Dental work abroad

[HiHo]

Has anyone genuinely had some dental work done abroad and what was their experience like with the whole thing? So cost, ease of organising, was the work carried out to your satisfaction, did you feel safe, were there language barriers?

Just that I'd imagine some people may be considering this as a cheaper option for some types of dental work and I'm sure would be interested to get someone else's feedback on this matter.

[kj]

okay what happens if you get problems with the dental work after you've come back from abroad?, who's going to sort it out?

[chrissiecross]

My filling fell out the day before my holidays.We currently have a private dentist, as unable to get NHS cover in our area.So I decided I would check out the local dentist in Kusadasi-Turkey.I had heard the dentists abroad were at least as good as their UK counterparts.
I walked in to his surgery-no appointment-and waited around 20 mins -while he finished with his patient. Local anaesthetic, a specialty of this man, involved the specific tooth being numbed but not the entire mouth, tongue etc. The filling is on the back tooth and very big. Cost 100 turkish lira-about £45 based on exchange rate of 2.2 to the pound. I could eat and drink immediately. I made an appointment for e few days to have the mega clean done-cost 50 lira, so about 22.50. Languge wasn't perfect, but good enough for me. Don't imagine replies sound different in any language when you have a mouth full of cotton wood and suction equipment, so no problem there.lol. Since we are regular visitors to this area I will probably go back again, although for emergency treatment will keep my nice but oh so expensive UK dentist

[exxy]

I work in Nigeria and recently broke a tooth and I was forced to seek out a dentist locally. With great trepidation I visited one only to be amazed to find a state of the art surgery above the local supermarket.
Superb treatment, no waiting, even called me up a week later to check that everything was okay. When was the last time you had patient care like that. For 2 treatments of an hour the bill was £50 inc 2 X-rays and I have a rebuilt tooth that is indistinguishable from the others. In mouth video and stills pictures in widescreen in front of you confirmed the quality of the work. I asked him to put on the film "Jaws" whilst he worked, he politely declined.
Now if in a country like Nigeria where absolutely nothing works you can go to a surgery that has better equipment, patient care and pricing than the UK what are we doing wrong. You can be sure that the equipment cost 10x what it does in the UK to buy and maintain. Business rents are comparable with UK prices(Lagos is higher than LA in most expensive cities in the world list) so where is the money going?
It seems to me that we simply are not producing enough dentists to service the demand thus elevating the prices. The NHS structure does not encourage this so I cannot see the situation improving.
To see the UK fall behind Africa in dental care is a national disgrace.