Siobhan Hayes thought she had done everything right before jetting off to Hungary for dental work, but once in the dentist's chair in Budapest things started to go horribly wrong.

"I though I had done my homework," Siobhan recalls.

After wearing dentures for many years, she was keen to get implants and also needed a number of crowns. But rather than rushing into the decision, she researched her options, then went to an agency in London for a consultation and finally made an appointment with a recommended clinic in Budapest.

While the preparatory work for the implants was being carried out on her first trip, Siobhan was told that her existing bridgework was loose and needed to be replaced.

When she returned three months later to get the remaining work done, she decided to take the dentist's advice on the bridgework. After all, the full treatment - including two implants, 12 crowns and the bridgework - would still cost her less than €5,000.

The extra treatment entailed paring down nine of her bottom teeth. As this was being done, Siobhan realised that she was making a mistake but felt that it was too late to stop. "I let them vandalise perfectly good teeth," she says.

To make matters worse, the nine local anaesthetic injections she received began wearing off as work on each tooth began, so Siobhan was in tremendous pain. "The dentist was very, very unsympathetic. She thought my pain was imaginary."

Siobhan quickly developed a severe mouth infection and her bottom teeth were very crooked, but at that point she didn't care - she just wanted to get home. "I went over there scared," Siobhan says. "I came home petrified."

Siobhan estimates that she has taken 1,000 painkillers over the last year since the dental work was carried out.

A trip to the dental hospital in University College Cork confirmed that she had been overtreated, so two weeks ago she made a third trip to Budapest, this time to confront the clinic.

They agreed with the dental hospital's assessment and said that she had "too much porcelain" in her mouth. They offered to correct it, but Siobhan would have to fly over to Budapest five or six times.

She is hoping instead to get the necessary corrective treatment carried out at UCC Dental Hospital but is still waiting to hear back from the owner of the clinic as to whether they will cover the costs. In the meantime she has to continue taking three painkillers a day.