I was planning on going to Clear Choice Dental Implant Centers for my dental implants. This was mostly because they came down $15,000 when they heard I couldn’t afford what they quoted. However, recently, a friend told me that there really is not any follow-up with them so I am wondering if I will be better off going somewhere else. A friend recently returned from Costa Rica to have some dental work done and had a very good experience. Is this a common thing, going to Costa Rica for more affordable dental work? She said she got to tour the area, then have her dental work done for about the same cost of care here.
Lettie
Dear Lettie,
Implant Overdentures
I would like to pose a couple of questions to you that I hope will help you consider a couple of issues with both of these options. Let’s start with Clear Choice Dental Implants. It is true that they really don’t have any follow-up and that can be dangerous. However, I am curious about a company can just drop their price $15,000 at the drop of a hat. Does this mean their price was unnecessarily high? Is that a trustworthy group?
There is something else to consider with Clear Choice. You did not mention which procedure they were recommending for you. In most cases, they encourage people to extract all their teeth and then do the all-on-4 dental implants procedure. This procedure does work, but if anything goes wrong with one dental implant then the whole appliance has to be replaced. If possible, when you have to replace all of your teeth, I would rather recommend implant overdentures (pictured above). These use between four and eight dental implants and then anchor a denture to them.
As for Costa Rica, if you are worried about the lack of follow-up with Clear Choice, how much post-procedural care do you think you will get from a dentist in another country? What will you do if something goes wrong? While dental care may be less expensive there, they will not have the same standards. In some dental tourism countries, the patient has no recourse, even when the dentist did a horrible procedure.
If you are worried about the type of care you will get, I suggest you go to a highly qualified implant dentist here in the states. It’s a much safer option, as long as they have the right training. If the cost is what is holding you back, you should know that, under normal circumstances, you will be paying it out in two stages. Usually, the first payment is at the time of the implant surgery. The second one is usually when you are having the denture placed. In some cases, you can find a sympathetic dentist who will break the payments up even further for you.
This blog is brought to you by Hoffman Estates Dentist Dr. William Becker.