Health Insurance Dental tourism within EU

I have completed my dental treatment in Poland and can now give feedback on the implant process and my experience so we can wrap up this thread. Apologies in advance for the long winded post.

My initial trip was at the end of June and I was collected at the airport by a taxi the clinic had arranged and which I paid for separately. I attended a consultation on my day of arrival and once the surgeon was happy to proceed, the implant procedure was performed the following day. Surprisingly I experienced no pain or discomfort whatsoever during the procedure itself or the days that followed. This first stage of the treatment plan required no more than two days, Thursday and Friday in my case, however due to flight schedules I spent an extra day and a half being the tourist and even managed to squeeze in a park run too.

The second and final stage which I have just completed required five working days, so my wife and I decided to turn it into a mini-break. We were collected at the airport on Monday and were taken straight to the clinic. The surgeon fitted temporary healing abutments to the implants and dental impressions were taken. We then spent the rest of the week visiting museums, eating great food, etc., while the crowns were made. The original plan was to have these fitted on the Thursday, however due to delays at the lab where the crowns are made my appointment was moved to first thing Friday morning, the day of our departure. The delay was a little too tight for comfort but in the end was a non-event as the fitting was straightforward and only took 15 minutes, so we arrived at the airport with loads of time to spare.

In hindsight my decision to go to Poland for the dental work was a no-brainer. If I had any doubts initially they soon evaporated. The facilities at the clinic I attended are modern and state of the art and without exception all the people I came into contact with were extremely professional, friendly and easy to communicate with. At no time did I sense they were looking to do more than what was required just to earn an extra buck. Quite the opposite in fact, as confirmed to me by another dental tourist who was told the work he wanted done was deemed unnecessary so they wouldn’t do it.

Moving on to the costs…

The dental treatment ended up costing €2,325 (paid for in Zloty) and was less than originally quoted as I did not need a bone graft. Add to this travel and accommodation for both visits which amounted to €320 (Ryanair) and €220 (AirBnB) respectively and the total cost excluding out of pocket expenses comes to under €3,000, or 37% of the €7,690 the Cork dental surgeon quoted (excluding the cost of a bone graft).

On the basis of cost alone it is now my intention to travel whenever necessary and fall back to using my local dentist for more routine or emergency work only.

And my final thought as to why dentistry in Ireland is so expensive…

It is simply that many people are willing to accept and pay the prices they are quoted, without question. For those of us who aren’t it is great to know we have a much better alternative in Europe.

Cheers, Andrew
 
My friend has gone to Enniskillen - £1900 for 2 implants - had a couple of visits over a period of about a month but that was to suit her timetable.
 
@Feemar5 thanks for sharing.

The timing you refer to i.e. "over a period of about a month" however makes me think we are not comparing apples with apples.

Please correct me if I am wrong of course but I believe your friend has told you about the price of the implants only, so excluding the cost of abutments and crowns which are likely to double the bill. The reason I think this is I am led to understand that it takes at least three months for an implant to fuse with the jaw bone before an abutment and crown can be fitted, and the given timeline doesn't correspond with this healing period.

Please ask your friend to give the breakdown of the total cost if you will for if I'm wrong it is great to know there is a cheaper option closer to home.
 
What's a reasonable time frame within which one can conclude that major dental work was successful ? 10 years ?
 
@Feemar5 thanks for sharing.

The timing you refer to i.e. "over a period of about a month" however makes me think we are not comparing apples with apples.

Please correct me if I am wrong of course but I believe your friend has told you about the price of the implants only, so excluding the cost of abutments and crowns which are likely to double the bill. The reason I think this is I am led to understand that it takes at least three months for an implant to fuse with the jaw bone before an abutment and crown can be fitted, and the given timeline doesn't correspond with this healing period.

Please ask your friend to give the breakdown of the total cost if you will for if I'm wrong it is great to know there is a cheaper option closer to home.
I checked with my friend and she had some work done about 3 months prior which cost approx two thousand pounds - I didn't understand the there was prior work to be done !
 
@Andrew Murphy How many implants/crowns were involved please?
Any bridges?
Also were they top/bottom, molar/pre-molar/incisor, please?
Just trying to compare like for like.

TIA.
 
@Saavy99 the clinic is Project Smile and is in Gdansk. You can find full details on the Project Smile web site. In case it matters let me just state that I have no connection with the clinic whatsoever, other than being a patient of course :)

@SparkRite my treatment involved two top molar implants/crowns. This may not be of much help to you so I'd suggest you send them a message via the web site with details of what work you may be considering and they will give you a pretty accurate quote - that's how I started the process.
 
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