Is the quote closed, or can it go up after the first consultation?
A list price is not a quote. The Instituto AreLuna publishes two starting points — 600 € for a single implant and 4 300 € for an arch of fixed teeth — and the quote closes only after the diagnostic consultation with a 3D X-ray, because it depends on a prior individual assessment and diagnosis. Once that document exists, what can still move it is a change to the plan, discussed before it is carried out.
A document with two parties, and nobody else
In Switzerland, for dental care, a quote is submitted to no insurer before treatment: basic insurance covers next to nothing in this field. The document therefore has only two parties, the person who treats and the person who pays. There is no prior approval to wait for, but there is no third pair of eyes either.
Hence a greater demand for precision, not a smaller one. Two things carry almost the same name and are not the same: the list price is a starting point per procedure; the quote is a document about one particular mouth, written after seeing it.
What separates one from the other comes down to a single word: the examination. The 3D X-ray — the CBCT — shows the bone in volume, and it is from that image that the number of implants is decided, along with what has to come out first and what has to be treated first. Until it has taken place, an amount is only a supposition dressed up as a certainty.
From when the amount stops moving
The amount is fixed at the moment it goes onto a document, after the diagnostic consultation, once the plan has been settled. That is the moment to insist on, and that is the document that goes home with the patient and is set beside the quote already obtained in Switzerland.
Past that point, only one thing can still move it: the plan itself changing. And the plan changes with the agreement of the person treated, not behind their back. A change discovered on the invoice, and never mentioned before, does not deserve the name.
What can change the plan
The possible causes can be counted on one hand, and all of them are known in advance. Bone in insufficient quantity where the tooth is missing, which calls for another approach. Extractions that only the image shows to be necessary. Gums to be treated before a single implant is placed. And the number of implants, which is a decision for the dentist who examines, image before them, and not a choice from a catalogue.
None of these cases is cause for alarm: a plan exists precisely for them. What should be asked of a practice is not a promise that they will not happen. It is that it writes down, black on white, before the first procedure, the effect each of these cases would have on the amount.
Three requests, in this order. First, the quote drawn up after the diagnosis, with the number of implants and the detail of what it covers. Second, the list of what it does not cover. Last, what is written about replacement if an implant does not integrate with the bone. The two published starting points — 600 € and 4 300 € — serve to decide whether an appointment is worth making, not to close accounts: both depend on a prior individual assessment and diagnosis. The appointment is booked on +351 220 430 090, for the establishment at Rua de Júlio Dinis, 194, 4050-327 Porto.
Frequently asked questions
Can a closed quote be obtained before leaving?
You have to be there: the closed quote is born of the diagnostic consultation, 3D X-ray included, and it is that examination that carries the plan. Before it, there are starting points, which depend on a prior individual assessment and diagnosis and serve to decide whether an appointment is worth making.
How often does a quote go up?
Nothing is published on this, and no statistic will be invented here. What can be said is what makes a quote rise: the bone, the extractions and the number of implants. All three show on the image, and all three are discussed before the surgery is fixed.
And if the plan changes during treatment?
A change of plan is a clinical decision that must be explained and accepted before it is carried out. If the amount moves, it moves in a new document, not on the final invoice. Asking for it in writing is the least costly right to exercise.
Does the quote have to be validated somewhere before leaving?
For dental care, basic insurance covers next to nothing and no prior validation is therefore expected from that side. If a complementary contract exists, its own requirements are checked with the insurer: this page describes none.