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TEETH TOURISM Dental adventures in Budapest, Hungary
My teeth are like children; I don’t pay much attention to them until they start screaming at me. YES I know I should go in for preventative measures, regular checkups and the like, but given the choice I always end up spending my spare cash at a restaurant table rather than in the dentist chair. Of course I suffer in the long run and have slipped into the dreadful habit of dental fire fighting. It’s what a lot of blokes of my age do - wait until the pain/swelling/smell is so unbearable that you have to crawl to the surgery and beg for emergency help. Then once the holes have been filled and the root canals emptied you have a good whinge about the cost and resume your normal role as Mr. Invincible.
This was my pattern until recently when I had to have a stinker of tooth removed, leaving a big black gap in my lower line up. At my age, fresh fangs are as unlikely as a sixpence from the tooth fairy so what was I to do? The traditional answer of course is dentures. Ah yes, false teeth, those comedy sketch props straight from Steptoe and Son that sit in a jar by your bedside grinning at your decrepitude. I decided to stick with my Shane MacGowan impersonation rather than suffer that indignity.
Then hallelujah! My darling dentist tells me there is a modern alternative to dentures called implants - bolts made of titanium that are drilled into your jaw bone onto which you can screw crowns as easy as assembling Ikea furniture. No need for granny’s falsies, instead just a touch of cool titanium to match your trendy laptop. Tentatively, I asked the price? Thinking that my dentist was still talking about the cost of a titanium laptop rather than one tiny tooth I checked again. WHAT! The starting price was two thousand two hundred and fifty flipping pounds – Crikey, I could get eat at the Ivy for a week for that and still have enough money left for a fabulous holiday…. Then bingo! The idea came to me. I had heard that you could save a lot of money by getting your dental treatment done abroad, so why not combine my quest for a low cost implant with a high rolling luxury holiday?
Thinking more of white-gloved waiters than dodgy dentists I set about my online research. Hungary might not be everyone’s first choice as an exotic destination, but in the world of dental tourism it emerged as numero uno. South Africa, Poland, Croatia, Turkey, and even India all offer cheap dental treatments but it is Hungary that has the longest history in providing low price mouth mechanics. Since the fall of the iron curtain Austrians have been slipping across the border to get their teeth fixed at a fraction of the cost that they would pay in the fatherland. Dental tourism is now big business in Hungary- so much so that Mosonmagyarovar, a western Hungarian town only an hours drive from Vienna boasts the highest concentration of dentists any where in the world. I didn’t much fancy a holiday in a town of full of teeth pullers so instead I set my sights on the capital, Budapest
Looking for a little guidance to the heart of the Austro Hungarian Empire I contacted a company called OH! Yes, OH! - not an expression of pain or surprise simply the abbreviation of Our Hungary, a Hungarian travel specialist. On their website they offered all the usual services; spa visits, opera nights, wine tasting and hey presto, dental treatments. Elvira, their friendly London-based agent promised to arrange everything for my visit and suggested I emailed her a digital x-ray to get a price estimate. The medical results were good - my implant would be straightforward the cost a reasonable £590. Hurrah, the plan was working . Then the bad news- after your implant is fitted you have to wait four to six months for the titanium to set in your jaw and then RETURN to Budapest for three to four days to get your crown fitted. Murderous mouthwash, would it all be worth it? I whipped out my calculator and did the sums. Allowing £400 for flights and adding £180 for the final screw-on tooth thingy I would still make a saving of around £1000 on the British implant quote. Fabulous, a whole grand to blow on the high life in the old Hapsburg headquarters.
Two weeks later, a chauffeur from the British Hungarian Medical Service was waiting for me at Budapest airport with my name printed on an important looking board. This was promising, when was the last time your dentist sent a car to pick you up for an appointment? Valeria Vermes, my charming driver handed me a mobile phone that was to be my dental helpline during my visit and we tootled off in her Skoda to find my hotel.
I wanted the best Budapest had to offer and these days it is easy to find by simply whispering two magic words, GRESHAM PALACE - a recently restored masterpiece of art nouveau architecture that has being converted into a five star hotel with the help of those two other magic words FOUR SEASONS. While lots of the stucco facades of old Budapest are still crumbling from the years of neglect in the Soviet period, the Gresham has managed a Dorian Gray-like transformation. After five years of concentrated craftsmanship and at a cost of sixty two million pounds the Palace has bounced back looking as shiny, sumptuous and unique as it did on its opening day in 1906.
You can smell a great hotel the minute you walk in and I had already whiffed a whopping ten out of ten by the time I had reached the reception desk. Then came the tour; a Zsolnay-tiled mosaic floor guides you around the lobby, through the comforts of the cocktail bar (Budapest’s best and most expensive) and onto the Peacock Passage where you can lounge in velvet armchairs admiring the intricate glass cupola. At front of house there is the Gresham Kavehaz selling perfect patisserie with four different coffee roasts and there’s even a Brioni boutique in the arcade. Although judging from their prices I would have to have a total dental refit and borrow somebody else’s mouth to afford to shop there. Better to spend my money in the world class Pava restaurant with its staff that welcome you like a long lost relative and its ringside view of the Chain Bridge sweeping up to Buda Castle. Pan seared foie gras with morel mushrooms and baked lobster on a bed of hand rolled linguini beckoned me in. “Later darling, later,” first I had to trip up the grand staircase to my art nouveau suite, splash around in the Spanish marble bathroom, wrap myself in the obligatory deep-pile robe and enjoy the sight of the Danube flowing through the centre of this grand old European city. Pure hotel heaven and the gob smacking wonder of it all was that I could pay for the whole extravaganza with the savings on just one half-inch implant.
