Andrew from Dunedin — 3 ETK dental implants

Real patient story, shared with permission. This patient has consented to Picasso Dental Clinic publishing their experience to help other New Zealand patients. Treatment, material, NZD price, and timeline are accurate to the case archive. Reviewed by Dr. Tran Thanh Phong, Head of Implantology.

Andrew is a university lecturer in Dunedin, in his mid-fifties. Over the previous year three teeth had quietly given out on him: two old root-filled molars that finally cracked, and a front-of-mouth tooth lost to a long-standing fracture. He had been chewing around the gaps and steering food to one side without really noticing he was doing it. His previous dentist quoted around NZD 19,500 for three implants — a figure roughly in the middle of the NZD 18,000–21,000 range an Dunedin private clinic would charge. We returned a written, itemised NZD quote within 24 hours: 3 ETK implants at NZD 2,000 per implant = NZD 6,000.

Bone, healing, and which implant system

Andrew is methodical by trade, and his first questions were about the things he could not see. Did he actually have the bone to hold three implants? And what brand would go in?

He sent an OPG from his Dunedin referral and four photographs. The X-ray looked promising, but we were clear that bone volume at three separate sites could only be confirmed with a CBCT scan on arrival — no grafting could be promised or ruled out until then. On the implant system, he chose the French ETK line. We explained the warranty plainly: ETK implant crowns carry a 5-year clinical warranty, and he would leave with an implant passport recording brand, batch, and lot number for each fixture. The three sites were not adjacent — one upper, two lower — so this was three standalone implants, not a connected bridge that would have meant cutting down healthy neighbouring teeth.

The two trips

Trip 1 — placement (6 days)

Three-month integration window

Andrew flew back to Dunedin and went straight into teaching. We sent a 6-week and a 12-week remote check-in. He kept the sites clean and let them fuse.

Trip 2 — final crowns (5 days)

Both clinical visits were placed deliberately inside separate semester breaks, so the treatment cost him no time at the lecture hall.

What it cost end-to-end

Against the Dunedin quote of roughly NZD 19,500 for the same three implants, Andrew’s all-in cost — including two return airfares, eleven nights, and insurance — came to NZD 11,290. That is a net saving of about NZD 8,200 after travel, while replacing three teeth rather than one.

The thing he didn’t expect

From his survey: “I assumed three implants at once would leave me sore for a fortnight. The honest surprise was how localised it was — the upper site was practically a non-event, and only the two lower ones ached for a couple of days. What I hadn’t braced for was how strange it felt to chew evenly again on the second trip. I’d forgotten I’d been favouring one side for a year.”

What aftercare looked like back in Dunedin

Andrew had a routine check with his Dunedin dentist about eight weeks after the final crowns went in. We sent a written aftercare summary and the implant passport — brand, batch, and lot number for all three ETK fixtures — so his local dentist could add them to his file and verify the work. His 12-month review back in Dunedin came back clean, with a 24-month check booked.

Andrew’s three pieces of advice

1. “Map the work onto your own calendar before you book anything. I built both trips around semester breaks, so the three-month healing gap cost me nothing at work. Ask whether your timeline can be staged the same way.”
2. “Question whether every gap needs an implant or whether they’re trying to bridge teeth together. Mine were three separate teeth, and keeping them independent meant my healthy teeth were never touched.”
3. “Take the implant passport seriously. My Dunedin dentist asked for it at the first check, and having the brand and lot numbers in writing made the whole thing feel grounded, not improvised.”

See also

• Dental implants pillar — the protocol, brands, and NZD pricing.
• Implant aftercare — what Andrew was told for home maintenance.
• Dunedin to Vietnam dental implant travel page — local benchmark and route logistics.

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About this page

Medically reviewed by

Dr. Tran Thanh Phong

Head of Implantology, Picasso Dental Clinic

DDS · 25+ years in practice · 15,000+ implants placed · 1,000+ All-on-4 cases

Clinical focus: Implantology · All-on-4 · Zygomatic implants

Dr. Tran Thanh Phong has practised since 2001 and leads implantology across the Picasso group. He was the first Vietnamese dentist to perform All-on-4 immediate loading (2010), placed over 15,000 implants across his career at roughly 600 per year, and has completed 400+ zygomatic implant cases since 2017. Loma Linda University-trained (2010). Clinical representative for Nobel Biocare in Vietnam since 2007.

Last clinically reviewed

28 May 2026

Published by

Picasso Dental Clinic

Review policy

Every medical procedure page on this site is reviewed by a named Picasso clinician before publication and re-checked when pricing, materials, or protocols change. Source documents are linked at the bottom of each page.