Dental treatment abroad

cats_whiskers

Hi

Has anyone got first hand experience of dental treatment abroad either in Poland or Hungary.

My OH who does attend the dentist regularly always seems to need work done mainly to his crowns, they either become broken or chipped or he needs root canal work. On average he spends between £500 to £1000 per year. The practice he attends has several dentists, but only one uk trained, so we know that foreign standards match UK.

We have read some articles advising that it is cheaper to get the work done abroad but we would appreciate some feedback either positive or negative and what to look for in a Dentist abroad.

Cheers
Cats.

Toothsmith

cats_whiskers wrote:

The practice he attends has several dentists, but only one uk trained, so we know that foreign standards match UK.

Not Always!

LizEstelle

No personal experience but I believe there are now companies set up who can offer a 'holiday plus dentistry' situation. You'll probably find them by googling.

LizEstelle

Toothsmith wrote:

Not Always!

...and if you think that UK born/bred/trained dentists are beyond that sort of thing, think again...

DownintheMouth

Definately don't gamble your teeth away, no matter how cheap or tempting it seems abroad, especially in poorer countries.

If your husband is getting such complex problems, they may need to be referred for a Specialist opinion, perhaps to a Dental School, but going abroad may be cheaper initially somewhere, but the quality and/or outcome will not be the same!

By quality, I mean the whole process from sterilisation techniques (not that it just looks clean) to not get diseases, proven materials and techniques and back-up if things don't go as planned, which can happen with anything biological, like medicine or dentistry.

One of the biggest reasons for increased costs in the UK is the increased costs of obeying all the Health and Safety rules, paying full insurances to protect people if anything goes wrong and the increased costs of doing 5 years training at a UK University, staffed by some of the best medical/dental teachers.

Teeth are not like Hair, if they are messed up they do not grow back again and it could cost 10 times more than the standard UK prices of doing the work right in the first place in the UK, to get big problems fixed after a "cheap" foreign dentist has had a go.

I have seen some of the "cheap" results, which sometimes can look OK for about 18 months, then if it all falls apart, guess what, that cheap Dentist has often moved on with little or no insurance/back-up to call upon and of course no-one in the UK wants to then touch this massively failing work with a barge-pole, because it often has caused greater complications and might even make the UK Dentist's replacement work fail too

Of course TV will soon be making the "My mouth was ruined abroad" programmes in the next 2 years to follow on from the "cheap" 3rd world plastic-surgery disaster movies they have just made!

I'm all for a bargain and if it's a known branded product that is identical in every way to the UK, like a mechanical camera, then it might be cheaper without a reduction in quality or personal risks. That's what this site is good for!

However Surgery of ANY kind is an entirely different matter, but there will be enough gullable people who wish to take the gamble and suffer avoidable harm as a result.

At least if you get the "CAMERA" gamble wrong, you only lose money and a bit of pride, but no personal harm!

In general, most foreign adverts quote Harley Street prices as typical UK comparisons, when in fact private prices vary greatly all over, so these foreign clinics are not as cheap as you may think anyway.

The most important thing though, if you are having key-hole Surgery done on you whilst you are awake and wriggling, is to have a good key-hole Surgeon who understands your needs and little quirks (we all have them!) and is highly skilled too - put bluntly, that combination of qualities will never be cheap, but when done well, is still good value for money.

Of course, some people don't value their teeth so they don't have regular check-ups, cleanings, don't floss their teeth once a day, brush twice a day or follow their Dentist's advice either. They expect to be fixed for free and have no responsibility or input to prevent dental problems, perhaps believing Government's promises that Dentistry is NHS, free, available to all etc, more spin, etc. In reality, you get what you pay for.

They may be happy to accept 20th Century Dental alternatives like extractions and Dentures, but I would not. Dentures are a substitute for nothing, like a false arm or leg, but they do NOT replace strong, health teeth!

For everyone else, Dentistry is high-tech, 21st Century key-hole Surgery and is more closely related to ENT Surgery than it is plumbing.

Chose your highly skilled and qualified key-hole Surgeon wisely, create a relationship of trust with them and follow their advice closely.

Do these people exist abroad? Absolutely, somewhere, but it is a needle in a haystack challenge to find them in a poorer Country and price alone is a very poor pathfinder indeed.

Ironically I will make more money fixing these type of "failed" cases, just like I do if teeth are left to rot and gums get diseased, but I preach prevention because that is always the best (and cheapest!) way overall.

I guess I am too busy because not everyone listens to prevention messages.

I hope you and your husand make the right decision for yourselves.

Good Luck,

DownInTheMouth.

