[kitty2000]

I live in South London and my dentist has said I need a dental implant and that he can refer me to a dentist who would charge about £2500. So I looked on this forum and on the internet and I have found prices of £700, £1200, £1800 and £2500. Can anyone tell me if the lower end of price range is OK, or the middle range? I do not know how to evaluate dental surgeons and am very puzzled by the range of prices. I could travel to most parts of London but I do not want to go abroad.

[admin]

The price range may be due to hidden costs different implant systems and the surgeon who is placing the implant and his/ her experience:

some clinics will quote implant, abutment and crown prices separately some will quote an all in one price be sure that you understand what you are getting. e.g. Dental implants from £700 could be (dental implant £700, abutment £250, crown £500 so the total would be £1450).

A highly experienced implant surgeon with a lower failure rate will charge more.

Different dental implant systems differ in price make sure you compare apples with apples - ask about the implant system and which implant he / she is using.

some clinics will get a discount on buying bulk implants

I would ask to see case studies that the implant surgeon has carried out before committing to treatment.

[kitty2000]

Thank you for all the useful information. It would seem that £1.500 might be a possible price. I think if there are clinics specialising in implants and nothing else they might be better than an ordinary dental practise. Please could you tell where to find a list of specialist implant clinics. Also, do you know if anyone rates or supervises the quality of their work?

Best wishes
Kitty

[admin]

£1500 would be the low end of the implant market, there is no such thing as an implant specialist however there are many dentists that limit their practice to mainly implant dentistry and have a lot of experience in this area. for a experienced implant dentist to place an implant fees would probably start from £2100 upwards but you will be getting high quality materials and and skills, I wouldnt let budget get in the way of something that is going to be in my mouth for the next 20 years or so i would choose the highest quality but i guess budgets are an issue in todays economy, I hope this helps.

[kitty2000]

Again thank you so much for the information. I looked online at the different implant systems, mostly info for dentists and I was completely out of my depth. Can you tell me which systems are considered to be good quality and have the best "take"?
Also you say it is important to have an experienced dentist but when looking at the various places doing implants there is only one person with lots of experience. How would it be possible to have the expert do your operation and not one of his trainees?
I am a careful person and agree that quality is important. But I find it very difficult to to make an assessment from the information online. Do the various implant dentists publish figures of number of ops and success rate as the NHS produce for hospitals?
Sorry for all the questions
Best wishes
Kitty

[prosman]

Hi Kitty

Knowing what the costs of treatment are £1500 is rather low and the only way IMO that this can be done is by cutting the quality of the final restoration (crown). Remember the bit everyone sees is the crown so it really depends where in your moth you are talking about i.e. a low cost crown on a back tooth would be more acceptable to most people than a front tooth.

Nick Fahey