The Great 'Medical Tourism' Hunt

seven-day-weekend

We have done the exact opposite to most people here.

We live in Spain and visit our UK dentist (private) when we visit the UK.

This is for several reasons, the main one being he knows us , having treated us for the last twenty years. Although I'm sure Spanish dentists are fine (and definitely cheaper), it is much easier if you don't have to struggle with a foreign language when discussing what needs doing. All dentists in Spain are private, btw.

Another (minor) reason is this is one of the links we are maintaining with the UK (including still having a house and bank accounts there) so that it will not be too difficult to be classed as resident straight away when we eventually return.

I always ask what the charge is going to be when making the appointment.

If there were any emergencies I would obviously go to a Spanish dentist.

I would like to say however, something about the Spanish NHS. MY husband has recently spent twelve days in a hospital in Granada, having had an operation. His care was first class and imho, much more thorough than in British hospitals, he had a single room with his own shower (the biggest room we saw contained four beds) and the hospital was spotless.

First Class service!

Steve-o

Toothsmith wrote: »

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.

Makes a lot of sense. Somehow I don't think the culture of free "Where there's blame there's a claim" legal services has yet reached the countries that offer less expensive medical treatments. I see their fees going up when it eventually does. :rotfl:

yellow33

When I was 28, I had my first toothache, and went to the Charles Clifford Dental Hospital for treatment. It was fond that a very large filling in one of my back teeth had some sort of leak, and this was causing the problem. The old amalgam filling was removed and replaced with a gold inlay by a final year student. At the same time, she replaced all the fillings in my molars (I had measles as a child and apparently this can cause your teeth to have weak enamel, although I'll be happy to be corrected on this - certainly we had very few sweets when we were children in the 50's) with gold.

She was grateful to have a patient that could come every week for a two hour appointment and I was delighted to have the work done for nothing.

After this treatment, five of my front teeth were crowned (by her supervisor) as they had been stained by tetracyclin apparently. These crowns lsted for quite some time, although I cracked a couple at different times and had to have replacements. Eventually though, my crowns started to look a bit of a mish mosh and I decided to have the whole lot done again. I was in South Africa a couple of years ago and somebody told me about an excellent dentist whom I visited. He told me he could do the whole lot, and recommended crowning one extra tooth, in 6 days and for £2,300.

The work was not straightforward (and I knew it wouldn't be), since I had a couple of post crowns, having had root canal treatment, and had one tooth missing. This was due to a UK dentist (a Dr of dentistry, if you please) breaking my tooth while removing a temp crown while replacing a porcelain jacket crown; instead of removing the nerve and treating me properly, he hastily made the jacket crown into a post crown, removed my tooth at the level of my gum,drilled a hole - at the wrong angle - into my remaining root, causing the root to completely fracture some three years later.

I sued him, and was awarded £9,500 (such was the monstrous mess it left me with, and the need for an implant) but he promptly arranged (for the second time) for the Inland Revenue to make him bankrupt, since he owned them £40,000. I didn't get a penny and so couldn't afford the implant in the end. That was a bad experience - he was utterly unscrupulous and, if I hadn't had as much as I could take in having to go to court, I should have reported him to the GDC.

So, to summarise, I have good and bad experiences, which reflects life!

The gold inlays put in by the student in Sheffield have lasted 25 years and every dentist I have seen has commented on the superb quality of the work. I hope Diana is still practising - she used to worry that she was too slow, but she was brilliant. The crowns I had done in South Africa are great, and I haven't had any problems in the two and a half years since I had them done. I was immensely impressed with the facilities over there, and the speed in which they were done. However, I'm a jolly patient patient, and was able to spend three hours in the chair on one day, having the preparation done. I would imagine a lot of people would have needed two or three appointments for this.

The fact is, however, if I could have afforded the treatment in the UK, I would have had it done here. I think in general, our dentists are excellent - world class - and I don't resent whatever they earn.

Why shouldn't they have villas in Tuscany if they can pay for them. They have the same rights you (redfox) do - and that includes your right to have treatment abroad if you'd rather do so.

Personally, I'm more concerned about the state system that has such a ridiculous system that dentists are all forced to concentrate almost entirely on private patients to earn a half decent living. £60,000 - I earn more than that!!! All I did was a two year business studies diploma and worked hard for 15 years. (And I can't afford a villa - it's hard enough buying a two bed flat in London)

yellow33

What's wrong with you people? I'm not a dentist and don't know any personally, but they spend 7 years studying and deserve to earn whatever they can - as does anyone else in this country!!

Parisien

yellow33 wrote: »

What's wrong with you people?

Yell...I think you'll find its the fact that you walk in for a simple procedure of any kind, whether dental, or new specs etc......and the mark up or value to you as a buyer seems excessive......for whatever reason.....it may not be the individual clinicians fault but the system that they operate or, the high cost base, the taxation system and regulations.

Secondly, have always voted with their wallets......1960 ....96 percent of cars bought in UK were built here......now...its 5%......people effectively exported jobs and killed off the UK manufacturing base...all by themselvees, actually worked hand in glove with inept manufacturers and the outcome was as expected.

Dentists nor opticians are not immune to this effect, supply and demand and cost to benefit ratios are all taken into account.

