18 Questions to Ask a Dental Clinic Before You Pay a Deposit

Before-and-after galleries are selected by the clinic. Reviews are selected by the clinic. The treatment plan is the one document that has to describe your mouth, and it is the only thing worth comparing.

Below are the questions that produce that document. Send them to every clinic you are shortlisting — this one included — and compare the answers side by side. A clinic that has actually looked at your case can answer most of these in a paragraph.

The plan itself

1. Which treatment for which tooth? A list per tooth, not a total number of units. This single question separates a treatment plan from a package.
2. Are you proposing veneers or crowns? They are different procedures with different consequences — see what "Turkey teeth" actually means.
3. How much of each tooth is removed? Answerable in millimetres by anyone who has planned the case.
4. Which of my teeth are healthy right now? Reframes the conversation from what you want to what your mouth needs.
5. What is the more conservative option, and why are you not recommending it? There is almost always one. A clinic that cannot name it has not considered it.
6. Will any tooth need root canal treatment as part of this plan? Routine root canals on healthy teeth to fit crowns is a red flag on its own.

The people

7. Who is doing the treatment, and what are they qualified in? A name and a specialty, not "our experienced team".
8. Does the dentist speak my language directly, or through a coordinator? A translated clinical conversation is not the same conversation.
9. Will the same dentist do all of it? Surgery and prosthetics are sometimes different people. That is normal — but you should know before, not during.

Materials and equipment

10. Which implant system, brand and model? And will I be given the implant card? That card is what lets any dentist, anywhere, service the implant in ten years.
11. Which ceramic, and why that one for my case? See zirconia crowns for where each material fits.
12. Is the laboratory in-house or external? This decides whether a shade that comes out wrong takes days to remake or weeks.
13. Is the CBCT scan taken at the clinic? If you are sent elsewhere, the person planning your case is not the person who took the image.

Time and logistics

14. How many appointments, on which days? Ask for the actual schedule before booking flights, not a range.
15. What happens if the treatment overruns? A buffer day is cheaper than a changed flight, and both are cheaper than leaving with temporary crowns.

After you go home

16. What exactly does the guarantee cover, and for how long? Implant fixture and crown are separate items with separate terms — see guarantees from abroad.
17. Will I get my X-rays, scans and a record of the materials used? Without these, a dentist at home is working blind.
18. If something needs adjusting in six months, what is the process? Who pays for what, and does it require flying back?

How to read the answers

What you get back	What it means
Per-tooth plan with treatments named	Your case has been looked at
A price for a number of teeth, no clinical detail	A package, priced before it was planned
Answers within a day or two	Normal for a clinic set up for international patients
Pressure to book now for a limited offer	Sales process, not a clinical one
"We will decide when you arrive"	You would be committing to travel before knowing the plan
Refusal to name the implant brand	No good reason exists for this

The deposit itself

Three things to establish in writing before any money moves:

• What it is for. Reserving chair time and ordering materials is legitimate. A deposit taken before a plan exists is not.
• Is it refundable, and under what conditions? Including the case where the clinical examination on arrival changes the plan.
• Does it come off the total, or is it additional? Obvious, and worth having in writing anyway.

One question that reveals the most

If you only ask one: "What would you do if this were your own mouth?"

It is hard to answer with a package. It forces the conversation onto the clinical question — and a clinician who answers it properly will sometimes talk you out of the treatment you came asking about. That is the answer you want.