LizEstelle

Er... by 'poor country', I assume you mean somewhere like the UK, where it is now virtually impossible to find an NHS dentist, the majority of practitioners having decided that they need remuneration in the megabucks class and removed themselves from the pocket-reach of many poorer people.

Somewhere like the UK, also, where every year cases of misconduct in the sense of carrying out unnecessary dental work are found amongst our totally home-grown crew.

Toothsmith

LizEstelle wrote:

...and if you think that UK born/bred/trained dentists are beyond that sort of thing, think again...

Very very few are silly enough not to bother with indemnity insurance though.

I would guess that's a trick only for those with no seizable assets in this country.

Toothsmith

LizEstelle wrote:

Er... by 'poor country', I assume you mean somewhere like the UK, where it is now virtually impossible to find an NHS dentist, the majority of practitioners having decided that they need remuneration in the megabucks class and removed themselves from the pocket-reach of many poorer people.

Somewhere like the UK, also, where every year cases of misconduct in the sense of carrying out unnecessary dental work are found amongst our totally home-grown crew.

Recent report from Office of National Statistice (Government institution) had the average dentist (Private or NHS) on £41k

Hardy megabucks. Probably similar to a decent plumber.

Strangely short of the £80k that seems to have been promised to the 'average' NHS dentist by Government ministers as well.

Seems like the department that produces the statistics wasn't talking to the department that produces the spin.

DownintheMouth

Hi Liz,

Nowhere is perfect of course, but the vast majority of UK Dentists are excellent and poorer countries simply cannot provide the same overall quality as more advanced ones, on average, not even compared to our mis-managed NHS!

Most Dentists who have moved away from the NHS have done so reluctantly and have had to be forced away. Please put the blame for this where it truely belongs, or are you going to blame doctors for the NHS not being able to allow all the best services for cancers and other treatments too?

I agree if Dentistry is truely NHS it should be free and available to everyone - clearly it isn't and it's getting much worse despite Dentists best efforts, but that's due to very bad management from the DoH !

The DoH and Politicians like to blame Dentists for government's poor planning to reflect blame away from themselves ,but they were told years ago this would happen if they didn't change their approach, but politicians think they know better than the Professionals.

In case you hadn't noticed, they did exactly the same with Opticians and now they are mainly private wit less than 10% being NHS today.

It's Government that doesn't value eyes or teeth - don't blame Dentists or Opticians or Doctors or Nurses if they are under Government duress and mis-management and changes for changes sake so no-one can compare Government's under-performance.

If you just don't like Dentists generally, you'll have to make up another reason if you can't get past your "issues" overall.

Why not write to your MP and protest - they've ignored all us Dentists doing that so why don't the voters do it and make it a national issue?

The trouble is, most Dentists now believe that even this Government can't be that incompetent for so long, so it must be a deliberate policy to let NHS Dentistry die slowly and painfully without admiting it publically

Are you going to let them get away with blaming everyone but themselves?

Yours,

DownInTheMouth.

LizEstelle wrote:

Er... by 'poor country', I assume you mean somewhere like the UK, where it is now virtually impossible to find an NHS dentist, the majority of practitioners having decided that they need remuneration in the megabucks class and removed themselves from the pocket-reach of many poorer people.

Somewhere like the UK, also, where every year cases of misconduct in the sense of carrying out unnecessary dental work are found amongst our totally home-grown crew.

devonpaul

yep, been to hungary for implants and crowns at kreativ in budapest. am going back soon. For regular treatment probably no cheaper. For implants quite a bit cheaper and they are good at it as are doing it all the time. If go wrong will pay all costs for you to retun within reason. They make their own porcelin(cant spell)crowns which are top quality go to there website for cost. In my opinion they are better than dentists i have had here by far but not worth going for fillings etc

Baglady_2

Hi, my teeth were in quite a state that no NHS dentist would touch them. I'd had my amalgam removed for composite fillings for health reasons which I don't intend to go into here, and was later told by 4 UK dentists I needed x-amount of crowns, the cost being astronomical, certainly beyond my incapacity benefit.

In desparation, I went to the Czech Republic. My dentist spoke excellent English, his surgery was spotless and as well, if not better equipped than some dentists here. He had a Lab and technicians on the premises. He told me that one good legacy from the Communists was good health and dental care. He prides himself on the materials he uses and his workmanship.

He restored my teeth and in the event, I only needed 2 crowns. I made 2 visits last year for the work, and on the second, he and his wife picked me up and returned me to the airport personally. The restorations were made at a fraction of the UK cost.

He said for future check-ups, I could come out on Friday and they would meet me, he would work on Saturday if necessary, and take me back on Sunday. What's more, he would welcome other UK visitors.

Feel free to pm me for any details.