dental work in the FSU ?

[southernX]

ok wondering on others impressions /experience in the FSU with dentistry work
just spent a few weeks in ukraine , while i was there i needed some dental work done ,
the dental clinic staff where very good , the work so far seems good quality ,
price was certainly good , even at tourist /foreigner prices ,

clinic i used advertised as practicing german dentistry ? i did not notice any big differences from other dentistry experiences iv had in my  home country on the whole ,
clinic was clean , used pretty modern equipment , etc

only one complaint i had was the dentist seeemd very reluctant to use a needle anesthetic , it was only after i complained about pain , [root canal ] that she gave me a needle , even then it was min amount ,,

anyone else had such experience ?

SX

[mendeleyev]

The anesthetic may not have been in the original price quoted. Unlike in the West not every service is automatically included.

The perception is that European or American care is better and therefore clinics advertise themselves as much, and most have a connection somehow even if its a sort of franchise or the staff was trained in the West or by Western professionals.

Truth is, local care is more competent than it was 10 or so years ago, especially in Russia. Ukraine still lags behind simply for economic reasons but they're improved in recent years too. The local polyclinics can be hit or miss and that is why most expats prefer a Western styled clinic.

I've published a list of Western Care facilities in Russia and Ukraine here: http://russianreport.wordpress.com/come-to-russia-get-a-visa/medical-care/

[The Natural]

A year ago I went to a dentist in Kerch, Crimea. They did a lot of work on my teeth, fillings, drillings, cleaning, during 3-4 visits.
I got all the anesthetics I needed and the work done was very good and I was satisfied with that and it cost only 2000 grivnas which would have been several times as much back home.
The equipment and rooms was like in the west. They said they got some equipment from Finland. I wouldn't hesitate going back there next time we're in Kerch.

[Faux Pas]

My experience while not my teeth is, you can get quality work done in the FSU. A problem is, you might not find out the quality or lack of it until several years later. There can be a significant difference in the materials used while the dentist was a pleasant experience, the work and/or material didn't hold up. It cost me 4K to fix a root canal my wife had done by what she was sure was a good dentist. Buyer beware

[GQBlues]

SX-

Modern dentistry right now uses needle-less anesthetic injections. It no longer have those intimidating long needles, and the anesthesia they use now also require smaller doses since they seem to pack more punch to deaden your nerves.

Having said that, my wife's experience, while it's Russia and not Ukraine, mirrors that of Faux Pas'...

My experience while not my teeth is, you can get quality work done in the FSU. A problem is, you might not find out the quality or lack of it until several years later. There can be a significant difference in the materials used while the dentist was a pleasant experience, the work and/or material didn't hold up. It cost me 4K to fix a root canal my wife had done by what she was sure was a good dentist. Buyer beware

Just before my wife left, she had 2 root canals done. She thought it was good until a few years later when she started experiencing 'pain' on the very same two tooth she had worked on. My regular dentist didn't even work on her as he sent her over to a specialist to get it 'fixed'. She performed an actual oral surgery on wifey to fix the work that were done.

There's good and bad dentist (dentistry) anywhere. Either here or anywhere. Sometimes one pays more by 'price' hunting way too much, and having dentistry work done abroad, IMHO, or away from your home base, isn't always the smartest thing to do in case something goes wrong with the work that's been done.

[southernX]

GQ
thign is right from the start i told her if its a root canal filling i know they can be painfull so  i dont want to feel anyhting in my bottom jaw ,
no problems with extra cost , just get the job done
so she started off with no needle at all ?

im no baby , but 3 times i had to physically use my arm to stop her from pushing down causing excruicating pain in my jaw , while trying to say da ballit da ballit , with a jaw wide open & mouth full of small tiny hand drill pieces stuck in my other root canals ,
 not exactly what i signed up for 


finally she stubbornly gave in and gave me a needle 
SX

[Aloe]

I had one filling done when i was like 10, it' still fine, so i'm happy with russian dentistry 

[Aloe]

Oh noes, i looked up in wikipedia, it says fillings of amalgam last 12,8 yrs on average, and composite resin less than 8 yrs. I have no clue what material mine is in, but it sounds like its long overdue to fall out 

[Wayne]

Aloe, if you are 25 years old and only needed one tooth repaired in your lifetime, you have excellent teeth!  My ex step daughter came from Russia at age 17. I took her to my dentist in USA because she had tooth pain. She needed a root canal and crown at a cost of more than $2000.
 
She had 11 fillings done in Russia that needed replacement. Now, the most adult teeth you have is 32, so 1/3 of her teeth needed second repair jobs! The fillings start to fail because the preparation and materials are not correct. They get cracks, food gets under them, and causes decay.
 
Amalgams are silver mixed with Mercury. Mercury is a strong poisin!

[The Natural]

 
Amalgams are silver mixed with Mercury. Mercury is a strong poisin!

Right, almost 50% mercury and it was outlawed in Norway for dental use a few years ago. I had them from childhood and they made the teeth crack up. It is advised to go to a specialist to get them removed because of the fumes when drilling into them.
 
I see that some here mentioned root canal. But I don't want to open up a new can of worms by saying I'm sceptical to that practise 

[northkape]

When Lena came here in the year 2000
One of the first things I did was to fix her teeth.

