Huong from Christchurch — single Straumann implant during a trip home

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.

Huong is 45, an accountant in Christchurch with two teenagers and parents still living in Ho Chi Minh City. She had cracked a lower premolar years earlier; an emergency extraction left a gap she had simply learned to chew around. With a family visit to Vietnam already booked for the school holidays, she started wondering whether she could deal with the tooth on the same trip.

An Christchurch private clinic had quoted her around NZD 6,500 for a single implant with a crown. The number was not the only thing that stopped her — it was the timeline, since she would have needed to take separate days off work in New Zealand for each appointment. Doing the placement while she was already home in Ho Chi Minh City changed the maths entirely. We returned a written, itemised NZD quote within 24 hours: 1 Straumann implant at NZD 2,667 = NZD 2,667 clinical cost.

The first quote conversation

She sent a panoramic X-ray from her Christchurch dentist and three photographs of the gap. We confirmed there was enough bone height at the premolar site for a standard placement, with no sinus lift needed — a CBCT scan on arrival would confirm.

Huong asked why the price sat below some of the other brands she had read about. We explained the opposite is usually true — Straumann is a premium Swiss fixture, and the NZD 2,667 reflects our May 2026 list at the 15,000 VND rate, not a downgrade in materials. We sent her the Straumann manufacturer documentation and the 10-year crown warranty terms in advance so she could read them before committing.

Timing it around a trip she was already making

The decision Huong cared about most was scheduling, not surgery. Because she was flying home for three weeks anyway, we placed the implant early in that visit, which gave the site time to begin settling before she flew back to Christchurch. The crown would wait for osseointegration. We were honest that a posterior implant is not a same-trip job — the bone needs roughly three to four months to integrate before a final crown can bear load safely.

The two visits

Visit 1 — placement (during the family trip)

She spent the rest of the three weeks with her parents, eating carefully on the other side for the first week and otherwise getting on with the holiday.

Healing window

Back in Christchurch she resumed work and normal life. We sent a six-week remote check-in and a three-month review prompt. Her Christchurch dentist confirmed the site looked healthy at a routine appointment.

Visit 2 — final crown (4 days)

She timed this shorter visit around a long weekend plus a few leave days, again combining it with family.

What it cost end-to-end

Against the Christchurch quote of NZD 6,500, Huong came out roughly NZD 940 ahead on cash — and that understates it, because the placement trip cost her almost nothing extra in travel. She had already bought those flights for the family visit. The Straumann fixture was the same brand the New Zealand clinic had quoted, at well under half the clinical price.

The thing she didn’t expect

From her survey: “I assumed booking around a family trip would feel rushed, like I was cramming a medical thing into a holiday. It was the opposite. Placement was two short appointments early in the visit, and then I forgot about it. The bit I didn’t expect was how little it interfered — I’d braced for a ruined week and instead lost about three days.”

What aftercare looked like back in Christchurch

After the crown was fitted she booked a check with her Christchurch dentist, who reviewed the bite and added the implant to her file. We sent a written aftercare summary and the implant passport (Straumann lot number, batch, fixture type) so it sits in her New Zealand records.

12-month review by her Christchurch dentist — clean. Routine hygiene visits continue locally.

Huong’s three pieces of advice

1. “If you’re already going home, use that trip for the placement. The flights are sunk cost anyway — you only really pay for the dentistry plus one short return visit later.”
2. “Ask for the warranty terms in writing before you book, not after. I had the Straumann documents and the 10-year crown warranty in my inbox before I said yes.”
3. “Tell your Kiwi dentist what you’re doing. Mine was relaxed about it once I brought home the passport and the records — it made the local follow-up completely straightforward.”

See also

• Single-tooth implant pillar — the protocol, brands, and NZD pricing.
• Implant aftercare — what Huong was told for home maintenance.
• Christchurch to Vietnam dental travel page — local benchmark and route logistics.

Request your own free NZD implant quote

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.