Affordable Dental Implants | Dental Implantology | Dental Tourism Kerala

Hi every one, well its now 6 months since i was last in Kerala on the dental couch with Dr.Thomas and his team undergoing my initial dental implant procedures, i thought I’d give you all an update as to how the bone grafting and the sinus lift procedures have been doing over this rehabilitation period.















Well since having the treatment, way back in May this year i am surprised at how well it’s all gone. After coming back home and getting into everyday life i immediately felt an incredible change in my level of confidence and self esteem and quality of life.  As you  know these two very important factors had played an enormous part in the decision making process from actually thinking about getting dental implants done along with all the fears that were now so unfounded to actually getting up off my bum and flying to Kerala to actually getting it done.















Anyway, whilst out shopping recently, i met with my UK dentist and he asked how it all went and requested that i come into his surgery so that he can carry out his own assessment on the work carried out by Dr.Thomas to see just how good it really was.  He told me that he if he felt that if the work  was of a very high standard than he would have no hesitation of recommending me to other patients of his who are now searching for similar procedures but clearly don’t have a clue as to where to begin. In other words he was going to use me as a case study for some of his patients who are now looking for high quality affordable dental implants but who are also looking at getting such treatment abroad as the cost of similar treatment here in the UK is extremely cost prohibitive and  out of control and Europe is now so competitive that it too is proving to be expensive these days.















So anyway, I obliged and popped into to see him. I wasn’t there long before i started to attract the attention of the rest of his staff as they marvelled at how good the work looked and more importantly how well the bone graft  and sinus lifts had taken  to my existing bone and how well the titanium implant roots had been secured into both my upper & lower jawbones. He took some x-rays and stuck a probe with a tiny camera on the end of it into my mouth  to take a closer look and to take a series of pictures for his own reference and on all counts he told me that he was very happy to inform me that the work was excellent and the healing process post surgery was going really well. He even managed to throw in a freebie full OPG x-ray as this normally costs around £45. Only £5 in Kerala!















Ok so what has this treatment meant to me!  In short, I can’t begin to explain how i have felt since undergoing my full mouth implant treatment.  It’s like its’ given me a new lease of life, because i can now smile like i never could i can eat without worrying about how hard it is and how much it’s going to hurt when bite down on it. In fact, it’s truly amazing and my only regret is that i wish i could have done this much sooner.















Of course getting immediate implants would  have been the perfect solutions but more often than none a minimum  6 months rehabilitation period is recommended for patients like me who undergo  extensive bone graft and sinus lifts procedures which then does require this time for the new bone to take to the existing bone and heal.  Sad to say that during this period there is no real escape from to wear temporary dentures be they held in by TRI’s (Transitional Implants) or denture adhesive which some people do find a little messy but bearable.















Regarding the quality of the denture, whilst it is reasonably strong, let’s be honest there is only so much stress that you can put on them. However, i can assure you that you can put more stress on these temporary dentures than you could ever put on any existing natural teeth that were rotting away slowly.















 Eating something like an apple would be like biting down on a brick and once you bite down on something which in normal circumstances would be painless you feel a surge of excruciating pain  transfer right through the tooth structure into the nerve endings and right down into the jawbone below.  If you have ever felt this type of pain then you’ll understand exactly what I’m talking about.  It is so incredibly painful, I don’t know about you but for me tooth ache is one of the worst kinds of pain in the world and at its height it can bring the sufferers to their knees in total agony begging for mercy.















Anyway, this time soon passes and you really don’t notice it so much if like me you get stuck into your everyday life.  Before you know it you’re booking your second trip for the final phase of your treatment with Dr.Thomas and his team and at this point you start getting really excited at the thought that you will finally get beautifully aligned high quality porcelain teeth that look and feel as good if not better than natural teeth. Only problem now is choosing the colour of your brand new set of implants, hmm let me think shall i go for that whiter than white Hollywood glow in the dark colour or shall i go for a more natural tone so that people i meet  won’t be reaching for their  ray bans every time I smile! 







 Well I’m about to jet off back to Kerala within the next few days for me final phase and at long last I’m really looking forward to never having to suffer any more excruciating tooth aches ever again what’s more I’m even more overjoyed at the fact that from now on I’ll only be visiting my dentist every 4-6 months just to keep his hygienist in employment. So NO MORE EXTORIONATE DENTAL BILLS for me! How cool is that?















Personally speaking dental & medical tourism is an enormous market that is growing rapidly year on year and it really is the future. With more people now becoming far more cost conscious they are also beginning to realise that the UK does not have a monopoly or exclusivity on the world’s best healthcare professionals and that similar treatments as well as highly complex life saving procedures at the hands of highly qualified and skilled practitioners in far flung places such as Kerala in India are now well within their reach financially and without compromise to quality. 







