It is really hard to find a good Romanian dental clinic based only on the presentation found on their websites and a few (or none!) testimonials left out there...I am currently only dealing with three dental offices from Romania. Two of them are in Ploiesti and one is in Bucharest. My intuition is already screaming out loud the name of one, in particular, but the other two are also... not to be ignored.
I am inclined to choose Ploiesti as the city I will handle my dental problems in because I could live with my mom there (although my husband's apartment in Bucharest is vacant now and I could very well live there as well, hence a few more relatives I have there) but again, my intuition is telling me that... the clinic in Ploiesti will be the best option, plus...I need my mother care also in this journey. I miss my mom very much and I feel the need to "just be her (needy :) child" at this time in my life...
Another reason for which I'm inclined to choose Ploiesti is because the dental clinics in this city are practicing slightly lower prices than the dental clinics in Bucharest. Could the quality of work be the same though? I absolutely think so... The reason Bucharest dental care is more expensive is...the location. Bucharest is the capital of Romania, but Ploiesti is not too far from there (just 60 km away...or a merely 30 minutes drive). I am sure there are great and bad clinics in both cities, I am just praying that I have already eliminated the "bad" ones...
But the most important reason I am thinking of Ploiesti and ONE dental clinic in particular is the fact that the owner-dentist of this clinic (Dr. Raluca Draghici) was the most professional in delivering an answer to my email of dental inquiries. I have found this clinic online, through www.whatclinic.com
As I mentioned before, I wrote to a lot of dental clinics from Romania about my dental problems that need to be solved; some of these clinics answered me with a quote but not a complete treatment plan, some "got scared" (maybe!!) of my panoramic dental x-ray because they stopped communicating with me after receving it, some gave me very superficial answers and quotes.
But this clinic in particular: OFFICE DENT from Ploiesti sent me a very detailed treatment plan and was very confident that if I am to travel to Romania for 3-4 weeks, in August 2011, they will dedicate all of their time and professional expertise to effectively trying to help me. In the same time, they did not give me false promises because they also wrote me: "More often, what we see just through an x-ray could be different than the reality of the same problems, so only after an extensive -in our office-face-to-face dental check-up we could know, for sure, the way we could start handling your dental problems".
But this clinic in particular: OFFICE DENT from Ploiesti sent me a very detailed treatment plan and was very confident that if I am to travel to Romania for 3-4 weeks, in August 2011, they will dedicate all of their time and professional expertise to effectively trying to help me. In the same time, they did not give me false promises because they also wrote me: "More often, what we see just through an x-ray could be different than the reality of the same problems, so only after an extensive -in our office-face-to-face dental check-up we could know, for sure, the way we could start handling your dental problems".
I liked their honesty and professionalism (so far), this is why I also called them today and talked to Dr. Draghici on the phone. When I hung up the phone, I knew that my intuition was right about choosing them.
From my experience so far I could summarize choosing a cheaper dental clinic abroad this way:
-research, research, research, there are a lot of online tools and info regarding dental tourism or dental travel in cheaper destinations (personally, I would ONLY choose destinations in Europe for such reason: Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic)
-read the information stated on the dental clinics' website and trust your intuition regarding which one to further contact
-look for their contact info and call them or write them an email stating your dental problems and asking them for a treatment plan, quotes, duration of treatments, etc. They will most likely always be able to answer your emails in English and/or French, Italian, Spanish, these are languages often known by the employees of such European dental clinics
-make sure they understand your limitations (your duration of stay, funds, etc) and that they are able to back up their promises with facts
-make sure you also have a budget for traveling to such country, for accomodations in such country, for living and transportation expenses in such locations. Ask the clinic about it too, you might be surprised how helpful they could be in arranging some sort of...extra help or giving you better options in such areas of concerns
-have a good confirmed plan before leaving your country, talk to your dental clinic representative on the phone, confirm all the appointments and any other details they might ask you for
-take any very recent X-rays or blood work info with you, they normally cost you EXTRA (and this "extra" means a few extra hundreds of dollars/euros).
These are just a few hints that come to my mind now, if you are going through what I am going now and if you want to ask me more (shall I know the answer), you can email me at mydentaltravel@yahoo.com and I will be glad to help you as much as I can.