After a little more luxury lolling I was picked up by my dentist-mobile and driven eight miles through rather shabby looking suburbs. (Actually to be fair most things including my own outfit looked a little shabby after the Gresham Palace.) The dental clinic itself was brand spanking new having been specially converted to deal with the influx of British patients. Without the usual comings and goings it felt rather soulless, but with a large flat screen television to distract me I settled down to wait for my appointment. Then came the next pleasant surprise- there was no wait - I had arrived so they were ready to see me. The receptionist guided me upstairs to an ultra clean surgery, furnished with hi tech equipment - so new in fact that I had my first twinge of nerves when I noticed the assistant reading the instructions for the x ray machine.
Following a quick complimentary scaling and examination the dentist gave the thumbs up for an implant the following morning and I was whisked off back to the Gresham in time for a martini and a dinner to die for. After a leisurely recce of the city’s hottest bar, the Tom George, in the shadow of the Basilica of St Stephen, I wandered back to my ever-so-central hotel where a mountain of feather filled pillows lured me to bed. So far, so marvellous.
The chap performing my implant operation was Dr. Bátorfi Béla, a strong and confident alpha male of a dentist with a pride of well-groomed assistants at his command. What he lacked in bedside manner he made up for with efficiency and after an injection, a blast with a drill and a bit of DIY nut screwing the implant was in. Eight minutes work for six hundred quid - I was beginning to think that even the Hungarian prices where excessive. Happy with his quick fit, the alpha dentist shook my hand, gave me some antibiotics and before you could say oral implantology I was back in downtownBudapest wondering whether the Brioni shop was as overpriced I had first thought.
SIX MONTHS LATER
As I hauled myself onto a poisonously early flight for my return visit to Budapest the idea of quick fix foreign dentistry had lost some of its appeal. Implants at my local dentist maybe be pricey but a visit there didn’t involve the cattle culture of our crowded airports or take three days out of your schedule.
It was still a pleasure to be picked up at the airport but the drive to the dentist seemed longer and shabbier than before. Dr. Bátorfi Béla communication skills still didn’t extend much beyond the ”open now” and “close now” level and his fast fingers seemed fatter than before. I felt a little battered after my fitting but once back in town the Gresham was as gracious as ever and eased me out of my dental grumpiness. After a couple of hours in the hotel’s spectacular rooftop spa I was beginning to see the benefits of my enforced break and I was ready - beginning with a trip to the recently renovated Szechenyi Baths to start exploring the grand old city.
At the end of the trip Bátorfi swiftly screwed in a perfectly sized, colour cordinated, replacement molar, just as good if not better than the one I lost. It is still there now firm as foundation and hopefully will be for the next twenty years that implants are supposed to last.
So readers would I do it again? Yes, although perhaps I would wait until I needed to get at least three implants done to justify the time and the travel complications. In the meantime my dental adventure has inspired my wife to get her veneers sorted out. She much prefers warm beach holidays to Austro–Hungarian heritage and tells me that she has found a good clinic in sunny Cyprus offering bespoke dental packages. Apparently you can stay at some of the island’s most exclusive hotels and pay for it from savings on a spot of teeth straightening. - Pass me that calculator I feel another tooth subsidised sojourn coming on.
WISDOM TEETH
1. Remember that dentistry is a medical procedure not shopping trip. Always be willing to build an extra visit or even two into your treatment plan. The times outlined on the dentist’s websites are estimates and it isn’t until they start working on your teeth that they can give you an accurate assessment of the number of visits required. I was lucky to get away with two visits for my implant as some difficult cases involve a third appointment to fit a healing screw.
2. British dentistry is a billion pound business and some foreign dentists are offering great packages to attract our custom. If you are at all nervous about embarking upon dental treatment abroad try an introductory offer and see for yourself. For example the clinic I used, the British Hungarian Medical Service offer free airport transfers, x ray, examination, written treatment plan and complimentary cleaning on your first visit to Budapest.
3. The best bargains abroad are implants and veneer work with savings multiplying according to the number of teeth you have treated. Routine problems like replacement fillings and root canal work are best tagged on to any heavy duty work you are having done.Teeth whitening costs only slightly less abroad and isn’t worth traveling for.
4. Be sure to ask as many question, as you need to about your treatment before after and even during your time in the chair. Some dentists rely upon their receptionists and marketing people to pass on information so make sure they give you clear medical advice about pre and post treatment care, including the use of medication..
5. Of course you can swop sandwiches for pan seared foie gras and if you don’t want to splash out on a five star hotel in Budapest, there are all levels of accommodation on offer, often with special prices for dental customers. Our Hungary offers reduced rates at the Margaret Island spa from £56. There are excellent rooms at the boutique Hotel Pest from £34 (very central and handy for the Gresham Palace) andself contained apartments from £34 a night. - But don’t be too penny pinching with yourself- you have endured the pain of the dentist and saved yourself a fortune so you are entitled to a little extravagance even if its just cocktails and soup with a straw at the Gresham.
DENTAL ADDRESS BOOK
OH! Our Hungary www.ourhungary.co.uk tel. 020 8230 7162
Working in association with the rather misleadingly named British Hungarian Medical Service www.bhms.hu tel. 0036 1 402 1195
Four Seasons Gresham Palace Budapest - 0036 1 268 6000, www.fourseasons.com/budapest/, double rooms start at £207
Tom George Restaurant and Bar - 1051 Oktober Six utca. 8 reservations 0036 1 266 3525
For more information on Budapest visit the Hungarian National Tourist Office official website at www.gotohungary.co.uk or call 020 7823 1032
Travel and Smile at Nicosia Dental Polyclinic Cyprus, www.dentalcyprus.com
For advice on other dental services abroad www.ouchmytooth.com
And many thanks to my brilliant local dentist Phil Eisenberg at www.sparklysmile.co.uk for all is help and advice.