Patients who travel abroad for cheap cosmetic dentistry risk permanently destroying their teeth. Others return with badly fitted crowns and mismatched veneers that cost thousands of pounds to correct, dentists are warning.

The British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry is so alarmed by an increase in those seeking treatments such as teeth whitening and white fillings overseas that it is to issue its first ever warning to the public this week. 'We are seeing a surge in cases of dangerously botched treatments among patients coming back to Britain,' said James Goolnik, a member of the academy board. 'Foreign dental work is cheaper and quicker than in Britain, so it is very tempting. But no one who knew the real risks would choose to take them.'

An estimated 2 million Britons are unable to find NHS dentists. New contracts introduced last April are said to have triggered a further exodus of practitioners from the service. Prices in the private sector can be high: a check-up costs on average between £50 and £70; a single porcelain crown £800; and dental implants £2,000 per tooth.

For those unwilling to wait for an NHS dentist and unable to pay for private treatment, travelling abroad is the only option. The experience is not always bad, though. Edward Leigh, chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee and Conservative MP for Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, has admitted he regularly makes a 500-mile round trip to France for dental treatment and has urged the public to follow his lead.

Leigh had root canal treatment while on a skiing trip to the Alps earlier this year, paying about £62 for work that would have cost about £150 on the NHS or about £330 privately in Britain. 'I suggest if anyone needs a dentist then go to France,' he said. 'They are much cheaper and far easier to register with. There's no question of queuing.'

Training for East European dentists is of a sufficient standard for the NHS to employ them, but even if their treatment is good, dental work abroad frequently requires a series of expensive trips.

The academy says that as the number of those travelling abroad for treatment increases, so do the horror stories. 'I am seeing a sharply rising number of patients who have flown to all sorts of countries for treatment,' said Goolnik. 'The public needs to be very, very careful. These "holidays" may be very cheap, but the risk is of permanently mutilating your mouth and smile.'

The academy will open its annual conference on Friday with a plea to its 650 members to warn patients that cut-price procedures in foreign countries can destroy their teeth forever.

Oliver Harman, a London dentist, recently treated Naija Jones, 26, a female bartender who needed to rebuild 10 teeth worn away through illness. This would have cost around £9,000 in Britain. Unable to afford this, she travelled to Bulgaria and paid £1,200.

'I was shocked at the state of Naija's teeth,' said Harman, who works at Dentics in the City. 'The nerves had been removed from six upper teeth, and two teeth were taken out entirely, which by Western standards would amount to gross over-treatment, if not negligence.'

Jones now refuses to smile. 'I was almost too embarrassed to even show my dentist what had happened to me,' she said. 'It is going to cost me at least £11,000 to fix the damage. In my forties and fifties, I'll probably lose my front teeth altogether. This was the worst mistake of my life, and one I will never stop regretting.'