A grandad looks '10 years younger' after having 27 broken teeth removed and replaced with implants in Turkey - and has smiled for the first time in 30 years.<br /><br />Steve Kemsley, 50, spent years in pain and felt embarrassed to smile after a childhood of neglected oral hygiene left him with broken teeth.<br /><br />The dad-of-two couldn't afford a set of pearly whites in the UK so jetted off to Antalya, Turkey, to have his teeth removed and replaced with implants for £6,400.<br /><br />Steve said his new gnashers have given him a "new lease of life", people tell him he looks a decade younger and now can't stop beaming.<br /><br />Steve, an HGV driver, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, said: “Every time I laughed, I’d cover my mouth.<br /><br />"Every time I smiled, I didn’t open my mouth. It was getting to the point they were falling out and it was painful at times.<br /><br />"I’ve had so many comments on how good they look and how happy I seem.<br /><br />“My confidence has grow. It’s been an amazing journey for me. It has given me a new lease of life.<br /><br />"People have said I look an act a completely different person - it's taken 10 years off me.”<br /><br />Steve had 27 old and broken teeth and had lost five after not brushing his teeth as a child.<br /><br />He said: "Like a lot of kids in the 70s and 80s you weren’t encouraged to brush your teeth, I was only interested in football.<br /><br />“It never really bothered me until later in life when they started to get bad.”<br /><br />Steve started looking into options to fix his teeth but couldn't afford the £21,000 fee he was quoted for veneers in the UK.<br /><br />Desperate to have them fixed, he looked into dentists abroad and found Dental Wise Turkey - which quoted £6,400 for the surgery, accommodation and travel.<br /><br />Steve said: “They were fantastic. I was treated like a king throughout the whole process. You get to stay in a five-star hotel, and they drive you to every appointment.<br /><br />"It was incredible for the money - I only had to pay for the flight as an additional cost.”<br /><br />Steve used the inheritance from his late uncle, Michael Kemsley, to pay for the treatment and he flew out to Antalya, Turkey in April 2023.<br /><br />He said: "Initially it is lots of calls and WhatsApp messaging - pictures and videos of my teeth - and then I had to fly out for a week to get my old and broken teeth taken out.”<br /><br />He had a three-hour procedure in Turkey to take his teeth out before then having five implants installed in the top of his mouth and another five on the bottom.<br /><br />Steve sad: “I had to wait four months for the implants to heal over and stitches come out before I could go back.”<br /><br />Steve spent the four months healing and lost three stone in the process by switching up his diet.<br /><br /> He said: “A month before Turkey, I wanted to start looking after myself, I started to exercise and went on a diet.<br /><br />"My healing period actually helped that, as I was only able to eat soft foods. I was forced to stay healthy that way, only eating foods like rice, pasta, omelette.<br /><br />"I’m still adjusting to eating and chewing with new teeth now, it feels completely different.”<br /><br />Steve flew back out in September 2023 and the teeth were finally fixed into the mouth.<br /><br />He said: “It threw me. I was absolutely gob smacked.<br /><br />"I was really overwhelmed when I saw them because I hadn’t had a smile like that in the best part of 30 years.<br /><br />“For the first time in years I could smile and laugh without covering my mouth.”<br /><br />Steve wants to encourage others, who may feel insecure about their smiles, to do the same as him.<br /><br />He said: “When I came back, I went to visit my two-year-old granddaughter. I smiled at her, and she looked at me and went ‘teeth! Teeth!’."<br /><br />“There's a tag on veneers, everyone calls them Turkey teeth. I don’t think that’s fair. They do an amazing job over there. <br /><br />“I really can’t recommend it enough to anyone who wants to do it. This one thing of just getting my teeth done has completely changed my life for the better.<br /><br />“Apart from my kids and grandkids this is the best thing that’s happened to me.”
