Dental Treatment Abroad

building

have you looked into private medical insurance and see if they cover you for zwork on teeth abroad? what about your personal resources division in france do they offer employees anything you could find out about and use as an employee. could be one of the perks of the job?

Rachel71 wrote:

Hello

I wondered if anyone could give me some advice about whether to have dental treatment in France or in the UK. I work for a company with an office in Paris and work 4-5 months each year in France (the rest in London) with some trips back and forth. I've previously had all my dental work in the UK. However, I felt some pain in my teeth when brushing them so, panicked, and booked a checkup with a dentist here recommended by some of the people I work with here. The dentist has said that I need quite extensive work, including:

- redoing a root filling
- putting a crown on the root filling
- replacing some other fillings.

I am worried that this will be quite costly (I would have to pay the full cost in France) and am so looking at the options in both France and the UK. I have an NHS dentist in the UK and am thinking about booking an appointment with her when I next go back. However, I have found that her examinations have tended to be quite quick and the French dentist was quite critical of the way the root filling (which my UK dentist did) had been done. I've had checkups every 9 months-1 year.

So....my question is....should I get the treatment done in France/get a second opinion from my UK dentist when I next go back/get a second opinion in France? And does anyone have any views as to whether the work is likely to be better done in the UK or France?

Any help/advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks v much
R

Rachel71

Hello
Was just wondering if maybe Toothsmith (or anyone else, but Toothsmith has been really helpful) could give me some advice on my treatment. I've now received my report/treatment plan from french dentist. She has said that I need to have the following:

-root canal with specialist (the endodentist) then crown with inlay core
-8 composite inlays to replace old fillings
-receding gums (5) to be protected with composite

She has given me a quote of E4,500 (ouch) for everything except the root canal (because this will be done by the specialist), which she estimated would cost E500-E700.

Is this reasonable? From what I can work out, this seems to be similar to what I would pay with a private dentist in the UK but would appreciate any advice. Given that the root canal which needs replacing was done by the nhs dentist, I'm thinking that it would be better to go private for this work (although if I had it done in france it would be private). And why would the old fillings (metal) need to be replaced - do they wear out?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Rachel

Toothsmith

Hi Rachel,

I can't give any advice on the necessity of any of the treatment as I haven't seen you.

Do you feel happy with the treatment plan? What you've said about the root filling sounds to me like that part of the treatment is quite correct. (BTW - It's endodontist, not endodentist )

The composite inlays will look very nice. Was that the only way of restoring those teeth? Did you have any options? Did she have an intra-oral camera and was able to show you why they needed replacing? Could they be done over a longer period of time if you don't want to pay that much all at once?

It is true to say that if you go to 4 different dentists you will get 4 different treatment plans. None is 'right' or 'wrong' (Unless it's plain stupid, but there's not that many of those dentists around, they just make the headlines a lot!)

It's just some dentists have a more intervention based philosophy, and like everything to be as perfect as it can be, and some prefer to mend and patch wherever possible and make existing repairs last as long as possible.

As I said earlier, I do like the way your French dentist seems to operate. It seems very up front and honest. The prices sound about right, and it should be a lovely job for that money.

If you are happy with everything, then go ahead. If not, either discuss options again with that dentist or try somewhere else. I wouldn't chop & change too much though, you'll spend a fortune in examination charges, and be thoroughly confused by the end of it all!

jamescredmond

y'all,
I keep hearing about private dental treatment available in poland at a fraction of the uk cost. even when the cost of flights/hotels are taken into account there are still significant savings to be had. is there any truth to this? if so, does anyone how the arrangements are made?
I'd be really grateful for any info because my teeth are looking more like the ruins of rome.

Toothsmith

Put 'dental treatment abroad' into the search bit. It's been discussed quite a bit.

My view is that if humans were washing machines who just needed standard spare parts taken out and put back in, it would be a great idea. But we're not.

Not everything works with people every time. Treatments that work well for one person, can go horribly wrong for someone else. (Look at Lesley Ash!)

If you'd gone off on a cheap flight to Poland, got things sorted, then had an abscess blow up when you get back what would you do?

Cheap flights back have to be booked in months in advance. A local dentist would have to start right at the beginning with no idea what had been done in Poland. The chances of you getting it fixed on the NHS are slimmer than your chances of seeing an NHS dentist now, and repair costs might well be more than you paid to get it done in the first place.

You pays yer money..........

Bossyboots

The only thing I would say to this is that I use a private dentist whose newly employed staff are Polish. They are really very good so I wouldn't have any qualms on that point about going to Poland to get work done in that respect but the difficulties Toothsmith mentions are the things that would make me have it done here.

Seems I might have the best of both worlds now though even if it does cost more.

Undisputedtruth

I've spoken to a number of dentists in this country about a particular treatment and most of them were quite poor in communicating prices and treatments. However, I was stunned when I spoke to several representatives from the Hungarian dentists as their level of English were excellent and they were very clear in their prices as well as their knowledge in dentistry.

I certainly would have no qualms in travelling over to Hungary to get some treatment done. There is no other city in the world that have more dentist per population than Budapest and the Dentists are on par with their peers in the Western world.

It could take up to 2 weeks to see some of the better dentists in the UK so it might be quicker to book a flight and travel to Hungary.

Inspiron_2

would suggest find a good uk dentist. see the extra money spent as an investment. im sure in the long run ull see the benifits.

Depending on what you need we have some amazing dentists.. truly world class.

Do you have specifics of what treatment you need or may possibly need?

gamma

World class dentists but probably the worst teeth in the world? Why is that?

Toothsmith

That's more to do with the patients & society.

The NHS has lulled them into the expectation that dentistry is only worth a few quid if anything.

When quoted realistic prices, they prefer to do without.

They're probably not 'the worst teeth in the world'. Just the developed world.