Will had Invisalign to straighten his teeth before his wedding (Image: Dentum)
Beaming on his wedding day last month, it was the first time in years that some of Will Goode’s friends and family had seen him smile without feeling self-conscious. The police officer and former soldier used to hide his crooked teeth so much that his partner would joke it looked like someone had a gun to his back in photographs.
Will, 39, says: “I’m quite a confident person but I have not smiled with my mouth open in a photo since I was about 14 — around 25 years ago. My Mrs used to say: ‘Can you just look like you’re happy?’ Even when laughing, I used to laugh consciously with my mouth closed.” That all changed after Will travelled to Croatia to have his teeth straightened at Dentum. The private clinic has seen a huge surge in patients coming from the UK for treatment in recent years — and invited us for a visit to find out why.
Will was able to smile without feeling self-conscious on his wedding day (Image: Courtesy Will Goode)
In an unassuming building in Zagreb, dentists work in brightly-lit modern treatment rooms. Down the corridor, there is a laboratory where technicians craft crowns, bridges and custom components. This set-up means the entire dental implant process can be completed under one roof.
On another floor, there is accommodation for people who have travelled for care, with bedrooms and communal kitchenettes reminiscent of high-end student halls. A noticeboard in the corridor bears cards from grateful patients with messages such as: “Thank you all so much for giving me a smile again”. Another reads: “As a result of my new perfect teeth, I will always have a part of Croatia with me wherever I go.”
Will received free dental treatment during his 13 years in the military but, as a civilian, the cost, waiting times and the memory of a painful wisdom tooth extraction put him off. “I had a really bad experience with the NHS and a private dentist in the UK,” Will explains. “I didn’t go to the dentist for about 10 years because I was so scared.
“It sounds so stupid, but I joined the military really young. You’d think you’d know how to brush your teeth but I never really got taught and that’s why my teeth were so bad.” When he finally decided to tackle his teeth before the wedding, Will estimated that the necessary treatment in the UK would cost £10,000.
After researching cheaper options, he travelled from his home in Buckinghamshire to Zagreb three times at a cost of around £3,800 — including £2,400 for the Invisalign straightening process. His cheapest return flights cost just £32.
Will, who also had three fillings at a fraction of the price his friends have paid in the UK, adds: “I fell asleep when I had the fillings. I never anticipated I’d fall asleep at the dentist because I used to be so nervous, I used to lie there sweating.”
The number of patients travelling from the UK to Dentum has risen steadily over the last four years, with 1,502 making the journey in 2025. The most popular treatment is All-on-4, a complex procedure that uses metal implants to support the replacement of all teeth in the upper or lower jaw.
High-end clinics in the UK often charge a premium for such procedures. Dentum claims it offers the same quality of materials and methods certified to EU standards, at a lower price point. Its prices are higher than some budget clinics in Turkey, but the clinic’s head of sales and patient support Ana Tadin warns you will likely be sacrificing quality if you go for the cheapest possible option.
Carefully consider the risks
Going abroad for treatment means you lose the “safety net” that exists when having treatment in the UK, warns Eddie Crouch, chair of the British Dental Association. He explains: “If you have treatment in the UK, the person providing that treatment will be insured and indemnified for any failures.
“No dentistry is 100% successful and when things go wrong, you would want the sufficient compensation to actually have that remediated. That’s far more difficult when you’re traveling thousands of miles away.”
A 2022 survey of 1,000 dentists by the BDA found 95% had examined patients who had received treatment abroad. Of those, 86% said they had treated cases that developed complications.
Crowns were the most likely treatment to need follow-up work, followed by implants. In some cases, the cost of fixing mistakes exceeded £5,000. The NHS has a duty of care to provide emergency and clinically necessary treatment, however it does not routinely cover the cost of correcting private cosmetic work.
The health service’s web page on travelling abroad for medical treatment advises anyone considering it to look out for warning signs including a hard sell, a lack of information, and pressure to make a quick decision.
A lack of discussion about possible complications and aftercare could also be a sign to rethink your choice.
The UK’s General Dental Council also advises people to be “fully aware of what to expect and what risks are involved”, before committing to treatment abroad.
