Dental treatment abroad

[TheDogthatDug]

Posted here traffic
Has anyone had dental treatment abroad? What were your experiences and can you recommend the dentist?
I am booked to start implant treatment here in a few weeks and the cost is horrendous. I am more than willing to go abroad if some has had good experiences. No, I don't want Turkey teeth. Thankyou

Highly recommended the Hungarian Dental Centre. I had a free consultation and x-ray in London and was given a full print out of costs for both London and Hungary, and the time frames. I then met the same dentist out in Budapest for the treatment a few months after.
Nearly every patient there was British and there were people having all sorts of treatments. I had a small problem when I came back home and they saw me in London to check it for free too.

Just got back from a trip to Poland (Krakow) for a dental implant for my front tooth. Got quoted £4k+ here. It cost £2k in Krakow.

2 trips were needed. 6 months apart. Temp bridge in place between appointments, it did break about 5 months in but I kept gluing it with fixodent.

Had a lovely 2 holidays whilst there. Saw Auschwitz and the Salt mines.

Would highly recommend. The dental place I visited was called Dentestica. I organised it through dentaltrips . Ie (remove space). They all spoke varying degrees of English and it was actually mostly English patients there!

They organized a taxi from the hotel but if you want to use uber it is unbelievably cheap and about 20 minutes from Krakows old town (the place to be!).

Front tooth looks perfect, you wouldn’t know it was an implant.

My husband had his treatment in Turkey. We've holidayed in Turkey for years and were aware of a highly rated dental clinic in the area. He began by having some check ups and repair work done over the years before having them all replaced with crowns in 2021

It was a state of the clinic that's been there for 15 years with the same dentist at the helm. This dentist doesn't do a package to travel for treatment as I've seen some advertise but you can contact them directly and they will speak to you via WhatsApp prior to your visit and talk through a treatment plan. This is not a clinic promoted by Instagram influencers although a lot of older travellers from the uk seem to go there.

The treatment from start to finish was outstanding and at least a quarter of the price you'd pay here. Bonus is that EasyJet flights are cheap off season and he gets a free check up each year when on holiday.

@Crunchiecase

What treatment did you have and what was the cost? DM me if you don't want to divulge that info publicly. Thankyou

I go to smile and teeth dental in Budapest. I live in a neighbouring country and drive over there.
I've had nothing but excellent treatment - I haven't had anything major like implants etc, but everything else has been excellent. The clinic is great - more like a posh day spa than a dental practice. I had terrible dental phobia but it's so relaxed there and everything is so clean and hygienic.

Lots of Brits there and other people from abroad.

My #1 question to anyone selling this would be- what happens in an emergency?

I had a really objectionable man at my OOH clinic demanding I fix something to do with his bone graft and threatening to sue me (asked for my GDC number etc). He's not been able to get hold of anyone at the overseas provider so thought he would try to bully me instead.

FWIW, a failed bone graft is not an emergency on the NHS unless it is causing swelling, bleeding, or uncontrollable pain.

There are some great deals to be had out there. Just don't scrimp on the aftercare. There's a reason UK dentistry is so expensive.

I looked into getting implants in Turkey or Budapest, but I can't commit to the travel and time needed out there. Really do your research. There are different type/makes of implants and some don't last as long as others.

I had implant work done in Spain recently (I lived there) and it was a lot less than it would have been in the UK, BUT it was not a quick process, there was a period of time between each stage to make sure that there were no problems, X-Rays, imaging, checks throughout the process and afterwards. It was excellent but as I say not something that would be done in a couple of weeks, I have had zero problems with my implant and that is probably why.

@MrsMorton
That is my main concern. I know that implant dailure rate is around 5%

This was my thought too.

I have had an implant (a front tooth) and it is definitely not a one off procedure.

I was fortunate that the extraction of the root and the post implant could be done at the same time, but I understand that in some cases you have to wait months in between. And even after the post implant you have to wait for the bone to Knot round it before you have the crown fitted. I had quite a few visits in all so goodness knows how that works if you have to travel to another country and arrange accommodation etc. Is it really cheaper?

And, yeah, what if something goes wrong?.

Plus with mine I go for an annual review to check all is OK. I guess I personally wouldn't feel comfortable having that sort of work done remotely

@5foot5 Exactly. My treatment was spread over months and at each stage rigorous checks were made, I was informed that if the bone didn't knit properly around the post then they would not proceed further. It was excellent service, after care and follow up. Plus I paid in stages in line with each part of the procedure which made it even easier.

I would not have it done if I wasn't living where the surgery carrying it out was and absolutely not anywhere that was aiming to do the whole procedure in a matter of a couple of days or weeks. Too much can go wrong and if it does you need to be able to access immediate help.