Once again, please feel to leave your comments and should you need any further information than simply contact me by whatever means you wish it’s all there on the site so I look forward to hearing from you soon.







In the meantime, its Kerala here I come!

You too can afford to smile once again with a million dollar Hollywood smile or if you prefer in my case a Bollywood smile.

How was this achieved? Very simple, I stayed away from undergoing extensive dental surgery here in the UK.

Question on everyone’s lips is why on earth would anyone do that, again quite simple. Having been put into a corner and facing a humongous bill of £22,000 for major dental treatment here in the UK some 4 years ago, I like many others was forced to investigate similar treatments abroad.

Surely there must be an alternative I thought, and low and behold, there it was. 18 months of research finally led me to a surgeon who began to tick the right boxes regarding all my concerns of having such complex treatment done thousands of miles away from home.

The man I found was Dr. Biju Thomas BDS, FFDRCSI, a highly qualified UK trained Cranio-facial and maxillio-facial surgeon who had held senior positions of registrar at Cambridge University Hospital –UK -World famous Addensbrook Hospital and Trinity University Hospital Dublin Ireland and also the Gloucester Royal Hospital.

As a highly trained Cranio-facial and maxillio-facial Surgeon Dr. Thomas routinely carried out Maxillo- Facial Trauma, Salivary Gland Surgeries, Oro-Facial tumor surgeries for Facial Deformities, Craniofacial and Dental Implant Treatment. 

During his time with CUH –UK, Mr. DAVID ADLAM and WT LAMB were the consultants. Mr. Ian ROBINSON was the consultant orthodontist with whom Dr Thomas closely associated for planning all his orthognathic (jaw deformity) surgeries.

Dr. Thomas also spent lot of time in the unit’s craniofacial laboratory and with craniofacial technician (Mr. Peter) and actively participated in the surgical and prosthetic management of cranio-facial implant supported prosthesis.

At Trinity University Hospital Dublin Ireland he was the registrar to Mr. FRANK BRADY who was the dean of the ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS-Dublin Ireland for the faculty of dentistry. Mr. Brady while his training was Registrar to SIR NORMAN ROW who is considered as the father of modern Maxillofacial Surgery. The other consultant was Mr. HUGH BARRY who had enormous interest in dental implants. This hospital was the centre for fellowship examinations for RCSI. Dr. Thomas was a part of the trauma team and was one in three second on call. He has carried out multiple complex operation under general anaesthesia with inter disciplinary support. He had his own theatre list unsupervised twice a week.

During his time at GLOUCESTER ROYAL HOSPITAL – UK Dr. Thomas worked as an associate specialist at Gloucester NHS TRUST and CHELTANAM GENERAL HOSPITAL. After this extensive working experience he decided to set up his private practice back in KERALA, INDIA. Because of his enormous interest in dental and craniofacial implant treatment he narrowed down his practice predominantly focusing on highly complex dental implant treatment.

Ok, so it looked like I had found the right man for the job, but wait, I was still not satisfied with the long list of achievements and accreditations that he had achieved so I decided to contact the Dr. Thomas personally to speak to him and to learn in more detail the treatments he regularly undertook back in Kerala.

I asked him a barrage of questions and he in turn answered every one of them with what seemed like openness and honesty but without the element of the “hard sell” On the contrary, he was very sincere and recommended that I should continue my research until I was fully satisfied to undergo such complex treatment with him so far from home.  Just before we ended our chat he also recommended that I speak to a number of his previous patients to allay any concerns or fears that I had.  I’m sure we all know that “word of mouth” is the most powerful form of advertising and what better way for me to get a accurate and unbiased account of his skills and his expertise than speak to his former patients.

So a few days later I decided to call a number of them. I spoke to three, one In the UK one in Ireland and the other from a small town known as Capitola in northern California. Armed with a long list of probing question, I was looking for some pretty in-depth answers. At times I thought they might actually be getting quite tired of all the questions I was asking, but all they seemed genuinely honest, extremely helpful and very informative. None I might add had a bad thing to say about Dr. Thomas especially the charming gentleman from California who was in his late 70’s and who had travelled to Kerala on his own and against the wishes of his family. In his own words he said “I only wish I had known about Dr. Thomas some years ago but I’m glad I finally got the treatment and if I had to do it all again I most definitely would”.

