Time for our six-month dental cleaning/checkup. This time we happened to be in Europe when the clock struck six. Since we sold it all and changed our place of residence from the United States to Parts Unknown we’ve had dental checkups in Mexico City, Mexico; Fethiye, Turkey; and Chiang Mai, Thailand. Those places all provided great care and it was both easy to schedule and affordable to pay out of pocket. Would Europe be different? I was afraid that it might be but… turns out Europe worked just as well as the other non-U.S. locations.
Step one. Finding a dentist.
You’re in a foreign country where you don’t speak the local language. You don’t have a car. How do you find a dentist, and how do you get to them? Well in our case here in Split, Croatia my first stop was Google Maps. I did a search for ‘Dentist near me’ and found a number of options. I started with the closest one and headed to their website. The website was kind of dated but did list their phone number. At this point I took a detour and headed over to Facebook. I’m in a group called ‘Global Health Reviews‘ where other travelers share their experiences with medical treatment around the world. I did a search for dentists in Croatia and found someone speaking highly of the same dentist office that I’d found on Google.
At this point I was feeling like this would be my best option so I went to their website and retrieved their phone number. Instead of calling, I did what I usually do, which is add that phone number to WhatsApp. One nice feature of WhatsApp is that when you try to message a number it will tell you if that number is actively being used on WhatsApp, so that you can know that you’re not messaging a number that isn’t on the platform. Once I saw that it was, I sent a message. I wanted to confirm that they spoke English, and asked if they could provide a cleaning and check-up for us. I messaged later in the day, but within 24 hours I got a reply saying that they could do cleanings for us and suggested date/time options.
Much like other places in the world, they had slots available within the week. So we accepted an afternoon slot.
The appointment
The office is literally a two minute walk from our Airbnb which has to be our closest yet. It was in a somewhat dated office building (just like my dentist in Saint Louis was). With only a moderate amount of confusion we figured out how to enter the building and arrived at their suite on the second floor.
The process of being seen for the first time was very smooth. I had brought our passports because other dentists required them to add us as new patients, but the dentist here in Croatia didn’t ask for them. After a short wait, the dentist came out and asked which one of us wanted to go first.
I always seem to learn something new when visiting new dentists, or observe some different tool that I haven’t encountered before. The teeth cleaning at this office used some kind of powder which seemed like a kind of airbrush. I later came to learn that it’s called Air Polishing or Guided Biofilm Therapy (GBT).
An AI description follows…
Guided Biofilm Therapy (GBT)
- Guided Biofilm Therapy (GBT): “Air Polishing, primarily administered through a structured clinical protocol called Guided Biofilm Therapy (GBT). It utilizes a gentle spray of compressed air, warm water, and ultra-fine powder. This method replaces traditional abrasive pastes and metal scrapers.
- How It Works: A handheld nozzle directs a pressurized mist of water and powder onto the teeth, completely removing plaque, biofilm, and stains without direct physical contact with the enamel.
- The Powders Used: Dentists typically use Erythritol (a mild, naturally-derived sugar alcohol) or Glycine for standard and subgingival cleaning, as their small particle size (14 μ m) protects gums and implants. Coarser Sodium Bicarbonate powder is used strictly for heavy, supragingival stain removal.
- The GBT Protocol: Pioneered in Switzerland and widely adopted across Europe, this 8-step process involves applying a colored dye to make invisible bacteria visible, treating the teeth with the Airflow device, and using ultrasonic tools only for stubborn, hardened calculus.”
Anyhoo. It was a bit messy but great. Much more comfortable than the old-school scraping and the polishing from the grit/buffer things. My teeth are smooth and clean.
The total cost for our visit: €182.22 ($211.79 )
That’s without insurance. Appointment made via text and able to see the dentist in less than five days.
Results of our checkups
During our visit and cleaning the dentist found that each of us had one cavity that should be filled soon and a couple of old fillings that are still in good shape but contain mercury. He said that if we were in town for a while that he could take care of those for us. I asked when he had time available and after checking the calendar he could fit us in three days later. We opted to get the fillings for our new cavities but keep the old mercury fillings in the teeth that were not in need of attention.
When the date/time came we again walked over to the office and after a short wait they asked which of us wanted to go first. One thing that I thought was interesting is that before starting the drilling the dentist asked if we wanted the numbing shot. And we both said yes. I guess some folks just power through? Either way, we both opted for the numbing.
Our appointment was for 1:00 pm. By 2:00 pm we were on our way back home. Both of us, with our new fillings in place.
Total cost for the fillings: €126.67 ($146.05)
Three day wait. No dental insurance in the country. Fixed for less than a hundred and fifty bucks. Now that we have our teeth taken care of… I think that today seems like a perfectly good day for gelato.
