Dental Implant Recommendations

popalock

I need a new dental implant on a cracked tooth and am financially in a very difficult situation.  Can anyone recommend an implant centre especially if it's in the southeast?  I'm sorry, I don't believe the "you get what you pay for" as my previous implant was reasonably priced at £1500ish all in and the dentist was excellent.  He then set up his own clinic and charged £1100 only until a few weeks ago.  His clinic was recently bought out by Bupa and increased the price to £1500 + CT scan + covid costs (PPE etc..).  He is at the New Tooth centre in Maidstone.

Searching on this forum I could only find one poster mention Da Vinci dental clinic in Milton Keynes which currently is £1400 all in (CT scan and post operative care plan).

I could of course just have the molar tooth extracted and do nothing.  But my understanding is I would lose bone over time, so delaying the implant is not sensible.

I'm not convived going abroad is financially worthwhile especially for a single implant.

I'd appreciate any suggestions

barneyb

I’ve also come across Da Vinci Dentistry.  Has anyone used them

popalock

an update from me that hopefully others will find useful.  Both the "competitive" UK implant centres I originally listed (New Tooth and Da Vinci) aren't particularly transparent with their pricing.  They both quote for a single implant as if this would be an easy way to compare, but these quotes are for the implant and crown only, not for the consultation, not for the scan, not for the extraction (if you need one), not for ppe, not for any post operative medication.  One also charges extra for the post operative check up to make sure the implant and crown have settled in nicely.  They both require many visits (eg 9 in total at Da Vinci), eg to remove stitches.  If they aren't local to you that's a lot of fuel/transport costs to incur as well as the time off work. 

In total Da Vinci comes in at £1620 for an extraction and implant, all in, excluding travel.  I've a 2.5 hour drive to them so given the many visits, I have to add on another 280 for fuel, bringing up the total to 1900.  New tooth is a little more expensive at 2135 all in, including the fuel costs for me.

Now the controversial part.  Going abroad to Arsensio dental in Valencia comes in at €1305 excluding flights, airport transfer and hotel.  My transfers are about £60 all in, so FX'ing the implant fees to GBP it comes down to £1240.  Now add on return flights for £50 x2, and about the same per night for a hotel and you have an extra 350 (5 nights in total).  Add the 1240 and the grand total is  £1590.  An approximate £300 saving on Da Vinci, clearly not massive.  Now 2 things to consider on top.  (1) should you need any extra work (eg grafting) then the savings from being abroad will increase further.  (2) You do get a mini city away break out of it too.

right now I am financially constrained in a big way.  Any saving is worth considering.  So I'm tempted to go with Arsensio finally.  Any comments welcome

ps: there's one other thing.  The receptionist at one of the UK centres said "it's very likely you'll need bone grafting, as most of our clients have it done".  That's expensive at an extra £400 to 800.  I can't be certain but I feel like that they might be pushing for extra treatments to bump up the cost.  Arsensio charge £192 for grafting (at current fx rates from €214).  Kindly they've offered to take a look at my regular dental x-ray to help better determine if the grafting is necessary or not.

fred246

Mexico would be cheaper.

kayeb

I too had an extraction in feb just before lockdown so I’ve been forced to bide my time while waiting for when implantologists are allowed to operate.  I’ll be blunt, I wouldn’t touch a foreign clinic with a 10 foot pole.  If things go wrong you can’t just jump on a plane to go back & get sorted, & no UK dentist will touch you.  Incidentally with me, I got fed up with waiting & my regular dentist has fixed me up with a little Valplast denture that looks fantastic & will restore my confidence while I get something permanent (£245).

popalock

@fred246 well my uncle lives in Mexico! at least I'd have a place to kip over.

@kayeb the problem with waiting for an implant after extraction is if you leave it long you get a reduction in bone, which means grafting is necessary.

I totally get the argument "if something goes wrong", but these places (both here and abroad) are knocking out this stuff day in, day out.  I doubt it would go wrong.  Also in total honesty the healthcare you get abroad is in many instances better than you get in the UK as covid has shown.  Even premier league football players have their ops in southern Spain.  Still debating going..

suesmith234

£1,620 all in. That's a bargain. Birmingham dentists with CT scan come out around £2,500.  
Looking at Da Vinci. There business model seems to be buying the implants in bulk, thus reducing the cost for the consumer. Surely there is a space for a national chain to do something similar. To grab the existing market share and even increase the market by selling the product cheaper, but on a higher volume. 

silvercar

Anyone thinking of going abroad at the moment, in the middle of a pandemic, needs to consider the costs of PCR tests, isolation requirements, whether hotels are open at your destination, whether you can even get into the country you are choosing, what happens if there is a lockdown mid treatment........

popalock

@suesmith234 yes the ~1600 sounds like good value BUT you need many visits.  The cost of fuel and days off work needs to be considered.  Also this excludes the cost of bone grafting which many people require (and which is very expensive itself and also more expensive here).  Going abroad still is by far the cheapest solution and can be made into a small holiday too.  Btw, all implant centres work on that bulk buying basis.  I think the crowns are also made in Hungary rather than locally to further reduce costs.  Also note that Da Vinci uses Alpha Bio implants (made in Israel) which are cheaper than the more well known Nobel Biocare implants (made in Sweden, USA, Israel).  I already have an Alpha Bio implant and have had no issues 8 years later.  I can't give you a comparison between the two..

@silvercar you are totally right.  It's simply impossible for me to travel now.  I also don't need the existing tooth immediately removed according to my dentist so can hold out.  And so I'm going to wait once vaccine rollout is established and travel restrictions are eased.  Btw, I run my own business and work from home anyway, so self-isolation isn't an issue for me.  Lastly for the avoidance of doubt, going abroad for an implant is a major hassle and comes with (I believe minor) risks too.  So if you have the money I would still recommend having it done locally.  I don't.

Some more of my layman's thoughts.  The procedure for a standard implant is to remove the failed tooth, let the bone and gums reheal, wait for 3-4 months and then drill in the implant.  Let the implant fuse with the bone and after a further 6 months place the abutment and crown.  If there is no tooth to begin with they graft on pig's bone to level with the rest of the jaw.  This is because in the absence of a tooth in the jaw, bone naturally recedes over time.  The longer you leave it, the more bone loss, which translates to a more expensive bone grafting process.  The initial 3-4m wait I describe above isn't long enough for the bone to substantially recede, and in my case previously, I didn't need grafting.  But there is still some bone loss.  Having the implant placed on the same day as tooth extraction is a more expensive procedure (I don't know why) and this is what implant centres abroad will do as they know you are unable to do many visits (there are only 2 or 3 if you want a check up after the crown is placed).  Same day implant (without crown) also means, if as in my case a tooth is being extracted, I should get no bone loss at all.

Once I've completed my treatment (namely at some point in 2022), I'll post a full account of my experience.  Hopefully this will be able to help others as I have found very little on the web from others who done the same thing.

Gers

Once you decide to have dental implants it's all down to quality.  Just like buying anything else, there are cheap options, middle budget options or top options.  I've just had two bone grafting procedures on my bottom jaw and now waiting out the six months for the implant posts.  My choice of options were led by my usual dentist who referred me to a specialist dental surgeon who uses the Nobel Biocare implants.

The cost v benefits arguments were laid out and fully explained.  I want my implants to be high quality and I want easy access to ongoing care and advice from a surgeon / dentist I know.