Dental Care in Rome, Italy (crowns, caries, scaling, paradontitis): How much does it cost?

Sorry to take so long to upload the travel diaries, but since September, I’ve been hanging out at the dentist’s and these appointments put me in low energy, it’s crazy. Constantly thinking about my teeth or my tooth problems, it exhausts me!

I wonder if 5 continents world tour has turned into a dentists’ world tour. It’s terrible! I visited dental offices in Thailand, Morocco, Canada, Italy and Turkey. Well, what I can tell you is that French dentists are the worst, so if your wallet allows it and you can get treatment elsewhere, I highly recommend you.

Why should I get treatment in Italy?

That’s the question everyone asks me. Our company is still based in France, so I have the French social security + compulsory mutual insurance. If I am treated in France, I have every chance of being reimbursed for a large part of my care.

In June 2019, while I was still in Rouen, it took me a month to get an appointment with a renowned dentist, specialist in gums (paradontist). Having been treated by my Canadian dentist a year earlier, I knew how to recognize the symptoms and I ran to this specialist to have him treat me for periodontal problems. An X-ray was taken and not only did he tell me that there was NO problem, but he also pointed out that I had a small cavity but that did not need treatment.

I thought he was happy, and that’s when we left for Rome for 1.5 months. However, the symptoms still haven’t gone away (normal, he didn’t treat me) and I considered coming back to France to get treated by one or two paradontists in Paris (they give classes at the university as well). After reading and rereading their websites for several days, I inquire left to right to know the fees charged and a dental assistant contradicts one of the information put forward on their site. I do research in English that also contradicts what our French paradontists say, and frankly I am fed up and decide to never trust French dentists again.

So, instead of coming back to France, I decided to stay and get treatment in Italy.

How much does care cost in Italy?

Then, residents are entitled to social security, so they pay about the same conventional prices as in France. But to make an appointment with these dentists, you have to wait a long time, and if there is one thing I understood well after these long years in France, it is that in dentistry, the cheaper it is, the more you have to be careful.

I ask the Italians I know and they tell me that these dentists are paid by the State, as a kind of fixed salary, so they don’t have to work well, or work a lot. Well, I don’t know if that’s really the case, but that’s what I’ve been told.

Not being a resident anyway, I opt for a private practice.

So, the problem is the language. I don’t speak Italian, but English, French, Spanish and Vietnamese.

I have located several offices but when I call to make an appointment and ask if the dentist speaks one of these languages, the answer is no.

I know that many would have recommended (1) the American dental office (2) the dental office recommended by the French Embassy in Italy.
But (1) I have read a review – positive – on the American dental office, which claims to have been delighted with a devitalization in one hour. Excuse me, a devitalization in one hour is necessarily sloppy work (2) I do not want to be consulted by dentists, even Italian ones, trained in France.

In short, after calling around, I ended up choosing a firm just a stone’s throw from the Spanish Steps. Before coming, I stalked the dentist to death. After realizing that he had 50 years of experience behind him, that he had written 5 books on implantology, had been a university professor for years, and even a Swiss patient comes to see him every year (even though Swiss dentists are the best in the world), I said to myself “he can save me”.

Italian practices all have hygienists, whose job is just to do scaling. This is a very, very good point, because dentists who are also hygienists tend to botch the job. So-called “developed” countries often separate these two jobs, except in France, probably because our conventional rates are too low to hire a full-time person for that.

Rates (very high range)

I’ll give you his rates right away, very high, even compared to other firms, but that’s the price you have to pay to get the cream ofthe crop:

• Initial consultation: 150€
• Radios: 168€
• Periodontitis care: 600€
• Cavity care: 473€
• Devitalization: €525
• Wreath: 3 828€
• Tooth whitening (at the office + at home): 2 000€

How’s it going?

I’ll tell you what happens in his office, I don’t know what happens in other people’s offices, eh?

Periodontitis

When I came to consult him, it was for gum problems (periodontal). A bone loss was detected in me, which no French dentist reported to me of course, but my Canadian dentist immediately noticed and treated me with antibiotics & special brushing. After a year, I admit that I was a little lazier and gave up special brushing because it required too many products that were difficult to find in the countries where I was (Central & South America). I was also tired of having to find prescriptions & antibiotics every 6 months and find that they are less and less effective on me.

So, for the 1st appointment, necessarily, we leave on X-rays to be done (168€) and diagnosis of the dentist (150€).
For the 1st session, he didn’t give me the list of all the problems I had, but he just talked about the 1st priority: treating periodontitis
(my Canadian dentist would have listed all the problems, she – well each one her own style)
.

