Courtesy of a combination of accidents resulting in smashed teeth, poor personal dental hygiene practices and a lack of good dental services in 1960's Darwin I ended up with a partial denture from age 12.
Living with a denture is not the end of the world and pales into insignificance when compared to the ailments and challenges faced every day by so many of the people in this world, however I never felt comfortable with it. When Dental Implants came on the scene several years ago I saw this as a way to turn the clock back and get permanent teeth again. I waited for the technology to be proven over several years before making tentative inquiries at dental clinics in Victoria. The result was that I would need to mortgage the house and get a second job to even consider starting the long process.
Later when we moved to China I again inquired at the private hospital on the estate where we lived and this time, while the cost was very affordable, my level of confidence in the skills of the dentists was equally low so I opted out once again. We are after all talking about drilling and screwing things into my skeleton here!
Last year a friend of my sister in-law went to Thailand for dental implants and was pretty happy with both the cost and the level of service so I started researching options again. Without going into too much detail here as to the whys, I ended up choosing Erlinda Dyson in Manila to go and have a consultation with. Google DYDENT to learn more about how to contact them. The main reason I chose the Philippines is that I had read that the level of Dental Services skills there was the highest in SE Asia
Erlinda proved to be a gentle and caring lady dentist who in my experience at least is very skilled and thorough in her work. I ended up having much more work completed than I originally set out to do, but it was all my own choice based on cost and quality. The end result is that I have had a complete makeover, just like on the TV reality shows for tens of thousands of dollars less than the same work would have cost me in Australia. American friends I've spoken with have suggested the same work in their home country would have been upwards of US$100,000.
To date I'm very happy with my choice and with the makeover, I'm still becoming accustomed to having a mouth full of permanent teeth and expect that it will take several months for them to feel completely natural.
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