What questions should you ask a clinic abroad before booking?
Only questions whose answer can be checked are useful. This page arranges them in four groups: about the establishment, the treating person, the material and the documents. All are asked in writing and answered in writing before an appointment is fixed. What makes sense in your own case depends, independently of that, on a prior individual examination and diagnosis.
The rule that makes the list usable
Every question should produce an answer that can be held against an independent source — a register, a document, a product reference. Questions about opinions produce opinions, and those cannot be checked.
Second rule: in writing. Not out of distrust, but because an answer you need three months later must exist until then. A verbal commitment on the telephone is nobody’s memory later.
Third rule: before the appointment. After a trip is booked, negotiating is harder, and after treatment has begun hardly possible.
About the establishment
At which address is treatment carried out, and has the operating licence for dental care been granted for that address — not merely applied for? What are the registration number and licence number of that establishment?
At the Instituto AreLuna these details are published: registration number 161637 and licence 21593 for Rua de Júlio Dinis, 194, 4050-327 Porto, where dental care is provided. They can be checked in the public register of the Entidade Reguladora da Saúde, the Portuguese health regulator, and that is exactly what they are for.
In addition: what is the route for a complaint, to whom is it addressed and within what time is it answered? That is asked before the treatment, not after.
About the person and the material
Who carries out the operation, and what is that person’s professional licence (cédula) number? The clinical director of the Instituto AreLuna is Dr. Leonardo Costa Saraiva de Oliveira, number 11846, Ordem dos Médicos Dentistas, the Portuguese professional body for dentists — but what is checked is the number of the person who actually treats.
On the material: what brand and what reference does the implant have? What is published is that Neodent is used, a brand of the Swiss Straumann group. The exact reference belongs in the documents, because it is needed later for any rework.
On the planning: is the case planned on a computer before the operation, and on which scan? What is published is that the case is planned on a computer before any work is done on the bone.
About the documents, and the one question not worth asking
Which documents are handed over, and in which language: itemised quote, treatment plan, consent form, warranty terms, proof of the material, report and invoices. And: who bears which costs if an additional trip becomes necessary?
On the warranty the Instituto AreLuna states: implants with a warranty and an expected durability of over 20 years. That is an expectation about the component. What exactly is covered, over what period and under what conditions must be in the warranty document and is to be asked for there.
And the question not worth asking: ‘Will it turn out well?’ Nobody may answer that, and an answer to it would be a warning sign. What can be said about a case is said by the examining person after a prior individual examination and diagnosis — not beforehand and not by telephone.
Frequently asked questions
Aren’t that many questions excessive?
They are the questions that would be right for treatment at home as well. For treatment abroad they are only more expensive to miss, because a follow-up question means a trip.
What if a question is not answered in writing?
Then that is itself information. Registration and licence numbers, the professional licence number and the warranty terms are details an establishment knows and can give.
Which question is the most important?
The one about the operating licence granted for the address at which treatment takes place. All the other questions presuppose that this one has been answered.