Thirdly buyers of these products......are very reluctant to pay these high prices.....partly because we aren't all totally caught up in the veneer deep value system imported from the USA.....were fakeness, unrealness and shallowness are epidemic!

Finally we do live currently in a high tax and indirect taxation system....extremely biased towards the top 5% earners...the rest of us get shafted......and we vote with our teeth, eyes and other body parts!!!!

yellow33

theredfox wrote: »

I'm not interested in the "rubbish" that YOU just posted. What does administrative points for this, points for that, have to do with the fundamental economics of this? - absolutely nothing. How much does an NHS dentist earn? And are you going to tell me it's a sob story, because it's only £50,000? Try and tell me they object to points for this points for that admin, rather than the fact that they can make £80,000, £100,00 whatever by going private?

I
The 'rubbish' posted by toothsmith made perfect sense to me; it's very straightforward!

But I wonder why you are so concerned about what dentists earn; do you think that just because you don't want a big bill, they should be content to earn £25,000 or something. They are entitled to earn as much as they can - as you are - and heaven knows they work for it (and, according to actuarial tables, die earlier than any other occupation and have a higher incidence of acute back problems and suicide!)

Look at what relatively uneducated traders in the City earn - for playing around with other people's money, not for doing something that helps people. Do you object to what footballers earn? Their earnings mean that families can no longer go and watch what is our national sport, live, because it costs too much, and to watch the 'big' matches on TV, they have to pay for Sky!

You live in your own sweet world and aren't interested in other people's opinions - do get a grip!

yellow33

...... to which they rejected it in large volumes and stuck to fingers up to the goverment and said sod this were going private only and getting rid of our NHS patients?[/quote]

Puppy, slightly off subject, but would you like English lessons - I only charge £50 an hour? You and your friend Fox probably find this objectionable, but most people are really happy to pay, because I know my subject and can help them a great deal to write and speak good, grammatical English.

Just a thought.....

yellow33

I absolutely agree about the taxation system Parisien - seems bonkers to me that someone earning slightly less than £40,000 (I think) pays the same as those earning millions. I simply can't resent people who earn more than I do if they're supplying a decent service.

Dewpoint

utilities-shop.com wrote: »

Dental Tourism
Last year I went to Hungary as I was outraged by the cost of a dental implant here in the UK , with relativly little effort if found several english speaking dentists in Budapest so avoided any middle men. The savings were huge the quality of service second to none and equiptment and level of service far in excess of any private dentist here in the uk I've ever seen. As the treatment wasnt urgent I picked my time and took in a Robbie Williams concert at the same time and had a great time exploring a wonderful city for a week and still came back quids in , 30 euro tooth whitning too oh if your quick £10.00 taxes paid flights from bristol new route ryan air

I'm planning a trip to Hungary soon - can you recommend the dentist you used?

regards

Nenen

I have terrible teeth (all molars and pre-molars are either filled or missing)! :eek: I'm just about managing to get by with the gaps without needing a plate as my front teeth are reasonable (although not for much longer apparently). Just to add to my problems I'm terrified of the dentist... probably stems from having 4 teeth extracted in one go as a child due to 'overcrowding' (my teeth are very wide). Toothache finally drove me to the dentist a few weeks ago (having put off going for the last 3 years since my previous dentist left the country). My first call was to a private dentist (NHS had a three week waiting list) and he was the nicest, kindest and most patient man I've ever met. A really lovely Indian gentleman (and I use that term in its most sincere form) who took a great deal of time and trouble to explain I needed one tooth out, some root canal fillings, several other fillings, scaling, polishing etc. I was expecting it to be quite dear but it wasn't till I got back downstairs to the reception I got told exactly how much..... £2,500 + £1,500 for a bridge = £4,000 :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: He said if I wanted implants I'd have to be referred to another specialist he works with who charges about £3,000 each :eek: :eek: :eek:
I was devastated as cannot possibly afford that. I then waited (in considerable pain) for an NHS appointment... that dentist was very 'matter of fact' pleasant but not reassuring in any way and basically said I should have not just one but two teeth out immediately plus some fillings and expect to lose all my teeth in the not too distant future. The cost of what he wants to do is about £400 and that doesn't include any root treatments (not covered by NHS apparently) or bridges/plates. I asked about titanium plates (only available privately) and he said they wouldn't be suitable for my teeth as it would damage the remianing teeth very quickly.

I cannot bear the thought of losing any more teeth or having a false set of teeth with the plasticy plate (tried it once before and can't bear it in my mouth due to trauma as a child) ... but know in my heart that one tooth at least does have to go (its still painful after two courses of antibiotics to treat an abcess under it) . I'd LOVE to be able to afford to go to the first dentist as I had such a positive experience with him but that really isn't an option due to finances.

I just spotted this thread and wondered if there might be a third option, ie go to Hungary etc.... would probably cost about the same as the NHS dentist but losing less teeth and possibly having implants or decent bridges *sigh* . I'm just very worried about doing this for reasons outlined so carefully by Toothsmith.

I really don't mean any disrespect to first time posters (we all had to start with our first post) but, in my situation, I hope you can understand my fear of basing such an important decision on something written by someone who posts once and is never seen again! I'd love to hear from some long-term MSEers (who have a wide post history) and have experience of getting dental treatment abroad. I'd also be grateful for any thoughts from Toothsmith or other knowledgable posters. :beer: