New Zealand dentists are warning people about heading abroad for cheap dental work as they deal with an increasing number of botched operations.
A University of Otago survey of 337 New Zealand dentists in 2016 found 96 per cent had encountered dental tourists once or twice a year, usually because they required remedial work.
Dental tourism is already a massive phenomenon in the UK where 40,000 to 50,000 patients seek dental care abroad and is becoming increasingly popular in New Zealand, researchers say.
New Zealanders were typically seeking dental treatment because it was cheaper and they could also go on holiday at the same time.
Thailand was the most common country for treatment with nearly 90 per cent of dental patients having been treated there, the research published in the Tourism Management journal says.