Turkey teeth

Unfortunately (for me!) I’ve reached that age when my teeth are beginning to let me down. Some dental work that I’ve had done over the years is beginning to fail and some of my teeth are beginning to crack up merely as a result of wear and tear and the abuse they’ve been subjected to over the years. In the last few months alone I’ve paid out north of 2000€ for dental work here in France, some of which to be honest I’ve not been very happy with, and I hit the limit when it came to replacing a couple of mighty molars that couldn’t be saved.

My French dentist referred me to one of his ‘colleagues’ near Limoges (yes, I know what you’re thinking, I thought so too…) and my worst fears were realised when I was given a quote of 3880€ for a couple of implants as I refuse to have removable false teeth. The total would have been more actually as I had to pay 100€ up front for a panoramic x-ray scan and there would undoubtedly have been a need for more during the course of the treatment.

So I decided to seek alternatives in the form of overseas treatment. Countries such as Romania and Tunisia were suggested to me but I decided that I’d start off with a search for clinics in Turkey. Now Turkey has a reputation for providing dental treatment at affordable prices but with the risk that you can end up with incredibly bad as well as excellent results for your money depending on which clinic you choose for your treatment. So much due diligence was going to be necessary.

The problem, of course, is that you don’t know what you’re going to get until you get there and even if the facilities on offer look terrific, you have no idea what quality of treatment you’ll end up receiving. For all you know you’ll be worked on by a crooked, failed ex-estate agent who has no qualifications despite lauding themself on their web site and who’s just in it to rip foreigners off for lots of money. Do you know how to make a claim for negligent health treatment in Turkey? No, me neither.

And so I began my search and it didn’t take long to find a throng of dental clinics in Istanbul and Antalya, the main coastal holiday resort. And it was pretty clear that this is big business as almost all of them wanted to provide a ‘dental tourism’ package including hotel accommodation, ‘VIP’ transfer from the airport and ‘Executive’ transport between the hotel and the clinic. At a price.

So you need to cut through all the fluff and concentrate on the heart of the matter – what treatment do you need and what will it cost.

At the ‘brass tacks’ level most of the prices for what I wanted were similar, ranging from 1150€ to 1790€ at the extreme upper limit, for two implants and three crowns. And they all required an initial visit of two days for the implants to be inserted plus a follow-up visit of five to seven days about three months later for the crowns to be fitted. I didn’t bother checking to see if these prices included the VIP ‘extras’ because among all of the clinics I checked, one stood out.

This was because they were the cheapest but on the face of it, their facilities as shown on their web site, were excellent. So I was immediately sceptical. Contact with all of the clinics is by Whatsapp and to be fair, with I think just one exception who I think has still not replied, all were very responsive and free with the information they provided. A couple also asked for a copy of the panoramic x-ray that I’d had done in France before providing quotes but most didn’t and just sent back prices based on the information I’d given them.

I was intrigued by the clinic mentioned above that provided the cheapest quote. I decided to be direct and Whatsapped them back with a message saying what’s going on, how come you appear to have facilities that are second-to-none yet your prices are so low? Usually the two things don’t go together and that makes me sceptical.

They were totally unoffended and replied very promptly saying that they are not in the ‘dental tourism’ business, they do not have to shell out profits to shareholders and they merely concentrate on being a serious dental clinic providing excellent treatment. They pointed out that both of the senior dentists are highly qualified from the University of Istanbul Dental School and one of them is a lecturer there.

I liked that and what more could be said? So I went ahead and made an appointment followed by bookings for flights and a hotel in Istanbul. That was back in July of this year and I went off on a Turkish Airways flight from Bordeaux to Istanbul at 6.00 pm on 4th November.

I like Turkish Airways. Not only do they offer a generous cabin baggage allowance compared to almost all of the other airlines and a low fare, they also fly direct to Istanbul from Bordeaux and they provide a meal on board during the flight. So what’s not to like?

By making a ‘non-refundable’ hotel booking so early, the room price I was quoted was peanuts – just 19€ per night. In fact I mistakenly only booked for two nights when I needed three and when I realised my mistake a couple of days before leaving I booked another and that also only cost 20€. And both bookings included breakfast!

But there ended up being a twist. On arrival in Istanbul I enquired about a taxi to the hotel at the airport and was advised that I could have a ‘VIP’ taxi (a comfortably converted Mercedes van) for 50€ or I could take a standard yellow cab that would cost 35-40€. I’m not a mean type but you can guess what I opted for even though it was gone midnight.

