The Great 'Medical Tourism' Hunt

danielle24

www.dentaltripsturkey.com wrote: »

Dental work too expensive? Go overseas

With treatment so expensive, www.dentaltripsturkey.com researched options on the Internet and discovered the dental treatment abroad/Turkey option...Dental care abroad. If you go abroad for dental care please make sure you visit webside of www.dentaltripsturkey.com



Why not combine your dental treatment with a 14-day holiday? If you want we will help you to organise a DENTAL HOLIDAY program for your DENTAL TREATMENT!

The Dental Trips Turkey web site is owned and managed by two professionals in tourism, with more that 14 years experience in the business. More than 50,000 people travel for treatment abroad (Source: Internatioal Passenger Survey) so we decided to use our experience to set up Dental Trips to meet your tourism needs. We deal with the Best Dental Technical Surgery in Alanya where technologies
standards comply with dental standards in Western Europe. We therefore trust that We are small enough to care about you and big enough to make you leave us smiling!

WITH KIND REGARDS

Not sure you are allowed to advertise here mate....

BarneyRubble

tomstickland wrote:

I spotted this at the weekend:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...page_id=17 74

A good reminder.

Not so much about the fact things go wrong, that happens in all countries. More about the complications of taking action when they do.

Strange how the quotes in the UK for the original work were £18-£48,000 - yet the cost of redoing and repairing came in at £8000!!! Maybe she didn't look into it that closely before signing up for her dental holiday.

triton_2

Spam alert.
Anyway http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...page_id=17 74

Same thing happens in Britain.
I've always had serious probs with my teeth mostly which i would blame on incompetent british dentists (yes there not just abroad). On a visit to Guys i met some wonderful dentists (probably cos i had 6 of their best/upcoming look at me). The scary thing was how many people where there due to incompetent british dentistry.

What was i doing at Guys, well i had 4 different private dentists look at my teeth and 4 different possible remedies (didn't boost my confidence) so i got a referral from my gp (didn't trust those dentists). The information i was given was to say the least eye opening.

ok so why do i blame the incompetent (NHS) dentists who have taken care of me from 1992 (before this i had army dentistry father in the forces). These Nhs dentists have always maintained my mouth but none of them ever ever told me about the wear i create on my teeth.

I'm a serious bruxer and if told at this time that this was the case even if mentioned i could have taken action against it. They all knew this as was pointed out to me buy one of the best dentists i ever met (Nigel) another NHS dentist. This gentleman maybe having a mad day or a non NHS day told me what we could do if i went private.

Why had none of these dentists told me this, cash wasn't the issue, i just didn't think nothing was wrong. How so wrong was I.

Unfortunately as soon as i had met Nigel and had a splint made for starters, he'd had enough of blighty and was heading abroad himself, though before he left he gave me a valuable piece of info.

So i got a new private dentist one of the four i mention above, seemed ok nice enough bloke untill he hit me with a dental plan £14k !!!!!!.

Iv'e had a gap in myfront teeth for years (smashed a tooth out with a skateboard) and 2 extractions all on the upper so i'd asked the gentleman for a chrome cobalt not for crowns bridges etc.I was only after filling the gaps

So i went to the next private dentist (and thought hmm that 14k covers all my teeth sorted) how much would he charge me for the same it was slightly different 9k

3rd dentist 12k different again
4th dentist 7.5k again different

My faith in british dentistry plummeted yet again (don't these guys know what there doing)

see why i wanted to go to Guys. If anyone should know what to do they would.

Guys first seen by 2 students funnily enough both foreign. An African lady very nice and an Indian gentleman (more senior than the lady) his face when he looked in my gob and started telling me about raising bites crowns bridges etc. I remember his words "this is complex can you wait for my senior".

Next up was the most senior consultant in the room (took 45mins to get to me). A very cold gentleman like i was wasting his time (I understand this). He looked in my mouth asked what my bruxing was like and wandered off, Thought ok he's done. Then he returned two other consultants at hand "open wide" "how do you feel about the missing tooth at the front"
Me "not that bothered would be nice to fill but i'm not vain, so what do you think to the tooth wear"
Asked if i have a splint "yep"

All 3 consultants said to me if they where their teeth they would leave them! HUH Seriously leave them, may we introduce you to Jose.

Consultants disappeared and 40 min later Jose arrives. This gentleman was wonderful he's studying bruxism and tooth wear.Been at Guys for 11yrs and still 11yrs to go. Jose loved me, new part to his study i get special impressions made every 6 months to monitor wear of my teeth which are sent to him and analyzed on computers triggering alarm bells if needed.