Once the diagnosis is made, he explains to me why it is necessary to treat periodontitis (even if I already know it, I think that if someone discovers this problem for the 1st time, this information would have been super super useful), the steps to follow to correct it: 1st session where I will be shown step by step how to brush my teeth, followed by two deep scaling sessions (of one hour each), then a last session of verification & final diagnosis.

I go to see the secretary who proposes the estimate to be signed, then we make an appointment for the next session. At their place, depending on the progress made by the patient, the appointment is never made in advance, it is often one appointment, then another. But I always receive emails if there are cancellations so that I can see them earlier than planned, for example.

• 1st session: my hygienist looks at the X-rays, looks at the condition of my gums and suggests a customized brushing program. The program is also printed in English so that I don’t forget. I leave with the new brushing tools. From now on, I have to spend 30 minutes a day brushing my teeth. The first few days were awful, I almost had cramps, but I held on. In this studio, they take HD pictures every step of the way to keep up with the progress.
• 2nd session: complete scaling of the lower jaw. The brushing protocol is revised again. Basically, she shows me again a few gestures and then I have to do it in front of her so that she validates.
• 3rd session: complete scaling of the upper jaw. The brushing protocol is reviewed again. My hygienist adapts the program because she sees that part of the gum did not like the 1st step of the program. Re-photograph in HD to follow the evolution.
• 4th session: after 3 weeks of travel and intensive brushing, last appointment to see how it evolved. Everyone is delighted with the results and congratulates me for having understood and applied the brushing program correctly. There is even a pocket that has reduced in size. Now I will have to follow this program for life. My dentist comes to check the work of the hygienist and pronounce his final diagnosis: now that the periodontal care is finished, we must treat this as a priority, and this as a last one etc.

Now that my gums and teeth are ultra clean, I can come back for tartar removal every 6 months. At the same time, I was drinking Quinton water and it seems to regenerate my bone, I don’t really know how to explain it, but here are the before/after X-rays:

Good news received this morning: these treatments were reimbursed at -50% by my travel insurance. The French social security requires additional documents (in principle, care provided in other European Union countries can be covered up to the level of the French scale, but it is up to the discretion of the social security). To be continued…

Caries

I thought cavities could be treated by anyone, but since two French dentists missed mine and JB’s, I now know that it’s not a talent given to everyone. Well, I find that the fees charged for cavities here are out of my price range, I could have been treated in Morocco or Turkey for less (between 80€ and 150€), but hey, the work done here was absolutely perfect. Delighted delighted!

Crown

That’s where it got complicated.

I’m telling you about it, but when you get treatment abroad, in a language that isn’t your own, it is much more difficult.

• First of all, you have to have the vocabulary to. Fortunately, I speak very good English and am used to reading articles from American dental offices.
• Secondly, you need to know the subject like a real specialist, to know if it is a priority, not a priority, or can be treated elsewhere. Again, I have been dealing with this crown for 20 years, so I know the subject by heart

I told you here that I had a broken front tooth as a result of an accident. Which was devitalized, then turned grey and replaced by a crown, which was then broken. We just found out that there is a small infection at the root so the crown has to be replaced anyway.

Replacing a single front tooth is the most difficult exercise in implantology because depending on the angle, the color changes and to make it match the teeth next door, both the prosthetist and the dentist have to work like crazy.

So my dentist suggested that I completely correct my smile: i.e. lengthen the two front teeth, fill in the “holes” between the central & lateral incisors, which consists in retyping 4 front teeth, for a more natural and homogeneous result, instead of working only on one tooth. The idea is to give back a healthy but aesthetic environment to the front teeth.

Diagnosis is the most important step. If such a reputable dentist finds “only” that to work on my teeth, it means that the rest is really, really okay. I prefer a dentist to tell me everything there is to correct, to propose his best strategy, rather than the traditional “everything is fine, come back in a year” in France.

Once the diagnosis was made, I went to see the secretary and looked at the estimate, which was in 5 digits. You breathe, you have to keep your cool and just cross out one line after the other, that’s all.

• Dental whitening? I still have some product & my mouthpiece to do it at home. Barred
• Work on all 4 teeth instead of just one? Barred, barred, barred, barred…

So I kept the work to be done on a single crown. 3,828€ (10% reduced rate because I am a client of theirs and lucky enough to have the wallet to be able to pay in one go). We’re no longer at 5 figures. OUF. 10 years ago, I paid 2,000€ in Paris, so this rate doesn’t seem like a joke to me, especially when done by an implant specialist and a prosthetist-artist.

