Implants Overseas or at Home?

The Appeal of Going Abroad

Price is the draw, plainly. Clinics in Budapest, Antalya and Istanbul advertise complete sets of implant-supported teeth at a small fraction of Scottish fees, with a hotel stay and transfers from the airport often thrown in. On paper, an entire mouth might be several thousand pounds less, and some people could not afford the treatment any other way.

It is equally true that many overseas clinics are well equipped, work with recognised implant brands and employ experienced surgeons. Hungary has had a dental tourism industry for decades. So the real question is not whether good dentistry can be had abroad. It is whether the particular plan in front of you gives the implants what they need to succeed, and what becomes of you if it does not.

What You Get for the Headline Price

Overseas packages differ enormously, so read the detail. A typical full-arch deal covers extractions, the implants themselves, a bridge (temporary or definitive) and occasionally the hotel. Items that are often left out or charged on top:

• The CT scan, where it is taken on arrival and charged as an extra
• A sinus lift or bone grafting, costed only after you are in the chair
• A return trip for the definitive teeth
• Upgrading from acrylic to zirconia
• Any form of sedation
• Follow-up visits and hygiene care once you are back home

By comparison, a fixed full arch with us starts at £9,300 per arch on the Healed Foundation pathway, meant for a jaw that has already healed with nothing left to extract. If teeth have to come out first, Staged Treatment is £11,500 and Same-Day Fixed Teeth is £13,500, while Premium Guided Zirconia at £14,950 is finished in zirconia as standard; on Healed Foundation, zirconia is an optional upgrade at £2,500 per arch. Each of these per-arch fees takes in the CBCT scan, 3D planning, the implants and the permanent bridge for that pathway, and the three that involve extractions also cover routine grafting where it is needed. Fixed temporary teeth on surgery day are part of Same-Day and Premium only, and whether you can have them turns on your bone and how firmly the implants sit once placed, which nobody can know until surgery; your written plan explains the alternative, and the pathway fee stays put if it's needed. ¹ A single implant and crown starts at £2,605. Every fee and every possible extra is set out in our implant cost guide.

Working Out What It Really Costs

To compare fairly, put the overseas quote next to a Scottish one and add the following to the overseas figure:

For one or two implants the saving frequently dwindles to almost nothing once travel is included. For a full mouth a genuine saving can remain. That is a legitimate choice, provided you make it with the complete picture in front of you.

Healing Time Versus Travel Dates

This is where plans differ most. After an implant goes into the jaw, new bone needs to grow onto it before it is ready for full biting force. Our own practice is to allow three to four months from placing the implants to fitting the definitive teeth, and longer still if grafting was involved.

Some overseas packages squeeze that into one or two visits only days apart, fitting the final teeth before the bone has fused. Fitting temporary teeth to implants on the day of surgery is an accepted approach when the implants are stable enough and the bite is carefully controlled. A definitive bridge fitted within days, ahead of healing, is another thing entirely, and it is a well-recognised reason for implants loosening over the following months.

Also worth planning for: after major surgery, most surgeons recommend resting for a day or two before you fly, the swelling is at its worst two to three days in, and sitting through a long flight with a tender, swollen mouth is miserable. A responsible overseas clinic will schedule recovery days.

If a Problem Appears Once You Are Home

The majority of implants, placed anywhere, do well. When trouble arises it usually surfaces weeks or months down the line, after you are back. The common problems are infection at an implant site, an implant that never fused, a bridge that fractures or a screw that keeps working loose, and gum that recedes.

That is when the practical difficulties begin. The guarantee normally obliges you to return to the clinic that did the work, at your expense. Your dentist at home may be reluctant to take on treatment they did not carry out, or may have no access to parts for that implant system. Meanwhile, every week spent arranging a trip is a week the problem gets worse.

None of this is a reason not to go. It is a reason to know, before you leave, exactly who you will ring and what the bill will be if a problem shows up in month four.

Reading an Overseas Treatment Plan

Insist on the plan in writing, in English, before any flights are booked. Then check it covers each of the following:

1. The implant brand and model, named. Parts for recognised brands can be obtained in Scotland. Be wary of a clinic's "own" implant, or of no brand being named at all.
2. A CT scan used for planning, with a copy for you to keep.
3. The number of implants going into each jaw, and their positions.
4. The healing period before the final bridge, stated in weeks.
5. The bridge material, whether acrylic, zirconia or metal-reinforced.
6. Whether any healthy teeth will be extracted to make the plan work, and the justification.
7. The guarantee: its length, its conditions, and whether it pays for travel.
8. The name of the dentist and their registration number with that country's dental regulator.

Bring the plan along and we will read it together. If it stands up, we will tell you so.

What We Can Put Right, and What We Cannot

Whether the work was done in Turkey, Hungary or anywhere else, we will assess it, and the starting point never changes: an examination, a CT scan (£160) and a frank account of what we find.

Usually achievable: settling inflammation around implants, tightening loose screws or fitting new ones, adjusting the bite, replacing a fractured crown or bridge if the system can be identified and parts obtained, removing a failed implant and placing a replacement after the site has healed, and putting in new implants where the originals cannot be saved.

Difficult or impossible: certain lesser-known implant systems cannot be sourced in the UK, which means a new bridge might not fit and the implants themselves could need replacing. Where failed implants have taken bone with them, grafting may be needed first. And another clinic's guarantee is not something we can take over, so any repair work with us is private, quoted in a written plan.

Putting things right can cost more than having the work done once, and we say so from the very beginning. Our guide to failed dental implants walks through the repair steps.

Overseas Crowns and Veneers

A great deal of what the newspapers call "Turkey teeth" involves crowns rather than implants: healthy teeth, a whole set of them, filed down to small pegs and capped. That is a separate decision with risks of its own, and it is covered in our guide to Turkey teeth.

If You Do Decide to Travel

• Obtain the complete plan, brand names and schedule in writing before anything else
• Pick a schedule that allows proper healing before the definitive teeth
• Ask for copies of all scans and X-rays, together with the implant stickers or batch numbers
• Have an examination at home before you go, so any gum disease or decay is dealt with first
• Book hygiene appointments at home every three months once you are back
• Get in touch without delay should anything feel loose, tender or swollen

We will not judge you for going. Our job is to care for the teeth in your mouth, whoever did the work and wherever it was done.

Questions

This guide is general information, not a diagnosis. A dentist needs to examine you to say what is right for your teeth.