Having dental work done in Poland for fraidy cats

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m in Krakow, Poland right now. Been here for over three weeks. I’m here to have some dental work done. Not so weird because my son lives in Germany working for DOD and years ago I thought about going to S. Africa for dental work when the rand was 12/1. I ended up going to Canada then (I live in Me just across the border) but it still cost $23,000. So, I recently lost two crowns I had put on just two years ago and they cost me over $2000 in California (my mom lives there). I now needed more extensive work as well, about 8 crowns in addition to 3 implants. So, I thought about Poland or Hungary, since Germany shares a border and I could drive here.

That said I’m feeling like I want to help out the doctor I ended up with, so here is the story:

I started out with Indexmedica in Krakow. They wanted about 13,000 USD for four inplants and 8 crowns (a pretty good deal) . All was okay until the day for the implants to be placed arrived. The doctor, without going into too much detail, scared me to death with his aprehension and warnings. I do have some problems with vertigo and he was a little unhappy I couldn’t lie flat; also I have allergies, so I have to be able to swallow periodically. They had me restrained, my face covered with a drape, with just a small hole, and when he injected the novocaine it anesthesized my throat and I felt like I couldn’t swallow, plus he got a lot of it into my mouth and I wasn’t allowed to spit because he said I couldn’t move. You have to understand that his is a medical travel business. The “front” man, an endodontist, does all the screening and is kind of like a used car salesman. Nice, but he minimizes every worry. I told him my 8 lower implants had been done with conscious sedation because I have allergies and a swallowing problem plus I cannot stand my throat to be anesthesized. In addition, the implant doctor didn’t want to place the implants immediately after extracting two teeth, but was talked into it, so of course I felt great about that. Remember, they deal mostly with people from the UK who are on limited schedules. Well, it was horrible. So they ended it when I told them I felt like there was a lump in my palate and I couldn’t feel my throat and I just couldn’t go on. In the end they charged me $700.00 for almost nothing (e.g. removing two crowns and putting on temporaries). Plus they charged me for removing an almost new crown that cost me $1000 in the U.S. so they could put a temporary bridge on it, which turned out not to be necessary.

I called DentalPoland and they directed me to another dentist. Not only is he a very experienced implantologist, associated with the university in Krakow, but he is a nice, understanding person who was willing to do anything to make me feel comfortable. When I first saw him I was determined to have conscious sedation, but yesterday he was able to do an extraction and put in an implant and I was fine. And Weds. I will have one extraction and and two implants. I come back in two months for the implant crowns and the 8 other regular crowns. Not only that, the price for all the work is about $5,000 less than Indexmedica and I don’t have to wait six months, as they told me, before I come back. My only complaint is that Dental Poland agreed to pay for my accomodation, 25 euro a day, once I saw the dr., and then dropped me like a hot potato once I agreed to have work with the new doctor. They get a percentage of course for referring me. Indexmedica paid for my accomodation, but rescinded that once I left them, which is fair of course. But, DentalPoland is now not answering my emails so I can’t really said I would ever recommend them, only because they agreed to pay for the accomodation and said they would call asap and now I’m a stranger to them. So, I don’t think I would trust them, if I were out of the country, to arrange for my trip here and to find an accomodation. They don’t seem reliable.

So, I’m mainly posting to recommend Dr. Majewski, Milkowskiego 3, Collesium Building, 7th floor in Kradow. 48012-263-65-23. If you want a good dentist I would just call him directly. He is willing to work with you time-wise but will tell you exactly what he recommends in that regard. Don’t mention DentalPoland because otherwise they might try to claim a percentage for doing nothing. In my case, since they sent me to him I supposed they are entitled to that. You can tell I’m mad because they never called me back after being all gung-hoe to refer me.

They apparently don’t have a lot of American patients here. But, I was thinking, the trip to London Stansted is fairly cheap, and from there you can fly RyanAir, a discount airline that goes here to Krakow twice a week. I don’t know why I’m trying to drum up business for him; his appointment book is full for weeks, but that was another thing, he was willing to stay late to see me. I guess I just like him and life here, despite their advancements, is still well beneath western standards.

Poland is supposed to start the three-year transition to the euro probably beginning in June so I don’t know how this will affect the Zloty. Right now it’s 3.4 to one dollar. What a deal! about $8,000 for three implants and eight crowns (with surgical extractions and one post and crown.) I LOVE a bargain. I can’t walk too well. I have two hip implants, but if you can, Krakow is a wonderful city to walk around and has an historical town center.
You can email me at suzannabananas@live.com if you have any questions

2

You made that abundantly clear and I’d say that’s a problem you should have looked into.