Rates in Hungary, Cuba, or Thailand would have been much cheaper. However, the best materials are expensive everywhere and I need a prosthetic artist, not just anyone. I need a crown that will last 20 years..

Replacing a crown requires several steps and the easiest steps (caries, scaling, pivot…) are performed by two other dentists in the office. My dentist with 50 years of experience intervenes at the most important or risky steps (for example: removing the old crown without breaking the root, and putting in the temporary tooth & the permanent tooth) and he comes to check the result at each step, or sometimes just to say hello and let you know that he is following my progress & my case.

A prosthetist comes to take a look at the color of my teeth, look at the shape of my teeth, of my mouth, takes pictures himself. He is presented by the dentist as the Van Gogh of the ahaha prosthesis. So after removing the old crown, I have to walk around with a temporary crown for 2 weeks, before receiving my final crown.

I talked at length about the technical details of a crown on the front tooth here.

The difference with this Italian (vs. French or Canadian) dentist is thathe no longer tries to correct my natural space between my teeth. He tells me that it’s by trying to disrupt the natural environment that it creates the problems I had so we forget about cosmetic correction. If one wanted to correct esthetics, one would have had to correct other teeth as well, put in composites and not have one tooth much larger than the other and then basta. I keep my space between my teeth.

Second difference: this time he reduced the kingpin to death, he saw how strong my white gold kingpin was (it could no longer be removed), so he reduced it further in length and thickness, so that the final crown would be an almost identical copy of my natural tooth and much thinner than the old crown.

Third difference: the prosthetist is on the spot, so he saw me in real life and moreover, he was able to modify the permanent crown live, after having observed it in my mouth. I’ve never had this before, because usually the dentist does it, and the dentist isn’t a prosthetist, each to his own profession

My Opinion on the Cabinet

I am extremely pleased with this firm. There are a lot of people who intervene on my small mouth, but they pass by me harmoniously, like the melodies of a symphony, with extreme precision. For example, as soon as the temporary tooth is in place, my hygienist comes by to remove the excess cement. They make sure that it is always the same hygienist who takes care of me. I don’t have to ask for anything, everything is masterfully orchestrated.

Even though they have varying levels of English, everyone tries to communicate clearly with me in English, from dental assistants to dentists to prosthetists. The fees only reflect the level of care and attention for each patient. I have never had to wait (3 minutes in the waiting room each time maybe?)

My x-rays & photos are displayed at each treatment session and the dentists and hygienists use these x-rays and photos as a basis for their treatments. I really like them to take x-rays because many of my problems are difficult to detect with the naked eye.

At the crown replacement appointment, I was extremely anxious, and not only was I given something to calm me down (4 drops of je ne sais quoi), but they were also willing to put me to sleep (with gas) if I wanted to. As in Canada, suffering isn’t in their vocabulary, so I have always had anesthetics galore, and even before the anesthetic shot, I am allowed an anesthetic cream to make the shots less painful !

The environment is also very pleasant, in a spacious and beautifully decorated practice (up to the ceiling) by a renowned architect, with classical music in each treatment room.

Before/after pictures are taken regularly, radios & photos are sent by email without any problem.

Similarly, the secretaries did everything possible to provide me with the documents requested by my international insurance, even if it meant writing things in English and translating invoices into English as well.

A few tips

After this world tour of dentists, I must warn you:
(1) treatment abroad takes time. I stayed in Canada for 2.5 months and in Italy for 3.5 months but the care is spread over 1.5 months with appointments every week to solve, each time, part of the problems. So coming for care during your 3 weeks of vacation is a good idea, but you have to keep in mind that only priority care can be provided for such a short period of time.
(2) you must always use your brain. Even if you want to trust a dentist completely, his aesthetic criteria aren’t necessarily yours, it is always up to you to decide what you want to do, or not. I find that our society is becoming more and more assisted and people are no longer able to make important decisions for themselves and are constantly seeking validation from others. It’s your mouth, your teeth, you decide. Dentists express their opinion, you decide. Always.
(3) There is more information in English available on English speaking dental offices so feel free to search in English on Google, instead of searching only in French. It is also important to cross-reference information from different sources before making a final opinion.
(4) if you do not speak English, buy books reserved for dental students. These are the best sources you will find.
(5) I am not a dentist, if you ask me what to do, I will not decide for you. I am a normal person.

Here it is 😀