Dr Bago says his clinic has the right balance between price and quality (Image: Dentum)
Dr Petar Bago, co-founder and manager at Dentum, says Brits are attracted by the clinic’s “good relationship between the quality and the price”. He adds: “I think that we have good quality here in Croatia because we have very good dental schools.
“The secondary [consideration] is always the price in question, of course. For this price that we can offer in Croatia, they cannot have that in the UK.”
Going abroad for dental treatment is not without risks, warns Eddie Crouch, chair of the British Dental Association. Speaking broadly about overseas clinics rather than Dentum specifically, he says some cheaper providers “focus on treatment that’s relatively quick and easy to perform, and that sometimes involves quite a lot of significant cutting of healthy teeth for crowns, dentures, bridges and various sort of implants — things that can be completed within the the period of the holiday.”
Some clinics also offer patients treatment they were denied in the UK because their oral health means it was not suitable, such as implants that are likely to fail.
The BDA is most concerned about clinics in Turkey and India, and the rise in more unscrupulous overseas providers touting for business in the UK by offering consultations that push the boundaries of what is legal for clinics not registered with the General Dental Council.
But Eddie acknowledges that “until it’s readily easy to get a dentist in the UK, people will go abroad”. He adds: “We know there are about 14 million adults in England alone who are struggling to gain access to NHS dentistry, and probably one in five of those have contemplated or have sought further information about seeking treatment outside of the UK.”
Dr Bago says horror stories about dodgy treatment tend to get more attention than positive ones. Dentum’s thousands of positive reviews speak for themselves, he adds. “You can have problems anywhere, you can have problems in the UK. The amount of problems that we have is very low.”
Brenda Brown is another satisfied customer. The Canadian, who lives in central London, had struggled with a misaligned jaw that led to tooth grinding and dental loss. She opted to have her remaining teeth replaced with the All-on-4 method.
She says: “I had quite serious problems and I couldn’t really find anyone I could afford in the UK with the expertise to help me. I started looking at various other countries and an article online popped up about Croatia.”
Booking her first appointment was “a bit of a leap of faith”, Brenda adds, but she met other patients from the UK when she landed in Zagreb and soon felt at ease. Accommodation and transport were all arranged by Dentum.
Her treatment was partially complete when we met and expected to cost £14,000-£16,000, depending on the type of implants she chooses. This is a third of the price Brenda had been quoted in the UK.
Brenda is happy with the progress of her All-on-4 implant treatment (Image: Dentum)
“It’s been brilliant,” she says. “I’m just thrilled with it. Over the years I found myself always trying to hide my mouth which became really inhibiting. When it’s all finished, I’ll have a nice smile again.”
Helen Jones, 71, from West London, was also visiting the clinic for the second time to have permanent implants fitted after temporary ones. She says she was a victim of “butcher dentists” in childhood and did not look after her teeth well as a teenager. Helen adds: “Over the years it just got more and more expensive to have the implants and bridges, and I ended up with gaps. I became really self-conscious.”
The grandmother-of-four first heard of dental tourism in Croatia while out for lunch on Christmas Day, when a waitress mentioned having travelled for treatment. “I was hesitant because I’d seen these horror stories and I was also doing my own research about other countries,” she says. “Dentum did not push me in any way. There was no pressure at all.”
Helen joined a Facebook group for Dentum customers, and spent time asking previous patients questions about their care. Reassured by the feedback, she went ahead with a consultation. She had been quoted £26,000 in the UK for six implants and composite bonding. Dentum recommended a more thorough treatment plan of work on “the whole lot”, at less than half the price.
The UK prices were “just ridiculous”, Helen adds. “And if I had any other treatment, it would be really just patching it up. Things were only going to get worse as I got older. I was quite happy with my NHS dentist, but cosmetically they couldn’t offer anything.”
Eddie recommends that any patients considering dental tourism shop around in the UK first and check any overseas quotes and treatment plans with their dentist. He adds: “Most UK dentists, if you can access one, would actually give you suitable advice on any proposed treatment that you’ve been offered from abroad. I would have a conversation with them about whether they think you are suitable for that treatment.”
Dentum suggests that patients return to Croatia once a year for check-ups. For smiling newlywed Will, it’s a no-brainer. “I won’t go to another dentist ever again,” he says.