The young cab driver turned out to be very friendly and we conducted a conversation, with him using a voice translator on his mobile phone as he drove because my Turkish is non-existent and his English was not much better. But we had a laugh. As we approached the hotel I became more and more alarmed because not only did the area become more and more dystopian with lots of derelict and boarded up buildings, but finally when we pulled up it was in the pitch black. There had been an area power cut and I was assured by a young man who was expecting me and loomed up out of the blackness with a tiny torch that it wasn’t always like this. But I was unconvinced.

He said that I needed to go to another hotel and we set off on foot, me carrying my case and him leading the way at pretty high speed. After a minute or so we entered into the light and shortly afterwards we were met by another large man waiting half-way down the next street. My companion gestured that I was to go with him, turned heel before I knew it and disappeared to go back to where we had come from. So what other choice did I have? My fate was in the second man’s hands and off I went following him to I knew not where.

In fact it all worked out fine. We ended up at a second hotel which turned out to be surprisingly good. Checking it now as I write this it’s being advertised for around 90€ a night but although the room I was offered wasn’t worth that it more than met my needs. It had a window with a full height curtain that opened onto an outside stair well and you couldn’t see the sky but I didn’t care about that for the time I’d be in it. It had a separate bathroom and shower plus tea and coffee making facilities and what more would I need for the two days and three nights I’d be staying there? God lord, I even got to watch Trump’s election in English on the Bloomberg TV station in English!

Here are some shots of the hotel, first of its outside. It’s the second building in from the right next to the one with the red sunshades over its windows. It’s much like lots of other ‘minor’ hotels in Istanbul, tall and narrow. It’s above a café which I think is part of the hotel because it’s where breakfast is served. I’m not sure if, like much of Istanbul, the premises ever shuts its doors because you enter the hotel through the café, either by a lift in the café itself or up a stairway just inside the café entrance on the left.

And here are some shots of the room I was given. It was room 202 on the second floor. The ‘reception’ such as it was was in a cubby hole on the first floor and after I’d been handed the plastic card that opens the room’s electronic door lock I hopped into the lift and pressed button number 2. And found myself on floor 3. Very confusing, but don’t forget that this is Turkey. It turned out that the ground floor was -1 and you get used to it.

OK, the fan in the bathroom sounded like a monster truck engine and one hinge of the toilet seat was broken, but these were only minor details, petty inconveniences. I was initially more alarmed by what I spotted in the top of the main cupboard.

Then I thought, what the heck, I’ll not be putting anything on the shelf. It’ll be fine. Anyway, it was late and I had a dental appointment in the morning and just wanted to get to bed.

The next day the manager – he said he was the owner but I wasn’t wholly convinced – said that as the hotel I was now in was more expensive than the original one that I’d paid for, I’d have to return there for the next two nights. I said I couldn’t be bothered moving and he said that I’d therefore need to pay a further 70€ – in cash. I offered 20€, he suggested 50€ and we agreed on 40€, which I thought was a result as my three nights only cost 98€, an average of just under 33€ per night. Including breakfast.

It seems to me that Istanbul is very much a ’24/7′ city and one of the advantages of having a room at the rear of the hotel was that there was no noise and I slept surprisingly well. My dental appointment was for 11.00am so I had plenty of time and was able to enjoy a ‘full’ Turkish breakfast – cold sliced sausage, olives, yoghurt, a hard-boiled egg, as many slices of baguette style bread with butter, cherry jam and/or honey as I wanted and coffee or tea. I was also offered an enormous omelette to follow on both mornings, which I declined as the former was quite enough for me.

Then it came time to find my way to the dental clinic. The hotel was in the heart of ‘old’ Istanbul not far from Taksim Square while the clinic was to the south of the city down towards the port area. I asked at the hotel what was the best way to get there. Should I take a taxi or what? Or could I walk it? The manager was installed in his cubby hole and was very friendly and helpful. He whipped out a sheet of used A4 paper, called up a map on his computer and printed it off on the blank side.

He then proceeded to draw the routes I might take on the map. The first alternative was to walk to Taksim Square, jump on the metro, head south to another unknown (to me) metro station, hop off and walk down a road that I didn’t know to where the clinic was located. This seemed a bit sketchy to me, so I asked about walking the whole way as I had plenty of time.

He then drew two more lines on the map starting by heading off in completely the opposite direction, which concerned me somewhat. The route was in two parts. The first part ended up in blank white space on the map because that part of the city had been missed when it was printed off. It joined with the second part inside the blank space and then headed back along what was obviously a main thoroughfare up to the clinic.

