How patient stories, photographs and records are handled

Planning treatment abroad means sending photographs of your own face to strangers. That is a real thing to ask of someone, so this page sets out exactly what we ask for, what happens to it, and how to get it removed.

What we ask you for, and what we do not

To give you an indicative plan we ask for photographs of your teeth and smile, a description of what is bothering you, and relevant medical background such as current medication, diabetes, blood-thinning treatment or a history of gum disease. We also ask for a way to reach you and a rough timescale.

We do not ask you for X-rays. Some guide sites request a panoramic X-ray before they will talk to you. We do not, for two reasons: photographs are enough for an indicative plan, and an X-ray taken elsewhere is usually repeated at the clinic anyway. If you already have recent images and want to send them, that is your choice, not our requirement.

We do not ask for your national insurance or social security number, your passport number, or your card details. If anything claiming to be from us asks for those, it is not us.

Who sees what you send

• Our own coordination team, so we can answer you and prepare an indicative plan.
• The treating clinic, once you have asked us to arrange a consultation or a quote. Until you ask, your photographs stay with us.
• Nobody else. We do not sell patient data, we do not share it with advertisers, and we do not pass it to other clinics to canvass you.

Once you are a patient of a clinic, that clinic becomes the holder of your clinical record and its own privacy terms apply to the treatment itself. Ask the clinic for those terms in writing before treatment starts. That is a reasonable request and a clinic that resists it is telling you something.

Messaging apps and social media

Most people reach us on WhatsApp, and it is worth being honest about what that means. A message you send us on WhatsApp or Instagram sits on that platform under that platform's terms as well as ours, including any backups on your own phone. If you would rather your photographs did not pass through a messaging platform at all, email them to info@dentistguideturkey.com instead, or ask us to arrange another route.

We will never post, repost or reply to your case publicly on social media without asking you first.

Before-and-after photographs: the rules we hold ourselves to

Every before-and-after image published on this site meets all of the following. If we cannot meet them, the case does not get published, however good the result looks.

• Written consent from the patient specifically for publication on this website, given separately from the treatment consent form.
• Consent that can be withdrawn later. If a patient asks us to take an image down, it comes down. We do not require a reason and we do not argue.
• No name, no date of birth, no clinic file number and no other detail that would identify the patient beyond their own face.
• No retouching of the teeth or gums, no whitening filter and no lighting change designed to exaggerate the result. Cropping and resizing are the only edits we make.
• No stock photography presented as a patient of ours.

Where a page describes a patient's situation in words rather than pictures, the same standard applies: either the patient agreed to that description or the detail is generalised enough that no individual can be identified.

How long we keep things

Enquiry correspondence and any photographs you sent are kept while we are actively helping you and for a limited period afterwards, so that we can pick the conversation back up if you return, people often plan treatment over many months. If you tell us you are not going ahead, we delete on request rather than waiting for that period to run out.

Consent records for published photographs are kept for as long as the image is published, because we need to be able to show that the consent exists.

Asking us to delete your details

Email info@dentistguideturkey.com with the address or phone number you contacted us from and tell us what you want removed. You can ask for a copy of what we hold, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it entirely. You do not need to give a reason and you do not need to use any particular wording.

If your treatment has already taken place, your clinical record is held by the clinic and there are limits on deleting it: clinical records have to be retained for a period set by the health authority where the treatment happened. We will tell you which parts we can delete and which parts sit with the clinic instead of pretending the distinction does not exist.

Where your details are held

DentistGuideTurkey operates from Istanbul, and the clinics we introduce patients to are in Turkey. If you contact us from the United Kingdom, the United States or the EU, your enquiry is therefore handled outside your own country. That is inherent in arranging treatment abroad, and you should factor it in the same way you would factor in the clinical decision.

Children

This site is written for adults arranging their own treatment. We do not knowingly collect details about anyone under 18 except through a parent or guardian who is arranging care for them and has told us so.

Cookies and site analytics

Cookies, embedded video and site measurement are covered separately in the cookie policy, including how to withdraw consent after you have given it.

This page describes how DentistGuideTurkey handles patient information. It is not legal advice, and it does not replace the privacy terms of the clinic that treats you.