My two new dental crowns were completed from start to finish in less than two weeks. And I still had 99% of my time to soak up the healthy Cretan cuisine, sunshine, sea, sand and scenery. It really was a dental holiday, and I was a very happy to be a first-time dental tourist with GDA in Crete.   \u201cThank you Giorgos \u201cGeorge\u201d Antonopoulos DDS for incredible service at Gentle Dental Abroad in Crete\u201d   My name is Patrick, I\u2019m from the UK and a recent patient of Gentle Dental Abroad. As a teenager neglected going to the dentist for many years due to anxiety. I eventually overcame this, but needed quite a lot of work to restore my smile. In the following years one dentist or another said that an original crown now needs replacing. As they reached the end of life, one by one all were updated by a string of different dentists. The result was serviceable teeth, but each was a slightly different shape, size and colour from the original harmonious array. The Americans call this process \u201csingle tooth dentistry\u201d. They also call an arch of misshapen teeth an \u201cEnglish mouth\u201d That doesn\u2019t say much for our lack of emphasis on dental aesthetics, and only focussing on function. Just a few months back I visited Gentle Dental Abroad in Crete. What a wonderful experience it had, but now I\u2019d like to let you know how I became a dental tourist. So let\u2019s set the clock back a few months earlier. You never know when a day will turn out badly. And the white crusty bread roll in front of me did not look like a deadly weapon. I picked it up and bit into it, then crunch. I felt a searing pain from one of my upper front teeth. As I took the roll from my mouth, I could see a crown and metal post embedded in it. Actually, it was half of the metal post. I was later to discover that the other segment was still embedded in the root. My female dentist glued it back in with the warning that \u201cit won\u2019t last!\u201d Front teeth or more properly called incisors take a lot of pressure and leverage as they cut our food. My dentist advised me to avoid crusty bread and anything similar. As I returned to the receptionist, I was handed a bill for \u00a360 Her prediction was spot on. Just a couple of months later, and for no apparent reason, I felt the same tooth dislodged in my mouth. As I was it work in London, I called a city centre dentist for an emergency appointment. He re-glued with a similar warning that the stability had been compromised. He joked that if I wanted to keep it, then a diet of liquid food or soup alone would be the order of the day from now on. His bill was a little more at \u00a3100. The same thing occurred a number of times after that, always at precisely the wrong moment. Radiographs confirmed that there was indeed a fragment of the post still in the root of the tooth. None of the dentists would attempt to drill out the debris so that a new crown and longer post could be fitted. However, they did suggest extraction and a bridge to span the gap, or a very expensive implant. UK prices for these are several thousands of pounds. More worrying was the timescale from start to finish. Your front teeth are the most visible and have the greatest effect on clear speech. Given limited options I continued to periodically have the loose crown glued back on. The latest time in 2015 was in Stockholm Sweden where more of my wife\u2019s family live. The result was a really poorly executed repair with the tooth completely out of alignment with the one beside it. It looked terrible, and cost a small fortune to fix too. My wife laughed out loud when she saw it, and joked that I should have gone to IKEA. It was now at the stage where I had to find a permanent solution. I didn\u2019t want to add up, or continue to pay for unreliable repairs. It was time to do a little research. On our return to home, my wife and I visited a specialist implant centre here in the UK. The estimated cost would be the equivalent of a small car! I had read about dental services in various EU countries such as Hungary, and Poland, and even outside in countries such as Russia and India. Using the internet I contacted several to see how much and how long. It was obvious that \u201cdental tourism\u201d was the result of very expensive UK dental fees and that I was not alone in trying to save money! I received glossy brochures, follow up phone calls and many emails informing me of excellent services in Budapest and Prague. I could see they had helped many patients from the UK, Scandinavia, Germany, the Low Countries, and Ireland. All had sought better value and first class treatment. I\u2019m not sure why medical propaganda suggests that British dentists are superior, they absolutely aren\u2019t. I think this is an attempt to control their very lucrative market. Last year (2015) my wife and I planned to visit family who had a holiday home on the island of Crete. Closely following this, I was just about to book a separate dental trip to central Europe solely for dental treatment. Then I had an inspired thought. \u201cI wonder if dentists in Crete treat tourists, and if prices are competitive compared to here in the UK.\u201d Out came the laptop computer and I zoomed to the Google page, typing in \u201cdentists Crete.\u201d Up popped three of four at the top of the results list and I sent an email to each. Naturally I added the details of our stay duration (just over two weeks) and a brief account of my problem. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13,28,22,11],"tags":[14,29,58,41],"yoast_head":"\n