Implants are not a fit and forget treatment. To be done properly will take anything up to a year with multiple appointments , even if nothing goes wrong ie you need a temporary recementing , a healing cap comes off , the crown needs remaking.
After that most implantologists will want to see you once a year to check the implant , and you will need regular hygiene appointments as gum disease around implants is the main cause of failure.
At some point they may need tightening , which needs a special wrench specific to the system . There are many different implant systems , if a less well known system is used then the replacement parts and tools may not be available in a few years time.
At some point the superstructure and/or crown will need replacing . It is unlikely a U.K. dentist will touch the implant , even if it's a well known system.
If anything goes wrong no dentist in the U.K. will touch the implant. This is because they will become liable for the implant and it's easier to get legal redress in the U.K. rather than in a foreign countries legal system .

Exactly for the same reason I would say to anyone in the world not to indulge in medical/dental tourism I would advise those in the U.K. don't travel distances for dental treatment such as implants .

It is heartbreaking when people have spent savings going abroad for involved treatment, have problems and end up in a worse state because they cannot afford to have corrective treatment in the U.K. and can't go back abroad.

I spent a fortune on an implant I'm the UK that failed, I was livid, denist was horrendous Inwould far rather have spent less money abroad

@Lollygaggle

Thanks for that info, I didn't know about the wrench thing. I know implants can't be done in one visit and it takes a few months to complete.

Whenever you get an implant fitted you should be given the details of the system used and the torque used on the screw , so that anyone doing any maintainance knows what they are working with.
The problem is identifying an implant system , particularly some of the less well known systems can be difficult from x rays , and for the less well know systems it is not worth while setting up for them .
On top of all the other costs associated with setting up for implants , to set up the bits and pieces for a new system will cost £12,000 to £20,000 hence the problem with cheaper, not well used systems.

The person who is main dentist in this clinic has been sanctioned, in the past , over implant treatment and sinus lifts. Over the years a few people have posted about problems http://strongasanoxandnearlyassmart.blogspot.com/2007/09/dental-implants-in-hungary.html

@Lollygaggle

Thankyou again for that additional information. Are you a dentist/work in dentistry? I am beginning to think that going abroad will not be the right choice as I do not want to take the risk so it looks like I will have the work done here as planned. Thankyou to everyone who has responded

Implants is the one thing i wouldnt go abroad for as mentioned above. I have had fillings, crowns and composite bonding done in turkey and colombia as was there on holidays anyway.....clinics are fantastic, as is equipment and dentist skills, also massively cheaper than the uk. i return to turkey this year for more crowns. my newish local dentist is doing an offer, its £800 for an implant so am going next week to talk about this..i spend so much money having old teeth constantly filled and filled so that is why i get crowns done abroad. spain is also good and if you pay cash as in turkey, always a good discount !

I am currently in the process of getting implants OP. I live abroad but I am being treated by a maxillio surgeon. I am having the abutments placed at the end of this month, and that will be my 4th visit to him this year alone. I saw him twice last year regarding the process. This is excluding all the visits I have had to my usual dentist as I have a plate temporarily. This needs adjusting quite a bit (as I had a bone graft) so it must be adjusted to not displace the growing bone as my mouth is now less swollen etc. If I had to go abroad for every one of these visits, there is no way it's a cheaper option as travel has to be factored in.

It took me a few visits to find a Dr I felt comfortable with, granted mine is a bit more of a complex case but I did not get on with the first surgeon at all. If you are having to see someone this amount of times, I feel like you do need to have full confidence in them and be comfortable with them too.

Out of interest how long did you have to stay there each time? I am going to need 2 front implants soon

@iloveyoghurt
I stayed for 3 nights the first trip. And 4 nights the second.

Krakow is incredibly cheap so flights were about £25 return each time. And the flights are only about 2 hours.
Hotels were very cheap too (though I chose a more extravagant one the 2nd time).

There is no way for you to check my qualifications , dental history, rather like the fact going for dental tourism abroad you can only rely on what the internet tells you.

I might be a 14 year old with some very strange interests or I might be a dentist of many decades , working in various areas of dentistry and involved in training of young dentists but laid low by long covid at the moment.

I might have seen the results of dental tourism , some excellent (but on the whole this has been where people travel back to their native land where they still have contacts, speak the language , have a long term relationship with a dentist and don't use dental tourism clinics ) , some so bad it's heart breaking.

I might also be aware of NHS clinics turning away people with problems from dental tourism , and private dentists , because the litigation problems mean if they touch work they become responsible . You are more likely to be sued in the U.K. than anywhere else in the world.

I am, however , really glad this thread is making you think again .