Risky Business: Dental Treatment Holidays

Holiday season is just beginning and people all over Britain are planning a sunny break away from the Great British summer. This week, we wanted to talk about the rising prevalence of dental treatment holidays. People are being tempted to return from their vacations with more than just a suntan and a straw donkey – you can now get a range of dental treatments done privately abroad. The procedures, including dental implants, look cheaper at first glance, but what exactly are you paying for and what happens when it goes wrong?

Inaccurate Portrayals

Picture a beautiful smile just like the one above, but is it all as it seems? In many cases, these lovely teeth will belong to a tooth model. What’s being marketed is not an accurate portrayal of implants as they’re likely to be natural. By way of contrast, we share real life stories and the real smiles of our patients – including before and after photographs. Check out our patient stories for some real accounts of the experience of dental implant treatment.

Optimal Oral Health

Many dental holiday treatment plans advertise on the basis of how quick their surgical procedures are. If you believe their advertising, you’ll be in the clinic in the morning and back on your sunbed at lunchtime enjoying a glass of Retsina. The reality, at least if you want your dental implants to last, is very different. In order for dental implants to be successful in the long term, your oral health must be optimised as well. It is simply not possible for a dentist offering treatment in a clinic hundreds of miles away to also offer the before and after care that is essential to successful implant surgery.

More Complex Needs

As well as oral (and specifically gum) health, we also assess whether a patient has more complex needs. In some cases, bone grafting and more advanced techniques may be required. We also check eligibility for treatment very thoroughly and address it – sometimes by declaring a patient ‘not suitable for implants’. Can you be certain that a dental surgery offering cheap treatments in a faraway town will have the same ethical standards?

Questions to Ask before Surgery

There are certain questions that we recommend that you should ask of a dentist before you agree to a procedure. If you can’t be confident that they have answered these satisfactorily, we wouldn’t recommend going ahead.

• How many times has your dentist performed the procedure?
  
• What system has your dentist chosen?
  
• Where are the implants manufactured?
  
• What is the expected lifespan of the implants?
  
• Is there a guarantee on the implant?

At Norfolk Dental Specialists, we have specialists in implant surgery. We only use implants that have been manufactured to meet the highest standards of quality. The success rates of our implant surgeries are in the high 90%. We can substantiate these figures. Can a surgery based overseas say the same? If they do, how do you go about checking the truth of the statement?

When Things Go Wrong

Returning at short notice if anything goes wrong can quickly eat up any savings you made in the first place. Paying for extra flights and accommodation at short notice and taking unplanned time off work can be very expensive and the surgeon may also be charging for follow up operations even if they are at fault. You may well find yourself wishing that you had just had the surgery done here in the UK.

Form and Function

Many of our patients are specific about wanting their teeth to look ‘real’ and will often bring in pictures of what their teeth looked like previously, not a picture of a Hollywood smile. However, treatment is not just about the look. Function is even more important. Sometimes, dentists have to make small adjustments to make sure the bite of your new implants is correct. If the bite is wrong, this can cause a lot of discomfort and those small adjustments can’t be done if you have to hop on a plane.

If you are considering dental implant surgery, please consider the real cost of having such treatment abroad and the consequences should anything go wrong.

Download our information sheet: ‘All you need to know about dental implants.’