Simon from Auckland — 3 Straumann 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.

Simon is in his late forties, an IT consultant in Auckland who spends most of his week on video calls and the rest fixing other people’s systems. For two years he had quietly worked around three missing teeth on his lower right — the legacy of an old failed bridge and a cracked molar that finally gave up. He had taught himself to chew on the left without thinking about it, until his bite began to drift and food started packing into the gaps. His previous dentist warned him that leaving the space much longer would let the neighbouring teeth tilt and the jaw lose bone.

An Auckland private clinic had quoted him around NZD 21,000 to rebuild that side with three implants. The number, and the months on a waitlist before he could even start, were what sent him reading about getting the same implant brands done in Vietnam. He sent us a panoramic X-ray and four photographs. We returned a written, itemised NZD quote within 24 hours: 3 Straumann at NZD 2,667 per implant = NZD 8,001.

Brand tier and healing — what Simon wanted answered

Simon’s first question was whether a cheaper price meant a cheaper fixture. It does not. The NZD 8,001 covers the same globally recognised Straumann implant system used in New Zealand — lower cost of living, not lower-grade hardware, is what closes the gap. We sent him the Straumann manufacturer documentation before he booked.

His second question was about bone. From the OPG the ridge looked adequate for all three fixtures, but we were clear that nothing would be finalised until a CBCT 3D scan on arrival confirmed bone height and the exact angle for each implant. Dr. Tran Thanh Phong, our Head of Implantology, reviewed the case and the staging before Simon committed to flights.

The two trips

Trip 1 — placement (7 days)

Healing window

Simon flew back to Auckland and returned to normal life and work for several months while the fixtures integrated — no flights, no clinic visits. We ran a 6-week and a 3-month remote check-in, and his Auckland dentist confirmed the sites were healing well.

Trip 2 — final crowns (5 days)

What it cost end-to-end

Against the Auckland quote range of NZD 19,500-22,500, Simon’s clinical fee of NZD 8,001 was roughly NZD 13,000 below the midpoint. Even with two return trips, hotels, food and insurance added in, his all-up total of about NZD 12,731 still landed well under the lower end of the local quote — a net saving of close to NZD 7,000 to NZD 10,000 depending on where the Auckland price would have settled.

The thing he didn’t expect

From the post-trip survey: “I expected to lose a month of work. I didn’t. The placement trip was a week, the second trip was under a week, and the long healing bit in the middle I spent at home working as normal. Splitting it into two short trips actually suited running my own consultancy far better than one big block ever would have.”

What aftercare looked like back in Auckland

Simon had a routine check with his Auckland dentist about two months after the final crowns went on. We sent a written aftercare summary and the implant passport — Straumann brand, lot and batch numbers for all three fixtures — so it could go straight onto his file. His 12-month review with the same dentist came back clean, and the over-eruption his previous dentist had warned about was stopped before it could do more.

Simon’s three pieces of advice

1. “Let the healing take the time it takes. I wanted to book the second trip early to get it over with — waiting until the bone was genuinely ready is what makes the crowns solid.”
2. “Bring your home scans and your local quote. Having my Auckland X-rays on hand meant the first consult went straight to scanning instead of starting from zero.”
3. “Budget the whole trip in one spreadsheet, not just the dental bill. Once I added two sets of flights and hotels it was still thousands under the home quote — and there were no surprises at the end.”

See also

• Dental implants pillar — brands, staging, and NZD pricing for multi-implant work.
• Implant aftercare — what Simon was told for home maintenance.
• Auckland to Vietnam dental implants 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.