Macedonia Dentist — Getting a Dental Crown in Skopje as a “Dental Tourist”
Every tooth in a man’s head is more valuable than a Diamond — Miguel de Cervantes
Every had that dream where you wake up a tooth or many tooth have fallen out? Some say this symbolises insecurity, others say it indicates a new period of growth.
Whatever a dream means it pretty much happened to me in real life 2 weeks ago. I woke up and noticed a bit of hard stuff in my mouth. I ran my tongue across my teeth and I noticed a large gap in my last molar on the bottom right. Dang! Was it a dream? Surely. To my horror; it was not.
It shouldn’t have surprised me. I had neglected my teeth for a few years by not visiting a dentist. Worst of all I had had some pain from that tooth for a few months — yes a few months. Awful to admit but it is true. I had ignored it for some fears I felt…
- A fear of the dental pain.
- A fear of finding out things are even worst than expected.
- A fear of the hole that will be left in my pocket.
It was this last fear that me really concerned as I started to research dental clinics in the Netherlands where I am currently based. My fear was true. I realised at least I was requiring a dental crown…and the fees for such a requirement were not cheap. Dang again!
In the Netherlands (and most countries) you not only pay a lot for the crown, but everything you need from the check up to the x-ray to the injection.
I had always bravely said; if I need a dentist I will be on the first plane to somewhere cheaper. I realised this moment had now come. I was about to be a “Dental Tourist” So I started to do my research.
I was aware that Thailand and Budapest were very popular for Dental tourism. I used the internet to start to piece together the information I could find. Thailand was my first thought but as I researched the savings I realised the savings were fairly offset by the flight and expenses — I just had one crown after all. I turned to Budapest. Dental tourism is fairly well established in Hungary. Clinics are well known and the quality by all reviews are positive and the savings well received. But was there another option?
Along come Macedonia
I had noticed a few weeks earlier that there cheap flights to Macedonia. I had never been to Macedonia. I had however spent some time in the north of the Balkans and found the people to be lovely and friendly. I thought with flights so cheap from the Netherlands with Wizz Air maybe it could be an option.
I started to do my research and pleased to find numerous Macedonian Dentists in Skopje (the capital) and their websites were in English. Off to a good start. I compared prices and fortunately found a lot of very transparent information across all the websites. It seemed that on average I could save about 10% on the dental prices on Budapest pricing. Which meant about a saving of 65% in savings from the fixed prices of the Netherlands. But with reviews harder to find — the quality and skill of the dentists was harder to find out. There was only one thing I could do. Try my dental luck in Macedonia.
I found some cheap flights out of Eindhoven. Booked. I was also very pleased to find loads of cheap accommodation in Skopje starting from just 6€ p/n. Booked. Now to find a Dentist.
Now this really was the hard part — well kind of. Like I said earlier reviews are harder to come by. I emailed about 10 dentists. Crossed my fingers and waited for their responses. I received replies from about 8 of the Dental clinics. All of them replied with good English and were positive to hear from me. After a bit of going back and forth with the clinics I was able to narrow it down further.
One of these clinics was Dental Tourism Macedonia. They offer coordinators that take care of some things for you and will arrange your transportation from the airport to the hotel and then to the clinic, and they will give you a local cell phone so you can contact them if you do need anything. I was in touch with Todor by email who was always quick to reply and offered some good advice. As I researched further I realised Dental Tourism Macedonia was more of an agent for other Dentists. They aren’t a clinic directly and as I didn’t find this very transparent so I decided to opt for one of the clinics that I was speaking to direct. For me it felt more trustworthy.
After some good contact with Dental Clinic Margita Smileva I decided they were the best option for me. The website looked good. The images looked good and the said the clinic has a modern, ergonomic design, equipped with state of the art technology. It had none of the extras like some of the other clinics for international clients (such as transport) but it felt right.
3 days later I was off to Skopje. Upon arrival I was impressed with the ease of travel. Locals speak impressive English. People are interested in you and have no intentions except to help. It felt safe and immediately I could see there was a lot to explore. It was going to be a good few days.
I had my appointment the afternoon the following day so after I spent the morning visiting one of the many casinos and staring at the what seems like thousands of statues in Skopje; I was off the dentist.
To say I was nervous was an understatement. I was terrified. This was a new country, what would a dentist here do? Did this dentist even have a licence? My fears all came back to me.
But as soon as arrived at Dental Clinic Margita Smileva which is situated on a hill over looking Skopje city nestled amongst the international embassy residential addresses. I was impressed by the clean clinic and friendly staff that greeted me. It not only felt just like a clinic from home it felt and looked even better.
After signing in I was greeted by Dr. Aleksandar Bocvarov. He spoke great English and was interested in me and engaging. I was ushered to his dental chair with a view of the garden and a tv with the football on. After a check up and an x-ray he offered his advice which was root canal treatment using medicament and a crown. There was small problem however as I only had a week in Macedonia and medicament takes about 2 weeks to settle in. This would mean I would need to come back in a few weeks time. Bah, another flight. I felt confident in advice and decided to proceed which would mean another appointment to apply the medicament. Until then he gave my teeth a proper polish and removed the wine stains from my neglected teeth. Nice!
When I got back to my hotel I heard from Todor from Dental Tourism Macedonia to check in and see how I was doing. That was rather nice and he offered some more good advice and also confirmed that the advice I had received was good advice. Nice to know and get a second opinion. Thanks Todor! I was impressed with Todor following up again and I felt this built a lot more trust with Dental Tourism Macedonia. Also after my experience with the clinic I chose I realised Macedonians certainly know dental.
A few days later when I returned Dr. Aleksandar he was as friendly as ever and he applied the medicament through our chat I also discovered there is a method that is done without the use of that medicament, but they didn’t practice that in their office. I only found this out later which was a bit frustrating as it meant I would need to come back a few weeks later on another dam flight where maybe I could of done this in the days I was in Macedonia at another clinic. But he explained that that type of root canal treatment has a lot of side effects, and taking in account that I didn’t live in Macedonia, and if anything happens that they can’t react in time, and it was not a good option. Also, if that method is used, a crown cannot be placed straight after and I would still have to wait before putting the crown to ensure the treatment would work. However I think I would of been nice to know this in advance as I could of taken the option to find another dentist if I decided to risk that option. That been said I later spoke again to Todor who backed up Dr. Aleksandar’s opinion so that gave me confidence that he was making the right decision.
No, my friend, I am not drunk. It is that I have been to the dentist and I need not go again for six months. It is a beautiful thought. ~Agatha Christie, The Patriotic Murders (Hercule Poirot)
I will be back in a few weeks for the real work of root canal treatment and to get a titanium/porcelain crown which will require 5 visits over the week.
So, my experience with Dentist in Macedonia — excellent. I can highly recommend Macedonia as a place to get your dental done. It appeared to me that most of the clinics are of excellent value and quality. My experience with Dental Clinic Margita Smileva and Dental Tourism Macedonia were both very superb.
Getting dental done in Macedonia not only is given me a healthy, great and while smile but it gave me the opportunity to have a holiday in a beautiful and friendly country that offers a lot to the adventurous or the comfort seeking traveller. Because of the savings I made in my dental costs I got the holiday for free and still saved some more.
Happy dental holidays! If you have any questions or thoughts leave a comment below.
