Dental work abroad v UK

dental1uk

dental implants
iv been sending over customers to turkey for the past 8 years what you need to do is make sure .you send x-ray or 3d scan which you can get from your dentist here in uk ask him to send it to the dentist that you are dealing with abroad ask him to cc you in to check out other dentist (as it belongs to you you paid for it ) what we do is call you to ask for the x-rays .they are to check to see if implants are suitable for you we will give you a full plan with all options . we are the first company able to do the implants in Istanbul.and complete stage 2 in any of our resorts.as all our dentist work together . we can make a plan for Istanbul or antalya for this for the winter season the price for flights are £155 return from London area we have a guest .house that we use next to the dental clinic for 40 Euro per night for Istanbul lee

Toothsmith

I personally refuse to provide radiographs for patients in these circumstances, as would many UK dentists. (Those that are fully aware of the implications anyway)

By providing the radiograph, the UK dentist is becoming complicit in the treatment, so when a patient finds that it is extremely difficult to take action against a foreign dentist if/when treatment goes wrong, it is much easier to sue the UK dentist who just took the x-ray.

Secondly, complex treatment should not be planned or carried out just on radiographic evidence. Therefore, it is not in the patient's interest to go through this process. Treatment planning should take place in the clinic that it is going to be carried out at by the dentists who are going to be carrying out the treatment. But, of course, that doesn't fit with the corner-cutting low price conveyor belt that is these odious dental tourism companies.

welshdent

I would refuse too ... plus I dont think there are many general practitioners that have "3D scans" at their disposal!! Probably the only ones with CT scans place implant themselves and as such I doubt they will be falling over themselves to send you off to someone else with their images! I would argue that perhaps goes againts the radiation protection regs we have too.

brook2jack

NB x rays do NOT belong to the patient. They are part of the clinical record and belong to the dentist, who as part of regulations has to justify exposing the patient to x rays.
All patients are entitled to a copy of their records , on paying a fee, but only those records it is not too expensive to copy. Certain xrays cannot be copied without specialist equipment and so can't be passed on.

People are living ,breathing three dimensional beings and anyone treatment planning on the basis of looking at xrays or ct scans only is negligent in the extreme.

Mark2spark

Hi, well over the last few weeks I have seen my dentist again, I was due a check up, however the self glued crown was a little loose, so figured it was time for a re-evaluation. He talked me into having a CT scan (externally at a private Guildford hospital) for £250, and didn't re-cement the denture as it would have to come out for the CT scan. So I had the denture removed on the morning of the scan and he re-cemented it after. A few weeks later he has come up with a complex plan that involves 5 implants supporting a (new) removable denture, he calls it a prosphetic. Price approx £10 - 12 k, doesn't see any major problems but there might be a partial sinus lift which is where the greyness of final price comes in.
Is this CT scan not 'mine' then? As it seems that I've paid for it?
But with work still in the doldrums I just can't commit financially to this sort of cost. Have got the re-cemented denture in place and it's holding firm for the moment. Can't really go one way or the other when the financial implications are so large. It's not like having to swallow - say - £700 when your car fails an MOT or something.
Thanks for keeping up with this thread guys.
Mark.

brook2jack

It may be possible to give you a disc with a copy of the CT scan .

If you cannot commit to a very major expenditure tell the dentist so they can plan for your budget to stabilise things for now, which will leave you options for later on , if you wish.

Mark2spark

Hi, a further update. I decided to bite the bullet and went ahead with the implants, they were fitted last year in June. I then had several more trips over the next few weeks/months, where the old stumps were extracted. Just did a few at a time to reduce chair time time and also gum shrinkage.
Quite how anyone can contemplate going abroad for this sort of treatment plan that involves so many trips to the dentist is beyond me. I can see it working out if it's a straightforward few simple extractions and implants in and immediate loading, but... :undecided
I then had to have a false set for the top, once the extractions had taken place of the remaining stumps that was supporting the 'temporary' bridge had gone, I had nothing left to support a bridge, so a falsie it was.
This wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, I soon got used to it.
Then after about 4 months there were 'healing caps' fitted to the implants, this involved the falsies having to be re-lined to fit with these small stumps now showing through the gums.
After about another 2 months the actual abutments on the implants were fitted, - again a re-line of the falsies to fit - by now the falsies were starting to protrude a bit like bugs bunny, but perhaps not so obvious to others as it felt to me. Further moulds were being taken to send to the lab for the final prosthetic.
Last Friday, I had the final fit - so about 8 months after having the implants inserted - and although I have to go back for a tiny adjustment on one of the holding rings (a smaller size one) they are essentially done.
I have to say that the final fit is really good. Nothing like having false teeth. They are strong and firmly in place, I can bite into an apple and have no movement whatsoever.
Due to price, I have had the basic minimum style of denture fitted onto the implants, this isn't a lot different to how a set of false teeth look, basically false teeth (a full set of 14) set on pink wax mould, that are secured onto the implants by tiny little holding caps, which are built into the wax mould. The fit is tight to the gum and 'like a glove'.
The total cost has been lost on me as it's been over such a long period of time, but it's about £8,000 in all. This was paid in lumps as we went along, with only the last bit in the last few weeks the really large payments . (£2,000 8 weeks ago and the last payment of £2,300 last week).
I sum up by saying it's probably not worth going abroad, too many things can go wrong, and if you need to pop back to the dentist during mid treatment to just attend to something minor, it's really not possible if that means going to Budapest or wherever.
I'll have some pics which I'll host on an external site and link soon.
Hope this is of interest to people.
Cheers for sharing the journey with me.
Mark.

brook2jack

Thank you for posting the end of your dental journey, glad it's worked out well for you.

Mark2spark

I've just been re-reading this thread, as it was such a journey for me.
There has been such good quality advice given on here, I just want to thank you all again.
For anyone seriously considering going abroad, have a read of post number 42 on this thread
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=34038547&postcount=42
because, with hindsight, this is the most amazingly accurate statement. Beware the pitfalls.
New teeth in and holding good, getting a little easier to remove on a daily basis for cleaning now (they were such a tight fit at the start it was a bit frightening pulling down so hard on the denture to remove it, it felt like I would pull the implants out).

izzybella16

Did you ever go ahead with this?