Looking at her X-ray photos, there was among other terrible things,
a piece of a broken drill in one of her root canals.
My regular dentist couldn't even do all the work on her, and sent her to a specialist to get it 'fixed'.
He performed an actual oral surgery on Lena to fix the work that had been done.

Total cost with several new teeth and crowns were somewhere above $10K at that time.
You can only guess how happy Lena was afterwards.
From my experience with Ukraine women there are a lot of them that need serious dental work when coming here.
Yes, you can have it done cheaper in Kiev, but there is no way I would take any chances with my wife's teeth.
And as I said, Lena was very pleased with my decision to fix all of her teeth at once.
Giving her a smile with pearl white beautiful teeth.
And quality work that is still in perfect condition 13 problem free years later. 

Paying for quality, you cry only once....

Jan

[BillyB]

ok wondering on others impressions /experience in the FSU with dentistry work

From some of the conversations with some of the natives there, if they have the money, they prefer to go to clinics that cater to Western Europeans and Americans since dentists there tend to be better qualified and use modern equipment and methods. My wife and her mom, a doctor, said it's fine going to those places if a person wants quality work and to save money from what they would have to pay outside of the FSU.

[Wayne]

If a tooth has decay deep enough, it cannot be just filled. The nerve would be effected and you would always have pain!  The root canal is cheaper and easier than an implant. Basically, the nerve is removed so there is no more pain.
 
Then after the nerve is removed, the tooth is filled, an impression is made, and a gold crown is made. You can leave the gold plain, or have it coated with tooth colored enamel to match the color of your other teeth.
 
Of course, implants could be coming down in cost in the future.
 
A sidenote: In 1991 the mass grave of Czar Nickolas II and his family was dug up. A team of scientists from USA, UK and Russian spent years examining the bones. The teenage daughters has many fillings, but they were not Silver, but instead Platinum!
 
I looked up the current value of precious medals at the NY exchange:  Platinum is worth 65 times as much as Silver!
 
The women wore double layer corsets stuffed with highest quality diamonds. 17 pounds of these diamonds were turned over to the new government.
 
Can anyone calculate what 17 pounds of diamonds would be worth?

[The Natural]

 
Can anyone calculate what 17 pounds of diamonds would be worth?

I cannot, but isn't it so that diamonds aren't all that rare after all? I've heard that the price is held up by some traders in Holland stockpiling the stuff as not to flood the marked and bring the prices down. Then there's the ethics of diamonds.... blood diamonds.
 
Myself, I'm more of a gold and silver kinda guy 

[Wayne]

Russia has a great amount of diamonds, but I don't know about the quality?
 
17 pounds equals 38,555 carats. If these diamonds were average quality (But I would expect the Czar to have the highest quality!) they would be worth about 200 million USD.
 
Now who would carry that amount of wealth on them?
 
The Czar was ready to step down and just retire with his family in Yalta.
 
Perhaps you knew:  One daughter was a poet. The normal language for the children was English. You can find some of the poems online.

[Faux Pas]

Diamonds have a great value but, they are not rare. What makes them to be perceived as rare is the De Beers company in the early 1900's would show up and buy every diamond found and secure the land for mining. This practice gave them the value. The De Beers did this for two reasons, to add value to the gems and to control the market to which they still do to this day. They set the price on their gems and the rest of the world follows. Ruby is still the rarest gem

[GQBlues]

GQ
thign is right from the start i told her if its a root canal filling i know they can be painfull so  i dont want to feel anyhting in my bottom jaw , no problems with extra cost , just get the job done so she started off with no needle at all ? ...

My ex-GF was once a dental office manager and she told me of a case where one of their patient actually would not submit to any type of anesthesia (injection) but instead would hypnotize himself. He would ask for a 5-minute time-out and would tell the dentist when he's ready.

He had 3 root canals done  under self-hypnosis. I think the dentist was likely more nervous than the guy was. But he 'slept' like a little child the entire process everytime.

...When Lena came here in the year 2000. One of the first things I did was to fix her teeth. Looking at her X-ray photos, there was among other terrible things,
a piece of a broken drill in one of her root canals. My regular dentist couldn't even do all the work on her, and sent her to a specialist to get it 'fixed'.  He performed an actual oral surgery on Lena to fix the work that had been done.

Total cost with several new teeth and crowns were somewhere above $10K at that time....

Northkape-

Not sure how many units that cost represent but for the 2 units my wife had to have re-done, cost us $2,800.00 with insurance co-pay IIRC. Not too bad considering it's technically not dentistry but oral surgery. I thought your case there would have taken care of this cost automatically due to your healthcare system.

I am just being curious and wondered why there doesn't seem to be not much of a difference in cost...

[markinukr]

Chiming in late on this discussion, but having been living in Sevastopol Ikr for the past five years, I've had plenty of dental work done and have always been pleased with the result. After one particular visit I then returned to the US and asked my former dentist to chedk the work done and he said it looked top notch to him, which was reassuring.

[Faux Pas]

Chiming in late on this discussion, but having been living in Sevastopol Ikr for the past five years, I've had plenty of dental work done and have always been pleased with the result. After one particular visit I then returned to the US and asked my former dentist to chedk the work done and he said it looked top notch to him, which was reassuring.

The quality of work is a mixed bag, the same as it is anywhere else in the world. A big difference is the materials used. This can be problematic and expensive for the work being done there when problems arise here.