Dental Implants...Cheap???

brook2jack

knowingthescript wrote: »

HI,
Nice to know my dentist was "doing me a favour" by offering me this form of treatment i.e. going to the university. Sorry I didn't know it wasn't offered to everyone. Apologies.

I am not aware of any university in the UK which offers implants free or at reduced cost except where there has been trauma, cancer or hypodontia involving more than 6 teeth. Even then funding is at the discretion of the local health authorities.

As TS said some dentists when training to place implants offer a discount where they train , normally to longstanding patients.

Dentists pay for their own training in implants and my local specialist who trained a few years ago reckons it cost him around £250,000 to train and set up a room in his practice for implants. However this sum increased immensely recently when he spent circa £80,000 on a ct scanner . Just to buy the wrenches and one of each size of implants for a new system cost around £18,000.

brook2jack

zagfles wrote: »

Apparently quite a lot. Flights and hotels are cheap. And you can have a holiday at the same time. Even with a bone graft you might only need 2 visits (Evodental did my friend in 2 visits and no followup was necessary), and some do the initial consultation in the UK.

I did look into this with my friend a few years ago - if it had been me I'd have gone to Hungary but then I like travelling anyway. He isn't a confident traveller so he had it done here.

Though it's probably more worth it if you need several implants.

Most implants need more than two visits !!!! This is without anything going wrong like healing caps falling out, infections, not being entirely happy with the way a front tooth looks. Doing just one implant at the front of the mouth is one of the most challenging things to do as you have to match up to all the natural teeth. Multiple or back teeth implants are easy in comparison.

OP was quoted around £2000 for their implant , a few visits to a foreign country, plus hotels , plus time off work will son eradicate any savings and that's with everything going smoothly. Even the best implantologist working on the easiest case will occasionally have things go wrong due to no ones fault.

If you do run into trouble be aware a dentist in the UK will not touch you as they would become jointly liable for the implants and its vastly easier to take a UK dentist to litigation than a dentist in another country.

brook2jack

Zagfles You asked what relevance Hungarian wages have to the OP , of course you are right none. However you talk about Hungarian work being cheap because their dentists don't expect "six figure wages" .

With average Hungarian earning a sixth of what an average Briton earns, property, dental regulation, employment costs and running costs of a dental surgery being a fraction of what they are here the profit a Hungarian dentist catering to overseas clients sees would put a UK dentist to shame.

I am not anti treatment overseas. I have many patients who have had excellent treatment abroad. They have been natives of the country or expats living there who could ask for recommendations and were treated by their "local" dentist, if they had problems they could quickly and easily see someone to sort out. I discourage my patients who live overseas from coming back to see me because in an emergency they would be stuck and complex treatment needs time to do well and plan properly. They are better off seeing a recommended person locally.

I have seen some dreadful treatment from overseas all done on people who had gone for dental tourism and a cheap, quick fix. Many are now in a no mans land because they cannot afford to go back to have the problems corrected, they cannot afford private treatment here to correct problems and the NHS point blank will not repair the damage. I recently saw a lady who had had ten implants failing that needed removing and the local NHS hospital would not even do that.

zagfles

brook2jack wrote: »

Most implants need more than two visits !!!! This is without anything going wrong like healing caps falling out, infections, not being entirely happy with the way a front tooth looks. Doing just one implant at the front of the mouth is one of the most challenging things to do as you have to match up to all the natural teeth. Multiple or back teeth implants are easy in comparison.

My friend had front incisor (no 1) done. It looks great - you can't tell it's an implant. It only needed two visits, first for the bone graft and implant, second about 4 months later to fit the crown. 3 years later no problems at all. He did get quotes from another couple of places, they wanted 3 or 4 visits and close to double the cost.

OP was quoted around £2000 for their implant , a few visits to a foreign country, plus hotels , plus time off work will son eradicate any savings and that's with everything going smoothly. Even the best implantologist working on the easiest case will occasionally have things go wrong due to no ones fault.

If you do run into trouble be aware a dentist in the UK will not touch you as they would become jointly liable for the implants

So what would happen if you had it done in the UK and the dentist who did it retired/died etc?

and its vastly easier to take a UK dentist to litigation than a dentist in another country.

Possibly. Might be one of the reasons for higher costs?

There's loads of articles with pro's and con's of treatment abroad. I would definitely have seriously considered it. Although I have to admit the excuse for a holiday or two would have been up there with my reasoning.

brook2jack

Higher costs......

Registration as a dentist

Hungary free
UK £890 a year

Registration of dental nurse

Hungary not necessary
UK £120 a year

Professional indemnity

Hungary €150 a year = £112 a year
UK general dentist £3400 a year , implant covered £6000 to £24000 a year

For a dental nurse

Hungary not necessary
UK added onto employers indemnity varies but a few hundred a year

Personal Tax
Hungary universal 16%
UK 20 to 40%



CQC type inspections

Hungary none
UK. £800 a year

Etc etc etc

zagfles

brook2jack wrote: »

Higher costs......

Registration as a dentist

Hungary free
UK £890 a year

Registration of dental nurse

Hungary not necessary
UK £120 a year

Professional indemnity

Hungary €150 a year = £112 a year
UK general dentist £3400 a year , implant covered £6000 to £24000 a year

For a dental nurse

Hungary not necessary
UK added onto employers indemnity varies but a few hundred a year

Personal Tax
Hungary universal 16%
UK 20 to 40%



CQC type inspections

Hungary none
UK. £800 a year

Etc etc etc

Of course - the UK has higher overheads as well as salaries. ISTR reading something about the UK being one of the most expensive places for implants in the Europe, even countries like Germany were significantly cheaper.

ETA: According to this Germany is cheaper than Hungary! And far cheaper than the UK.

http://www.privatehealth.co.uk/private-dentistry/dental-treatments/dental-implants-guide/cost/

Though the Hungarians probably have a better reputation...

brook2jack

UK prices for implants are cheaper than eg Nordic countries, Switzerland etc and are on a par or slightly cheaper than Germany , France , Holland etc.

Implants in Italy are a special case as Italians tend to use custom made implant systems that are one offs and not compatible with any other system rather than using standard implant systems.

Implants in places with cheap costs of living eg Turkey, Hungary , Lithuania tend to be cheaper.

Cheaper implants in the UK tend to use Israeli or other non standard systems , so maintainence and replacement of parts may be difficult in the future if manufacturer stops producing the chucks etc.

brook2jack

German dentists have excellent reputation and technical skill. The link you posted is totally nonsensical as it compares the cost of an implant with crown in the UK to the cost of implant without crown in Germany. As a site it is very poor even on UK pricing.

A truer cost of an implant in Germany is starting around €2100 http://www.en.zz-l.de/prices-and-estimates.html is from a German dental laboratory.

L.S.D.

I have been researching further. In Spain & Portugal it is around £800-00 for a complete implant. I have asked people who have had their teeth done & I have been recommended a couple of dentists where the work is good. Interestingly people in both those countries have similar wages to the UK.

brook2jack

L.S.D. wrote: »

I have been researching further. In Spain & Portugal it is around £800-00 for a complete implant. I have asked people who have had their teeth done & I have been recommended a couple of dentists where the work is good. Interestingly people in both those countries have similar wages to the UK.

I'm sorry but incomes in Spain are a lot lower than UK and Portugal a lot lower even than Spain. The average Portuguese income is around a third of the average UK income Spain is around two thirds of UK income http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_countries_by_average_wage

Again the comparisons with running costs bear no relationship to the UK and the usual caveats about having complex work done abroad which requires multiple visits.