmetic treatment such as dental implants can be carried out for £795, compared to the average cost of around £1,700 for private patients in the UK.
In 2008 the company took 350 inquiries for overseas dental work, with 84 of them going ahead with the treatment .
The surge in dental tourism among Scots comes as access to NHS dentists in certain parts of the country remains low. Latest figures show that NHS waiting lists have now reached nearly 31,000 in the North East of Scotland alone.