I may be getting on a bit but I like an adventure as you’ve probably already gathered by now, so I opted to go for the walking option. I was told that each part of the route would take 10 minutes, or 20 minutes in total, so I got myself ready and departed with plenty of time. All I had to do, I’d been told, was turn right out of the hotel, turn right again and keep walking as far as I could. Then I’d need to turn left and keep walking until I got to the clinic. And by jove, he was right!

The first part of the route was all downhill from north to south towards the port area. I find Turkish addresses and road names totally mystifying but it appears that I might have been on Yeni Çarsi Cd but I don’t know for sure. The route was fascinating, much of it very steeply downhill. Istanbul is a photographer’s dream. Every step, everywhere you look there’s another shot but I didn’t have time. That would come later, on my way back.

Two things there were lots of. Mobile phone shops – everywhere, more than you can count. And cats. Google Istanbul cats. There must be almost as many as there are people. They’re wild but are for the most part well looked after because people have made little shelters for them where there’s nowhere else for them to live and put out food and water for them. And although they’re wild they’re not feral and let you pet and stroke them.

It’s amusing when they decide to sit in the middle of the road in front of an approaching police car, of which there are many, and refuse to move until either someone picks them up and deposits them to one side (the most likely) or the car almost runs them over and they hop out of the way at the last moment. Savvy they certainly are.

When I arrived at the bottom of the hill at the main road I knew I had to turn left. The road was very wide, two-way with trams running in its middle and I surmised that this was the road on which the clinic was located. But I didn’t know for sure. There was some kind of gallery or something just a hundred or so metres in the direction I wanted to head, so I popped in. A young lady behind the desk didn’t speak any English so I showed her my map and the main road. She confirmed with a smile that it was the right one so I thanked her and off I went again on my journey. And sure enough, as confirmed by a helpful lady police officer a bit further on, if I kept walking I’d find it on my left. And I did.

The elderly security guard just inside the front door directed me upstairs and I entered the clinic to a very warm welcome after waiting a few moments after I’d knocked on its door. I was immediately impressed because what I saw before me was exactly what had been shown on their web site.

These were the views from their front windows of the main road along which I’d walked to get there.

I’ll not go into detail about the treatment that I received except to say that it was totally professional and impeccably delivered. All of the instruments and devices that the dentist came into contact with were wrapped in sanitized film that was replaced for each patient and both the dentists and the assistants took the greatest care to ensure that I was comfortable, safe and protected against infection.

I was delighted with the quality of the treatment I received. Before I left I was told that although I’d been told two days would be necessary, if I experienced no problems overnight, I didn’t need to come back the next day and they’d see me again in two or three months time. I was given a prescription for pain killers and a course of anti-infection tablets which I picked up from a pharmacy just down the road and was told that if I was careful I could eat soft food, like soup, pasta, ice cream and yoghurt. So that’s what I had for lunch when I got back to the hotel and as I experienced no problems whatsoever, I didn’t go back the next day.

Then came the walk back up the hill to the hotel and this was the time for photographs. And I took lots of them, starting with a view in a westerly direction along the main road, Meclis-i Mebusan Cd.

Just along from the dental clinic, next to the pavement and the busy main road with its huge volume of traffic, was this lovely little group of cats sitting contentedly in the warm sunshine.

With all of the large number of cats that I saw while I was in Istanbul there wasn’t one fight or indeed any sign of aggression among any of them. They all seemed happy and content and able to get on very well together.

Now more shots as I walked westwards back along Meclis-i Mebusan Cd, the first looking back in an easterly direction. There was an enormous police presence everywhere, traffic police like this one, but also civil police in the pedestrian areas of the city.

After a few minutes I arrived back at Yeni Çarsi Cd where I had to turn right and start the climb back up the hill to my hotel. I continued taking lots of photographs along the way in both directions, looking up the hill and back down from where I’d just come. I enjoyed the experience. The colours were so vibrant and the buildings quirky and all different with none looking the same, and old jammed in against new. I’ll let the images speak for themselves.

Can you spot the two cats in the next shot?

There were cash machines everywhere but this was the only time that I came across a complete bank of them. There were several more that weren’t included in the following shot.

The cash machines were at the top of the hill where Yeni Çarsi Cd intersects with what appeared to be the main shopping boulevard, Istiklal Cd, on which all of the big name brands were situated.

Taksim square, an important landmark in Istanbul, was off in the distance in the final shot above but this is where my phone battery ran out and I had to stop shooting. It was time to head back to the hotel for my ‘soft’ lunch, and that’s exactly what I did.

More about my Istanbul experiences and my Turkey Teeth in the sequel, to follow.