Before you go
What happens if it goes wrong after you fly home
This is the question that stops most people booking, and the one the industry is quietest about. Here is the honest position, and the five things that actually protect you — all of which are easier to do before you travel than after.
The gap, stated plainly
If a crown fails eight months after you get home, three things are usually true at once: your NHS dentist is not obliged to take on someone else’s implant work and many will decline it; your travel insurance almost certainly excluded planned treatment; and the clinic that did the work is willing to fix it — in the country you would have to fly back to.
None of that means treatment abroad is a bad idea. Plenty of it goes well. It means the risk sits in a specific place, and it is worth handling that place deliberately rather than hoping.
The five things that actually help
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Get the guarantee in writing, and read what voids it
Ask what is covered, for how long, and what you must do to keep it — many guarantees require a check-up at the treating clinic at fixed intervals, which means flights. A guarantee that requires you to return is still worth having; it is just not the same thing as being covered at home.
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Ask who pays for the flight back
Remedial work is often free. The travel to reach it almost never is. Ask the question in writing before you book, because the answer is rarely on the website.
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Take your records home with you
Implant make and model, the batch or reference number, the X-rays, and the written treatment plan. A UK dentist who cannot identify the system you are carrying is far more likely to decline the work — and far more likely to charge for finding out. Ask for it all before you leave the chair.
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Find your UK dentist before you fly, not after
Ring your own practice and ask directly: “if I have implant work done abroad, will you see me for checks and would you do remedial work on it?” A yes is worth a great deal. A no is worth knowing now, while you still have time to find someone who will.
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Pay in a way that gives you a claim
See the note below. It is the only one of these five that gives you recourse against someone in the UK.
What we are building, and what does not exist yet
There is no list here yet, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. We are assembling a small number of UK dentists who will see patients treated abroad — for post-operative checks and for remedial work — with what they charge stated up front. When it exists it will be on this page, and the same rules will apply to it as to everything else here: named, checked against the GDC register, and honest about what we have not verified.
If you are a UK dentist willing to see patients who had treatment abroad, we would like to hear from you. You would be paid directly by the patient for the appointment; there is no fee to us and no commission of any kind. Use the form below and say so.
Talk to us about your treatment
Tell us what you're considering and we'll come back to you personally. No obligation, and we never share your details.