Missing teeth: what can be known before the examination?
More than people think, but not the essential. Without an examination, you can know which forms of treatment exist, where the amounts start, which implant brand is used, and one thing no examination will change: in France, the implant is not covered by the Assurance Maladie, France’s statutory health insurance. What needs doing in a given mouth, on the other hand, nobody can say without having examined the person and seen their 3D X-ray.
What is already known, in writing
Whoever writes ‘I am missing teeth’ or ‘I would like a healthy mouth again’ is in fact asking two questions: what is possible, and how much it will cost. Part of the answer already exists, and it is worth knowing before calling.
The Instituto AreLuna describes two forms of treatment. To replace a lost tooth, the single implant: a titanium screw placed in the bone, a zirconia crown on top, placed by guided surgery. For a full arch, a fixed prosthesis placed on four or six implants — what is called All-on-4 or All-on-6. Which one suits a particular mouth cannot be read here.
The starting amounts are published: 600 € for a single implant, 4 300 € per arch for the fixed prosthesis on implants. These are starting points; each person’s amount is settled only after a prior individual examination and diagnosis.
The implant used is a Neodent, a brand of the Swiss Straumann group. The establishment is registered with the Portuguese regulator, which can be checked before any appointment.
The one answer no examination will change
One question can be settled entirely before being seen, and it is a French particularity: cover. The Assurance Maladie does not cover the implant, whether it is placed in France or abroad. The X-ray will change nothing: no clinical finding brings the implant into the reimbursable nomenclature.
What remains open concerns the crown or the prosthesis, which a mutuelle, the complementary private cover most people in France hold, may cover in part depending on the contract. That question is also asked before the examination, but of the mutuelle and not of the clinic; the exact figure will come only with the quote.
One simple thing follows: no insurer waits for the diagnosis to rule in the patient’s place. The diagnosis serves a single person, the one who will decide.
What only the examination will say
The rest depends on what is in the mouth and in the bone, and it cannot be guessed: which form of treatment is suitable, how many implants, whether there is enough bone or a graft will be needed, whether there is first a root to extract or an inflammation to treat. Nobody can say what needs doing without having examined the person and seen their 3D X-ray — the CBCT, which shows the bone in three dimensions.
That is why the final amount, the number of appointments and the number of journeys appear on no page: they depend on a prior individual assessment and diagnosis. An estimate given without that examination remains a supposition, whoever makes it.
‘A healthy mouth’ is an aim that the examination helps to define, not a commitment that a text can make. What the diagnostic consultation produces is a written plan: what must be treated, in what order, and at what amount.
What to do with what is already known
With these elements, the person arrives at the consultation knowing what they will compare afterwards: the Portuguese quote beside a French quote, and the reply from their mutuelle beside both. The diagnostic consultation is booked by telephone, on +351 220 430 090, with a team that speaks French.
Frequently asked questions
Can you know before the examination whether a bone graft will be needed?
No. The amount of bone available is seen on the 3D X-ray, and nowhere else. What a graft adds to the quote has its own page, and depends on a prior individual assessment and diagnosis.
Single implant or fixed arch: who chooses?
The indication comes out of the examination; the decision belongs to the person. The plan is proposed after the 3D X-ray, and it is the patient who accepts it or not, quote in hand.