salting the wound

gagomes

Everytime I see recommendations to "shopping eastern europe" there is always a bunch of local dentistry practitioners putting the work of these cheaper countries down on the basis that they are unqualified or practice rubbish/incompetent work. However, seeing as I come from a more modest western european country, where going to a dentist is expensive by local economy standards but not totally unaffordable, I think the prices in Ireland are an absolute robbery and the work, judging by the average local's mouths, isn't great either.

I'm not trying to diss the dentists around here. I've asked a few questions in the past and I've appreciated the help in general, but it's not until I see comments about cheaper sources that these questions arise.

For example, I am dentist phobia pacient and over the last 2 years while living in Cambridge-UK, I used to take the plane over to Ireland to get treatment with my trusted irish doctor. However, it sucks that when I had to do 3 extractions, I ended up paying ~250 euros (+ flight costs), when I could've paid just a single 50£ at an NHS practitioner in UK and they'd pull the 3 teeth out (heck, they'd pull all of them and charge me no extra!)

How can an implant be justified to cost 2000euros? Sure enough the markup is bigger 50% on a single one, presumably, volume discount applies on more than 1?

btkm8unsl0w5r4

^rant. Calm down and ask the question again tomorrow.

gagomes

Sorry if I came across as aggressive. Yes, it was partly a rant, but don't neglect the important aspects and questions of my post

P.S: Not trying to get on anyone's nerves, I'd just like some more clarity on paddy's dental treatments pricing. My style of writing may not be the smoothest one. Apologies in advance!

Dianthus

gagomes wrote: »

For example, I am dentist phobia pacient and over the last 2 years while living in Cambridge-UK, I used to take the plane over to Ireland to get treatment with my trusted irish doctor. However, it sucks that when I had to do 3 extractions, I ended up paying ~250 euros (+ flight costs), when I could've paid just a single 50£ at an NHS practitioner in UK and they'd pull the 3 teeth out (heck, they'd pull all of them and charge me no extra!)

What is your trust worth,as a phobic patient? It may be possible to find a UK dentist who you trust equally?
NHS practices in the UK are subsidized by the government to the tune of approx £37,000 per annum (any UK owners here that can correct/confirm this?), whereas Irish practices receive no government funding.
Implants are crazy money, so is a bionic limb though! (don't know that either will ever become affordable to the average person)

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Implants have reduced at least 50% since I started doing them. Unfortunately advanced dental procedures are going to be expensive always, implants are the best way to replace missing teeth but not the only way, just like a Ferrari is the best car but not the only car.

gagomes

Dianthus wrote: »

What is your trust worth,as a phobic patient? It may be possible to find a UK dentist who you trust equally?
NHS practices in the UK are subsidized by the government to the tune of approx £37,000 per annum (any UK owners here that can correct/confirm this?), whereas Irish practices receive no government funding.
Implants are crazy money, so is a bionic limb though! (don't know that either will ever become affordable to the average person)

I should probably edit my post and remove the "personal experience / comparison to UK" part of it which is likely not the most relevant part of my post.

As for comparing it to a bionic limb, I don't think it's on a level playing field

gagomes

Eliza Late Smooch wrote: »

Implants have reduced at least 50% since I started doing them. Unfortunately advanced dental procedures are going to be expensive always, implants are the best way to replace missing teeth but not the only way, just like a Ferrari is the best car but not the only car.

So, let's come up with some hypothetical figures:

cost of an implant: 1000
cost of a specialist dentist: 1000

The cost of the implant goes down by 50%, so the figure becomes (if not more than, as your implant fees probably increase on a yearly basis with taxes inflation):

cost of an implant: 500
cost of a specialist dentist: 1500

This picture seems clear why so many people (including the creator of boards.ie) is shopping abroad.

Dianthus

gagomes wrote: »

As for comparing it to a bionic limb, I don't think it's on a level playing field

Dental implants as a treatment modality are being bandied about like people consider them really basic dentistry; they are not, they are high-end, and the vast majority of general dentists do not place implants as they are not trained to do so.
I completely agree that people can, do, and should, shop around.
"paddy's dental treatments pricing" for implants is expensive...shop around, or abroad.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

No, the cost of dental implants from a patient POV has decreased 50%, they used to be 4-5k per implant. People go abroad because they want something they cannot afford, and they get the low quality to go with the low price they pay in general, advanced dental work cannot be done in the time frames of a holiday or two....regardless I feel this thread is going nowhere except to grind the OP axe, refocus that venom towards the plaque on your teeth and you will find it costs a hell of a lot less.

Oh yeah the breakdown of costs is as follows
cost of implant, cost of sutures, cost of equipment, cost of consumables, cost of surgical setup, cost of dental nurse, cost of rent, insurance, indemnity, cost of light, heat electricity, cost of bad debts, cost of receptionist, cost of covers crew, cost of healing cap, cost of final crown, cost of final crown implant abutments and screws, cost of dentists time........for example the implant might cost 400 euro and the crown ect, costs 600 euro, so there is 1000 euro in costs before you factor in clinical time, wages and dentist profit.....you can get cheaper inferior implants and cheaper inferior lab work but thats your call.

Here is what 11 implants placed whle on holidays looks like, every one failing, one already spat out one morning, below that is implants placed on holidays in a rush, hasn't fallen out cause its joined to every other tooth in the head. Both those cases are less than 3 years old. This is not something to be taken lightly or tendered to the lowest bidder, consequences of poor treatment are serious.







CLOSED...comparative price discussion is not a dental issue, take it to consumer issues.