So all in all I had all these british dentists look at my teeth and want to charge a fortune. Then i had some of the best (not paid by paitents) dentists in the land tell me to do F all, funny that

Why did they tell me not to do anything? I wear a splint This slows the damage the bruxism causes (i'm looking at alternatives aswell). Bridges crowns what they last 10-20yrs if lucky? so as told to me by the time theyv'e prepped them set the crowns etc remove them prep them again is there anything left to set them to again

Aswell as the consultants jose (he called the work destructive surgery) and nigel told me both to do nothing

My faith in british dentists has now been destroyed it seems to me most of them are purely out for the money

Toothsmith

Has it not occured to you that there can be many options in the same mouth, and all can be correct?

I would be more surprised if you'd seen several dentists and any two had agreed!

It's called 'options'.

You saw NHS dentists who have said nothing needs doing.

You saw nigel, who explained options and made a splint.

You saw several private dentists who gave you different options at different prices.

You saw students who thought you needed mega-work.

You saw consultants who suggested you leave them alone.

Finally you saw Jose, who doesn't seem to be doing much, but is monitoring the wear.

At the end of the day, there is no right or wrong answer here.

You can let things wear down, and do something when the get so worn that they don't function (But it's possible you may die before that day ever comes)

Or

If you're bothered by how they look, you can go for the very complex option of having them reconstructed, but as you rightly point out, any work done will have a lifespan, and it may indeed speed up the destructive process.

You have the options, it's up to you to decide what to do - but there is no right or wrong answer, just a choice.

To blame your problems on a particular countries dentists is just silly.

How come there was even a difference of opinion amongst the dentists that weren't 'doing it for the money'?

Parisien

Good points TS!

Steve-o

Going back to a remark from a few months ago (as I'm a new user)...

rosil wrote: »

Dentistry under the NHS is looked upon as a luxury in the eyes of those who control the funding-should the NHS pay for crown and bridge work at the expense of depriving some child life saving treatment. There is sadly only limited money around and people have to become used to paying for (quality)dentistry

I just had to comment on this, as it is so true: the NHS resources are extremely limited, and are not the unlimited fountain that a lot of people assume.

As a 'mature' student studying Dietetics, I went on my first medical placement a few months ago fully aware (I thought) of how limited the resources of the country were, but even I was shocked at things work in the real world of healthcare. I worked in an NHS 'rehab' hospital that catered for stroke patients, MND patients, and elderly patients, and the over-riding message that came out was that massive resources are sucked up by a relatively small number of people. For example, a stroke victim's resource 'cost' would amount to the following over a prolonged period of time (a very rough guide):

1. Contact with emergency services
2. Paramedics attend stroke victim
3. Nurses and doctors attend in A&E
4. Bed allocated in ICU.
   • Nurses on attendance.
   • Consultants in attendance
   • Dietitians in attendance, to provide immediate nutrional support
   • Ongoing costs of hospital
     • Catering
     • Cleaning
     • Building costs: utilites costs, maintenance costs, etc
   • X-rays, MRIs, etc.
   • Porters
   • Admin costs, including IT and records
   • Admin notification to GP
   • GP admin notification to GP
   • GP notification to GP admin
   • GP admin notification to hospital admin, including transfer of paper records
5. Stroke victim hopefully stabilised:
   • MDT meetings
   • Nurses on attendance.
   • Consultants in attendance
   • Dietitians in attendance, to provide immediate nutrional support
   • Ongoing costs of hospital
     • Catering
     • Cleaning
     • Building costs: utilites costs, maintenance costs, etc
   • X-rays, MRIs, etc.
   • Porters
   • Admin costs, including IT and records
   • Social services contacted if needed:
     • resources connected with social services mobilised
6. Transfer to rehab unit, and depending on severity of stroke:
   • MDT meetings
   • Transfer to separate rehab hospital:
     • Admin costs, tranfering records and information
     • Ambulance transfer
   • Nurses on attendance.
   • Consultants in attendance
   • Dietitians in attendance, to provide immediate nutrional support
   • Ongoing costs of hospital
     • Catering
     • Cleaning
     • Building costs: utilites costs, maintenance costs, etc
   • X-rays, MRIs, etc.
   • Porters
   • Admin costs, including IT and records
   • Social services:
     • resources connected with social services mobilised
7. Costs of (potential long-term) rehab of stroke victim in hospital:
   • MDT meetings
   • Nurses on attendance.
   • Healthcare staff in attendance (used to be known as Auxilary Nurses)
   • Consultants in attendance
   • Possible surgical costs of fitting PEG
     • theatre costs:
       • nurses
       • anesthetists
       • endoscopic maintenance and sterilisation costs
     • surgeon costs
     • porters
     • additional costs of nutritional supplements via PEG
   • Dietitians in attendance, to provide nutrional support
   • Speech and language therapists
   • Occupational Therapists
   • Physiotherapists
   • Hospital liason staff for social services
   • Ongoing costs of hospital
     • Catering
     • Cleaning
     • Building costs: utilites costs, maintenance costs, etc
   • X-rays, MRIs, etc.
   • Porters
   • Admin costs, including IT and records
   • Social services:
     • resources connected with social services mobilised
8. Discharged of stroke victim:
   • MDT meetings
   • Hospital liason staff for social services
   • Admin costs, including IT and records
     • Tranfers of details to GP
   • Social services costs:
     • Ongoing social support
     • Implimentation of care package (home help, carers, etc)
9. Stroke patient now at home, rehabilitating:
   • If PEG fitted, ongoing costs of:
     • specialist PEG nurses
     • specialist Dietitians
     • specialist nutritional supplements
   • Ongoing costs to social services
   • Ongoing costs to family, that will then have a follow on impact to society (time needed to be spent off work looking after stroke patient, etc)
10. Eventual recovery of stroke victim to the stage where they (hopefully) can work again.

