BANGKOK, Aug 21 — Thailand may be known as the Land of Smiles, but visitors looking to spruce up their teeth should take care to check who is holding the dental tools.

Thai police arrested five people yesterday accused of providing dental or medical services without licences in Bangkok, Samut Sakhon and Samut Prakan, seizing more than 1,000 items of medical and dental equipment, local news outlet The Thaiger reported.

The Central Investigation Bureau’s Consumer Protection Police Division carried out searches at five locations on Thursday with public health officials and other agencies.

Four people were arrested over alleged unlicensed dental work, while a fifth was accused of practising medicine without a licence.

Police seized 1,058 items comprising 56 types of dental materials, medical equipment and unregistered medicines, with the haul valued at more than 330,000 baht (RM40,700).

Some of the alleged dental services were offered from converted homes and roadside premises, including dentures, retainers and so-called fashion braces.

In Samut Sakhon’s Krathum Baen district, officers allegedly caught a 30-year-old woman fitting fashion braces on a customer using a mouth retractor and dental etching solution.

The woman reportedly told police she had taught herself the procedures through YouTube, practised on her own teeth and later advertised the services on social media.

She reportedly earned more than 15,000 baht (RM1,850) a month from the unlicensed work.

Elsewhere, police found a 61-year-old man allegedly making dental impressions and dentures from his home after previously working at a dental laboratory, while a 44-year-old former dental technician was accused of making retainers from her home.

In Bangkok, officers also arrested a 56-year-old woman allegedly making and repairing dentures at a roadside shop, where they seized more than 500 resin dentures and dental tools.

The fifth suspect, a 26-year-old woman with a nursing degree, was allegedly caught administering an intravenous vitamin drip at a beauty clinic in Samut Prakan without a doctor supervising the procedure, with police also seizing unregistered medicines.

All five were charged with providing medical or dental services without the required licences and were handed over to investigators for further legal proceedings, according to police.