A man whose teeth began crumbling into his food was forced to go to extreme lengths to fix his teeth once and for all.

Summarised from this article in the Mirror – Gohlam Tehranizad, 66, started to notice that his teeth were beginning to crumble into his mouth while he was eating food.

Looking back on his past, the article states: “…from a young age, he would devour lots of sweets and use his teeth to crack open foods such as nuts. ‘I was very careless,’ he added.”

Upon realising that his oral health had deteriorated to the point where he would need the intervention of a dentist, he sought to do so. Upon seeking urgent treatment, he said that he was met with daunting waiting lists and a lack of options with regards to treatment.

He stated:

“They just did basic fillings and told me there was nothing they could do. Eventually, my doctor referred me to an oral surgeon specialist but there was a two to three-year waiting list to get treated.”

Based on the potential waiting times, Gohlam decided that he simply couldn’t wait that long, and would have to be forced to go abroad for his treatment. He initially looked at places in Turkey, but was put off by online stories of botched surgery and other poor outcomes.

He settled upon a dental practice in Zagreb, Croatia upon recommendation from a friend of the family. He underwent having 23 crowns, several implants and other essential hygiene procedures. He paid £12,500 in total.

Gohlam added:

“I was told by my doctor that if I had got the same treatments done privately in the UK, it would have cost me over £25,000.”

Upon completion of his treatment, thankfully he was completely happy with his surgery and commented on how it had changed his life for the better.

My two penneth

This is such a weird story. I’ve watered it down a tiny bit here, as it puts an awful lot of focus on how much this man has neglected his teeth over the years. On the one hand he should’ve maybe thought about this for some years before his teeth got to this state, but on the other – he should also be able to access urgent dental care in a timely manner.

According to some of the statistics in the above linked Mirror article, waiting times should be 18 weeks or less for such treatment, and quite clearly three years is well above this time. To quote the British Dental Association’s Eddie Crouch from the piece “Ministers need to stop trying to fill a leaky bucket and actually fix it.”