The Perils of Pursuing Perfection: The Dark Side of Turkey Teeth

The fad for perfectly straight, dazzlingly white teeth started with Millennials, who spend their life online.

Many people live their lives online trying to get as many views as possible, monetising it and in some cases turning it into a lucrative career. But they have to look perfect.

The idea of perfection is driven by the ‘look’ currently acceptable for Instagram posts, flawless skin and blindingly white teeth. Photos used to be heavily edited and filtered to achieve that look.

People began to go a step further, having cosmetic work to achieve the desired effect and look camera-ready in real life – or ‘IRL’ as the Millennials say.

The trend filtered down to people of all ages, creating a desire for perfection.

We are so bombarded with images of perfection that we constantly compare ourselves to these edited photos, or to reality TV stars. Just one casual peek online and the search algorithm will begin to track your interest, targeting you with a flood of advertisements, usually for promises of a perfect smile, at very low prices, from Turkish Clinics.

What few people tell you, especially if they make a living from being onscreen, is that Turkey Teeth look ridiculous in real life.

In fact, the moment reality stars or Youtubers start to make serious money, they have their ludicrously fake teeth replaced by something much more subtle, natural – and expensive.

Good cosmetic work is pricey for a reason. Great cosmetic surgeons like to perform work that is not obvious; not false-looking, and certainly not cheap.

Cut-price cosmetic dentistry is exactly that – cheap and fake-looking. People appear on television wears layers and layers of heavy pancake makeup to keep skin matte and their features stand out.

Super-white teeth don’t look too bad once these stars are fully made up, but if you meet them bare-faced on the street, c-list tv ‘personalities’ look a bit weird. Their teeth look like a white plastic block in their mouths.

They often sound odd too, as the extra bulk in their mouths leaves them unable to enunciate correctly.

More importantly, having a whole mouthful of veneers or crowns placed into your mouth in one fell swoop in Turkey is not best practice, and in some cases, rather unethical.

Destruction of natural teeth and addition of multiple prosthetics (veneers or crowns) can leave space for bacteria to gather, forming plaque that is impossible to reach and leading to infection and in some cases, severe damage.

Even cosmetic work that seems ok for a few years can ultimately start to cause problems – and no Irish dentist will touch it as they do not want to be responsible for the work done in Turkey.

Can you go back to a Turkish Clinic is you are unhappy with the work? Good Luck with that.