Excellent Experience with Budapest Dentist - Part II

Hillmanhunter1

As referred to in another thread I had a good experience recently with a clinic in Budapest and I thought it would be useful to others contemplating treatment abroad to give my story.

There are many examples of horror stories regarding treatment in Eastern Europe but I guess, given the numbers that travel there (not just from Ireland but from other Western European countries too) that it can’t all be bad.

Charter rules state that I cannot name the clinic that I visited, but if anyone else wants to know just send me a PM. I have no connection with the clinic other than being a patient, and I don’t know if they are better or worse than their competitors here or in their home country. I chose them because they have a surgery in Dublin. I figured that this was a sign that they weren’t a fly-by-night outfit, and it gave me a chance to get an impression of the firm without having to leave Dublin.

My first appointment was in the Dublin surgery where I was examined by two dentists. They took X-rays and discussed a treatment plan with me. 30 years of smoking and poor oral hygiene meant that my teeth, and in particular my gums, were in pretty poor condition. I had thought that I might be able to get some implants but I was told that because my gums and jaw-bones had receded the likelihood of success with that treatment was slim. The advice of the dentists was that overdentures were the best option for me. Google “overdenture” and you’ll get a better idea of what that is, but for the lay person, essentially they proposed to extract those of my teeth that couldn’t be saved (11) and to fit telescopic crowns to those that could (7). The telescopic crowns would serve to anchor the overdenture and give a better bite than standard dentures. (If anyone can explain that better please go ahead).

I travelled to Budapest for the first part of the treatment on a Sunday evening in late 2010. I was met at the airport and brought to an OK hotel (clean & comfortable but pretty basic). Next morning a representative met me at the hotel and brought me to the clinic. Over that day I had 11 teeth extracted and impressions were taken for temporary dentures. I didn’t have a general anaesthetic, and while I had dreaded having so much work done in one day it wasn’t as traumatic as I feared. I was given painkillers and sent back to the hotel where, to my surprise, I had a good night’s sleep. Next day I went back to the clinic for a half an hour for a first fitting of my temporary dentures. The following day I went back for a final fitting and I flew home that evening.

I was told that it would take at least two months for my gums to heal, however after a few days back in Dublin I found that the temporary dentures were hurting me and needed to be adjusted. I called the surgery in Dublin and was seen later that day, were the necessary adjustments were made.

In February 2011 I returned to Budapest for a week to have my treatment completed. Over the first two days I had one root canal treatment, two fillings, and temporary crowns were fitted to my remaining teeth (7). I had several sessions at the clinic over the following two days where impressions for my final overdentures were made, and on the Friday morning the 7 telescopic crowns were fitted and my overdentures were also ready. I flew back to Dublin that evening.

That was approximately a year ago. Since then I’ve left Ireland and I now live abroad. I recently had my dental work reviewed by a German dentist who told me that all was well.

Treatment Plan
From earlier posts it’s clear that the mods like posters to give as much detail as possible about treatment plans, so here is the detail of what I had done (the numbers in brackets refer to specific teeth) and the costs:
Calculus removal €80
Tooth extraction (12,11,21,22,27,34,32,31,41,42,45) €45 x 11 = €495
Temporary dentures €490 x 2 = €980
Telescopic crown (15,13,24,35,33,44,45) €255 x 7 = €1785
Root canal treatment (35) €99
Composite filling (13,24) €99 x 2 = €198
Final overdentures €695 x 2 = €1390
Total: €5027

Added to that is the cost of travel and accommodation which came to just short of €1000, so the total cost was about €6000.