3

I’m 66 and people like you used to have to reply to you personally; now they can hide and take their snipes. Every time I decide to post here again, it always ends up like this. It’s been several years, but I’m here in Cracow with not much to do soI thought I’d try it again. Bad idea.

4

I have yet to find a good dentist in Prague - they don’t seem familiar with preventative care. My Dubai dentist is great tho. Anyone have a good dentist in Prague?

5

In the past few years, I know of several Germans who have crossed over into Poland to have dental work done. They all said it was far cheaper and none of them have complained about the process or the results.
However, they did mention you had to do your homework first and find a good dentist - seems that there are all kinds of scams, just like everywhere else in the world.

6

On the behalf of Dental Poland I would like to explain the entire situation with our patient. Ms Suzanne came to Poland for the dental treatment. It was supposed to be done in a clinic which is not a member of Dental Poland, but some completely different company. They offered Ms Suzanne a treatment under conditions we did not know about as they cooperate with a completely separate company, not Dental Poland.

Ms Suzanne changed her mind about that company after some time and wanted to find another dentist to continue the treatment. She contacted us - Dental Poland and got immediate help. We arranged an appointment in our clinic in Cracow, which is one of the best in Poland, in 20 minutes. Normally patients wait about two weeks for an appointment.

We feel disappointed after seeing Ms Suzanne’s post, we tried to help her without any hesitation and to our best ability.

We would like to also clarify, that we did not offer free accommodation to Ms Suzanne. The patient agreed to the contract with the other company where one of the conditions was free accommodation. When she withdrew from the agreement with that company it is obvious that they did not pay for her stay in Cracow. Ms Suzanne then asked us to pay for her accommodation as the other company had promised her. All we could do was to give her a discount on accommodation, which in fact, was a special offer often given to our Patients.

Ms Suzanne also wrote that we had offered her the treatment which was cheaper than in another clinic, so we do not understand her complaints which and there are inconsistencies in her statements. Furthermore, Ms Suzanne wrote that she would not recommend Dental Poland where in fact she recommends Dr Majewski who is one of the doctors who works for Dental Poland.

We helped the patient, we arranged appointments in the one of the best Clinics in Poland and arranged immediate dental treatment and now we feel very disappointed that Ms Suzanne writes so unfairly about our company. We believe we have done everything to satisfy the patient’s needs.

7

Wow…that is a very sudden, and curious, reply to a thread that was opened awhile back.
Is this some kind of whoosh?

8

I was surprised to find this reply in my inbox today. I think it might be a language problem because the only complaint I had about Dental Poland was that after calling me almost every day, once I went to Dr. Majewski, they didn’t answer emails or phone calls. I think that is a legitimate complaint. Also, they DID say when we first talked, before I went to the appointment we arranged, we would talk about having my accomodation paid once I agreed to treatment, and that did not happen. But, they did give me 650 (200.00) zloty towards my rent so I decided to be happy with that. I wrote that email when I was in Poland and I was in a foreign place, had to change dentists, relied on them to help me and when they didn’t respond to me timely I felt deserted. And that is the entire story I did feel like I couldn’t trust them when I didn’t hear and I did feel somewhat irritated when the price on the website did not agree with what I was charged. She explained later that was not the price in Cracow, but I didn’t of course know that. In any case, in the end I was very happy with Dr. Majewski and will be back in several weeks to finish.

this is apparently a language thing again, but Dr. Majewski and Dental Poland are not one and the same thing. Dr. Majewski is a private dentist who recently became one of the dentists Dental Poland refers their contacts to. So, I don’t agree that it’s inconsistent to not recommend Dental Poland and recommend Dr. Majewski. In ny case, it’a a mute point.

So go for it, go ahead and go to Dental Poland if you are considering dental care in Poland. They will help you find a place to rent at a reduced rate and connect you with a dentist. They also, I think, pick you up at the airport. Have to check the website.

Listen, I’m an American and I know that Americans are impatient sometimes. I have no idea if they ever intended to give me anything, except that I kept emailing and calling and they finally got back to me. What went on behind the scenes I have no idea. I’m sure from their point of view they gave me good service. My circumstance was different; I was already in Krakow. You can see that once I agreed to treatment and they knew they were getting their percentage, and then they didn’t respond to my contacts, that it was logical to conclude they had no intention of paying my rent or part of it. so, my only advice to them is to be as diligent about keeping in contact with people as they are in the beginning even after they have agreed to treatment.

9

Wait, I’m confused. Where are you now? Are you living in Poland? Germany? US?