Hoa from Wellington — single Straumann implant to get back to tasting at the pass

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.

Hoa is a chef in her forties who runs the line at a busy Wellington kitchen, where tasting is half the job. About a year and a half ago an upper premolar finally gave way — years of cracking under pressure had caught up with it — and it had to come out. For most people a single gap is a cosmetic worry. For Hoa it was professional: she caught herself shielding the side of her mouth when she talked to diners, and worse, she stopped trusting her own palate when she chewed around the empty socket. Standing at the pass calling plates, she felt like she was working with one hand tied behind her back.

A Wellington private clinic had quoted her between NZD 6,000 and 7,000 — call it NZD 6,500 — for a single implant, abutment, and crown. A bridge would have meant cutting into the healthy teeth either side, which she wasn’t willing to do, so she sent us a panoramic X-ray and four photos of her smile. We returned a written, itemised NZD quote within 24 hours: 1 Straumann implant at NZD 2,667 per implant = NZD 2,667.

Choosing the bone, the brand, and the wait

Hoa’s two questions were practical, the way a chef thinks about a recipe. First: would the bone hold a fixture, or was she in for extra surgery? We could not promise from the X-ray alone — that needed CBCT imaging on arrival — but the premolar site looked favourable. Second: which brand, and how long would it last? She wanted the longest clinical track record on the market and was happy to sit in our top tier for it, so we planned a Straumann implant, the Swiss titanium system, with a 10-year clinical warranty on the crown.

The part she had to make peace with was the healing wait. An implant has to integrate with the bone before the permanent crown goes on, which meant two trips, not one. We were upfront that we would place the fixture and a temporary first, send her home to Wellington to heal, and fit the final crown on a second visit a few months later.

The two trips

Trip 1 — placement (6 days)

Note: the implant was placed on the afternoon of day 2 immediately after CBCT confirmation, with a healing cap and temporary fitted at the same visit.

Roughly 3-month healing window

Hoa flew back to Wellington and got straight behind the pass while the fixture integrated. We sent a remote check-in at week six. Her local dentist reviewed the site at her request and confirmed the gum was healing cleanly.

Trip 2 — final crown (4 days)

What it cost end-to-end

Against the Wellington quote of NZD 6,500, the clinical cost alone was NZD 3,800 lower. Once two return flights, hotels, and food were added the end-to-end total came to roughly NZD 7,637 — a little above the local clinical quote, but Hoa treated the second visit as a working holiday rather than a pure expense, and she had Straumann in her jaw for well under half the local clinical price.

The thing she didn’t expect

From her survey: “I expected to spend the whole first trip miserable and swollen. What actually caught me off guard was how normal day three felt — I was out walking the Old Quarter taking food notes. The harder bit was the patience between trips. Waiting three months with a temporary while everyone at work asks if you’re ‘done yet’ takes more discipline than the surgery did.”

What aftercare looked like back in Wellington

Hoa had a routine check at her Wellington dentist a few weeks after the final crown. We sent a written aftercare summary and the implant passport (Straumann lot number, batch, fixture type) so her local dentist could add the implant to her file and check the bite. A 12-month review back home came back clean.

Hoa’s three pieces of advice

1. “Treat the healing wait as part of the plan, not an interruption. The fixture has to fuse before the crown goes on — book both trips from the start and you’ll never feel rushed into something.”
2. “Tell your dentist what your mouth does for a living. I taste for work, and saying that shaped how they set the bite and the contact points on the crown. Specifics matter — speak up.”
3. “Use the gap between appointments. Hanoi rewards the curious. I came home with recipes, not just a new tooth, and the second visit felt like more than a procedure.”

See also

• Single-tooth implants pillar — the protocol, brands, and NZD pricing.
• Implant aftercare — what Hoa was told for home maintenance.
• Wellington to Vietnam dental 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.