The journey
How it actually went.
The teeth in Linda's mouth had been failing slowly for years.
By her own admission, she had been kicking the can down the road for the better part of a decade. The temporaries kept getting longer-lived. The list of foods she avoided kept getting longer. Three consultations in the Phoenix area had each come back with a price between US$45,000 and US$50,000 for proper All-on-4 rehabilitation on both jaws. She walked out of each one without booking anything.
Her granddaughter, of all people, was the one who eventually sent her a SmileJet link.
The numbers, on paper
Linda submitted her records online, including a recent CBCT scan from her last US consultation. Within 24 hours she had a written treatment plan back from a clinic in Hanoi. Full-mouth extraction of the remaining teeth. Four implants per arch with tilted posterior implants. Immediate-load temporary acrylic bridges on day one of surgery. Final monolithic zirconia bridges four months later.
The all-in price, including flights from Phoenix, two trips, hotels within walking distance of the clinic, surgery, and all prosthetics, was just under US$21,000.
She showed the plan to her US dentist before booking. He looked over the X-rays and the proposed implant positions, told her the protocol was textbook, and said the only thing he could not personally vouch for was the lab work. She booked the flight.
The first trip
Linda landed at Noi Bai Airport on a Sunday. Surgery was Wednesday. The clinic did all the imaging, blood work, and consent paperwork in the two days before. Surgery itself ran a little under four hours, under IV sedation. The temporary bridges were fitted late the same afternoon.
'I expected pain,' she says. 'I had ibuprofen and a soft-food list. I never needed anything stronger.'
She stayed another seven days, ate her way around the city, and flew home with a printed care sheet and a WhatsApp number for the surgeon.
The second trip
Four months later she flew back for six days. Osseointegration had come along well across all eight implants. Final impressions on day one, framework tried in on day three, and the final zirconia bridges screwed into place on day five. Bite check, photos, X-rays, and out.
The bill
Linda's US dentist had quoted her US$55,000 all-in for equivalent work. Her two-trip total in Hanoi came to US$20,900. A saving of US$34,100.
'My grandkids think I went on holiday. The flights cost less than a few of those US consultations did.'
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