Going Abroad For Dental Treatment?
If you are thinking of travelling overseas for a cosmetic dentistry procedure, please read this blog.
Many of you reading this will be familiar with the trend of going overseas to receive dental treatments. These might include cosmetic procedures as well as more complex ones such as a dental implant placement. The main reason that people do this, of course, is to save money. There has been no shortage of advertising in the attempt to persuade people to have these treatments overseas, with prices often being significantly lower than in the UK. But why is this?
Lower prices, and especially when significantly so, may well indicate a reduction in skills or quality of materials used. This, and other reasons mean that anyone taking ‘advantage’ of these offers may not only not receive the smile that they had hoped for but may also be putting their teeth and gums at risk.
Let us take a look then at some of the reasons why we advise patients of the Acton Vale Dental Centre not to be tempted by these offers.
Different standards
The UK dental profession is heavily regulated, with training standards set very high. This helps to ensure that patients receive a high standard of dental care from a highly trained workforce. While there are obviously very skillful dentists abroad, this is not always the case and some countries may have lower standards than in the UK. It is also possible that some dentists may not be very experienced and are able to attract patients only due to the cheaper cost of their treatments. Naturally, using a less experienced dentist to place a dental implant comes with significant risks, and, in a worse case scenario could even cause the implant to fail.
As we write this blog, the Independent newspaper has reported that a Chinese man has died days after having 23 teeth extracted and 12 implants placed on the same day. Although it is probably very unlikely that China would be a destination people from the UK would choose, it does illustrate the point about standards differing in some countries.
Language barrier
While English is widely spoken in most places, it can still present problems where it is spoken as a second (or third) language. This is usually not a problem in everyday life, but where a complex dental procedure is being discussed, even a small misunderstanding can lead to unwanted results. For nervous patients especially, the lack of ability to effectively indicate discomfort and the need for a short break during a procedure can be quite distressing.
Infection risks
As mentioned earlier, standards can be lower in some other countries and this might apply to hygiene standards too. We take the risk of cross infection very seriously here at your Acton dental surgery and do all that we can to keep our patients safe and healthy. While we would expect most dentists to do the same, there is no guarantee that this is necessarily the case.
Inferior materials
Although the cost of living in some countries is cheaper than the UK and may account for some of the price differences, there is also a likelihood that some of the savings are made by using inferior quality products. This can be bad enough with treatments like teeth veneers where it might be the appearance that suffers, but if corners were cut on the materials used for a tooth implant, the whole treatment could fail and you could have travelled thousands of miles for an unsuccessful procedure. Using a dentist in the UK such as the Acton Vale Dental Centre where only quality implants are used means that you should have dental implants that can last for twenty years or more.
Aftercare
If you go abroad for treatment and are fortunate enough to see a good dentist who is experienced and uses high quality equipment, you might not have this problem, although making sure that you have can be quite difficult. If things do go wrong, there is next to no aftercare option available to you other than to fly back out to see the same dentist who may have even caused the problem in the first place. While there can never be a certain guarantee that a treatment will be successful, it is much easier to see a dentist close to home than have the time and expense of travelling back abroad again.
As you can see, while the temptation might be to save a few pounds and have your treatment abroad, it is a big risk and one that we would not recommend that you take. If you are considering this, we encourage you to see one of our dentists first. We are sure that you will feel more confident in them than you will an unknown dentist abroad. We can also explain our payment plans which helps you to spread the cost of your treatment over a period of time.
If you would like to arrange an appointment to do this, please call the Acton Vale Dental Centre today on 0204 8749 3267.