The journey
How it actually went.
Dean had spent good money on dental work in Auckland twice already.
The first round, ten years ago, put two implants into his upper back jaw. Reasonable work at the time. The second round, a few years later, added crowns and bridge work over those implants. By the time he started looking at fresh options, the crowns no longer fit, his bite was off, and the natural teeth at the front were beginning to fail one at a time from the extra load.
The Auckland quote to redo the lot properly was just under NZ$72,000. Twelve implants in total, six per arch, full-arch fixed bridges in zirconia.
He had pretty much decided to live with what he had, until a cousin came back from Hanoi with receipts.
Keeping what worked
The two old upper implants turned out to be the saving grace. They had integrated well into the bone and were structurally fine. The crowns over them were not. The Hanoi plan was straightforward. Take the old crowns off, leave the two implants in place, add four more on the upper to bring it up to six per arch, extract every remaining natural tooth on both jaws, and fit fixed zirconia bridges six to eight months later.
'The relief was that I did not need to start over from zero,' Dean says.
Trip one: 12 days
Day one was a face-to-face consultation and a fresh CBCT scan. Day two, surgery. About eleven hours start to finish, under sedation, both jaws. Four new implants on the upper alongside the two existing ones, six on the lower. Fixed acrylic temporary bridges on both arches by the end of the evening. Dean flew back to Auckland eleven days later, a bit sore but eating soft food without trouble.
Trip two: 7 days, eight months later
Bone healing took a touch longer than the typical four to six months because of his density on the lower, so the clinic pushed the second trip to eight months out to be safe. By then all twelve implants had integrated. Final zirconia bridges were milled in the clinic's own lab, tried in across two appointments, adjusted, and screwed into place on the last morning.
The numbers
Vietnam total, including return flights from Auckland, ten nights in the Old Quarter, surgery, all twelve implants, both temporary and permanent bridges, and the follow-ups: NZ$33,240.
Auckland quote for equivalent work: NZ$70,000.
Saving: NZ$36,760.
'Two trips, less than three weeks total. About half the cost of staying home. I should have done this the first time.'
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