Birmingham First Dates star: 'I spent £80k to fix my teeth after years of pain and mental torture'

A First Dates star who spent almost two years with teeth issues says he splashed out a total of £80k to fix them.

Danny Bennett's ordeal began in March 2021 when his jaw got infected. This meant he had to have all his teeth removed, and he assumed he'd quickly be sorted with a new set.

However, Danny, 39, says he had "peg things" fitted by a dentist in the UK - which remained for 14 months. He then decided to jet off to Turkey to get his smile fixed - but he wasn't happy with those results either. Danny, a late-night hospitality worker from Birmingham, has since had his teeth fixed after reaching out on TikTok.

But he wants to warn other people over his dentistry woes - and says it can be expensive. He said: “It has been years of agony, pain, and mental torture. I still don’t understand how it all happened. I couldn’t even talk to people at work. I’d be in a heated discussion and my teeth would fall out.

“I have to laugh about it now but it was horrific - I’m still not fully in a good place mentally. It’s ruined me. It’s horrible.” Danny is a former cocaine addict. He says the abuse ruined his teeth in his 20s so, in his 30s, he decided to get them fixed. An initial treatment in 2021 all went well.

But then his jaw got infected. Danny got in touch with a new dentist who said he could redo his teeth after the infection had been treated. But after some several appointments in the UK, he was told he would have to look elsewhere to sort out his smile.

By this point he had been living for a year with just "peg things", he claims. His entire diet was reduced to "soups, shakes, and soggy bread" - while his romantic life was non-existent and he had very low self-esteem, he said.

Danny said: “They looked and felt terrible." He then went to Turkey in July 2022.

However when it came to the final day of fitting, he was informed after the operation that he had been fitted with teeth all connected together, and not individually. Danny said: “I kicked off.

“I don’t know why they did that and didn’t listen. I was furious.”

Once he got home he began ringing them constantly and they agreed to re-do the op a few weeks after the previous one. But he was again disappointed.

Danny said: “I got to the point where I was really upset but at least I could eat properly and actually use them.” However, within three days of getting his second set of teeth, Danny brushed his teeth and went to bed, only to wake up to find they had all fallen out.

“I was in total panic,” he said.

He then had to resort to gluing his teeth on manually, which he had to re-do every three hours. Danny said: “My mental health was awful, I had always suffered with anxiety, but this was making it even worse, my head was totally gone.”

In a pit of despair, Danny said he was on the brink of having a breakdown. Danny got into bed one night in tears, but had a lightbulb moment.

He said: “As a last resort I thought I’d see what powers of TikTok have got. He published a video describing his ordeal, and begging for a dentist to take him on. The video attracted 3 million views, and lots of people got in touch. He finally got treated by Harley Private Dental, in Sheffield, having to visit every other week to put in new, individual teeth.

Danny said: "I had to have lots of photos taken, preps for operations, x-rays, route canals, and have my gums pulled back." He finally has individual crowns which don’t fall out and don’t hurt, with the final operation taking place three weeks ago.

Danny now has a strong social media following which he uses to talk about mental health and addiction recovery. “I’m so glad it’s all over, but I think it will take years for me to feel fully myself again.”