And all this for ONE person!!!

The resources spent on MND patients and elderly patients were comparable (with additional resources where needed), although in a lot of these cases they developed into making the patient as comfortable as possible until they died. Which, if put into perspective, is 'wasted' money when people are demanding more of the NHS. But it's the kind of 'wasted' money that no-one would begrudge if they, or a loved one, were put into the same circumstances.

And then if you add the costs of 'medical tourists' coming into the UK to get FREE healthcare out of our system... :mad:

Is the NHS flawed? Yes.
Are NHS funds badly allocated? God, majorly at times.
Is the NHS an amazing organisation that people underestimate and misunderstand? Yes.
Are we lucky to have the NHS? Hell yeah!!!

I fully support people paying for treatment that they want, whether overseas or in the UK. I support it for two reasons: people are able to get the treatment that they want, and (more importantly to me) it free's up a tiny amount of NHS resources to be spread elsewhere.

The NHS resources are like a bowl of soup that feeds 26 people, when 700 people are actually feeling hungry: it's a juggling act that tries to feed the people most in need.

I'm being very unoriginal, but I have to leave the last word to Rosil: "should the NHS pay for crown and bridge work at the expense of depriving some child life saving treatment?"

Steve-o

A thought that just popped into my head: would private dentists be willing to prepare a plan of work that needed doing, in cases where a patient wanted to travel abroad for dental treatment?

harryhound

I thought the latest idea was that dentists should do preventive work, thus putting themselves eventually out of a job - so they are opting out of the NHS to concentrate on their richer patients, who are prepared to pay serious money for cosmetic work ?

(My experience aged 61 of the last 40 years of NHS dentistry is as follows:
- An Australian dentist 38 years ago who wanted to remove my two submerged wisdom teeth and who got quite stroppy when I told him not to bother.
- A "Chinese" dentist who gave me two high speed fillings, that I am now not convinced I needed about 30 years ago.
- 2 molar teeth where a chunk has snapped off, one the victim of a prune stone and the other one of the drilled teeth 2 years and 15 years ago).

I try to give them a good clean at least once a day and go along for a check up about once a year.

Toothsmith

harryhound wrote: »

I thought the latest idea was that dentists should do preventive work, thus putting themselves eventually out of a job - so they are opting out of the NHS to concentrate on their richer patients, who are prepared to pay serious money for cosmetic work ?

Doing preventative work does not put me out of a job.

Preventative dentistry is an ongoing process. You don't just 'do' some 'thing' that is preventative dentistry, and then never have to see that patient ever again.

Preventative dentistry requires that you see patients frequently, you catch anything that's going wrong very early, and you fix it in a way that damages the tooth as minimally as possible.

You can stop cavities from developing, you can prevent gum disease. And if you need to wave a drill about, you take away as little healthy tooth as possible.

A true preventative practice is the exact opposite of a cosmetic practice, where appearence is everything, and perfectly healthy tooth is sacrificed for a straighter, whiter wall of porcelain.

A wonky, yellowey healthy tooth has the potential to last a lifetime. A bit of porcelain needs regular replacement, and will sacrifice more tooth each time.

I run a preventative practice - a proper one, not some fantasy version that health ministers talk about when discussing NHS dentistry.

I see ordinary people, not rich ones, but ones who value my approach, and know the difference between good preventative dentistry, and rubbish.

I talk more people out of cosmetic dentistry than I actually do (Apart from whitening, which is an excellent non-invasive way to make teeth look better).

Toothsmith

Steve-o wrote: »

A thought that just popped into my head: would private dentists be willing to prepare a plan of work that needed doing, in cases where a patient wanted to travel abroad for dental treatment?

That wouldn't really work Steve-o.

By doing that, the UK dentist would become 'complicit' in the process, and so action could be taken against him in the event of anything going wrong abroad. Taking action against the UK dentist would be a whole lot easier than tackling the Hungarian (for example) legal system, so dentists complicit in any treatment undertaken abroad, would find themselves a lot more likely to be sued than the dentist that actually did the treatment.

A UK dentist even recementing a temporary crown that is part of some huge treatment abroad would be opening him/herself up to such action.

This is why it is fairly likely that any dentist who reads the magazines sent out by the defense organisations will be unlikely to touch such a patient with a bargepole.