In all honesty, that was the only recommendation I needed. The next day I applied for my visa and within two weeks I had booked my flights and hotel accommodation all thanks to Dr. Thomas wife Manju, hopped on a plane and was Kerala bound!

It was an 11 hour flight and I had flown out from London Heathrow via Gulf Air, frankly not the best airline in the world but it did the trick.  I got to Cochin International in the early hours of Monday morning and having cleared customs I was met by my driver who promptly and politely took me straight to my hotel some 45mins away.

During March April and May Kerala is extremely hot and humid so my personal recommendation is to travel outside these months but please don’t end up going in June or July as this is the start of the monsoon season.

My hotel was a very adequate 2 star and as I was travelling alone it served its purpose well. The thing is that Manju Thomas has a special tie-up with a number of these hotels and tour operators so she can really get some excellent deals. To give you an idea of how much my hotel cost, it worked out to just under £200 for a 11 night stay but dinner was not included in that price and that was fine as I actually wanted to the flexibility of eating what I liked and where I liked and when you work out that on average a full-on evening meal cost me around £3, it was well worth doing.

Kerala is a gorgeous place, it’s nestled in the Southern tip of India close to the equator so you can imagine that the weather gets hot but tolerable most of the times. Its culture and people are fascinating, very tolerant and respectful to the International traveller and will always go to great lengths to be helpful and courteous and hospitable.

B y the way, here’s some interesting facts, Kerala has the highest literacy rate in India and had a commendable record in terms of the Physical Quality of Life Index. Indicators of PQLI like infant mortality (11%), female literacy (87.86%), and life expectancy at birth for males (68.23) and females (73.62), are well above all India levels. The major reason for this achievement is Kerala's focus on the service sector. About 37% of the total annual expenditure of the state is earmarked for health and education. Another reason for this is the existence of a larger network of hospital infrastructure under the Directorate of Health Services with 933 primary health centres and 5094 sub-centres.

In 2006, over 50,000 people travelled to India from the UK alone, of which a massive 43% or 22,000 were seeking highly complex dental treatment and the rest were seeking complicated high-end medical procedures such as heart surgery, organ transplant and orthopaedic procedures like knee and hip replacements they couldn’t afford or couldn’t manage to schedule with a doctor they trust at home. UK figures are clearly forecasted to grow to 174,000 by 2010. In 2008, this South Asian giant (India) attracted over 150,000 medical tourists from the United States, Britain and Africa combined again these figures are set to explode over the next few years.

With highly trained English speaking doctors, quick appointments and bargain basement prices it goes without saying that India has become the destination of choice for the growing dental and medical tourism sector.

Having undergone my treatment successfully and at the request of my surgeon Dr. Thomas to become his Implant Co-ordinator for UK, Ireland and USA,  I took up the position without any hesitation and set up a partnership with him by launching a brand new website solely to offer a comprehensive insight into my own experiences and treatments and  more so to educate and inform the masses of people who currently so dissolutioned with the dental healthcare system in countries  such as the UK, Ireland and the USA that there is now a real alternative to regaining quality of life without compromise and, more importantly, at incredibly affordable prices.

Of course there are those that may challenge the thought that travelling thousands of miles from home does carry with it a high risk factor, and off course, they might be right in some cases. However, with careful and concise research into the treatment you are seeking, the surgeon, his qualifications, his medical background his standing within the specialists area of his expertise not to mention the national and international associations and institutes he is member of, you will soon find more often than none that the vast amount of treatments carried out in countries like India, and in particular Kerala, have an equally high rate of success.

 These complex treatments are offered by extremely skilled and highly qualified dental and medical practitioners who not only apply their skills using the latest technologies and adhere to very high international  hygiene standards they also offer years of experience in successfully treating an ever increasing flow of international travellers from the west  who are arriving in their droves in search of that million dollar Hollywood smile at Bollywood prices as well as many other life changing treatments that would otherwise be too cost prohibitive back in the UK, Ireland and USA.

Of course it is important to point out that, bearing in mind that no medical treatment offered in the developed west or developing east comes with a 100% stone clad guarantee of risks and failures, dental implant surgery can be considered very safe when performed by an experienced and highly skilled and “practically” qualified surgeon. The prosthetic phase of this treatment is basically non-invasive and non-surgical in nature. 

If you are considering extensive and complex dental Implant treatment and would like to know more. Please contact me directly on +44 7967 763592 or by email at info@smilekerala.co.uk or by any of the social networking mediums on our site. We are here to hand-hold and guide you and to help you make an informed decision about high quality affordable dental implantology whilst enjoying the sights and splendours of beautiful Kerala in a no-nonsense way and without the hard sell.