Dental work while in Malaga.

I do not. But, before you do, call around and ask a few local oral surgeons this question-“I’m planning on having a dental implant in Spain. If I have trouble with it when I get home will you take care of me?” Just make sure that’s in place and don’t be surprised if there are no takers.

If I have trouble with it when I get home will you take care of me?

It's a bit of a surrealist question (to me anyway). If I have any health trouble, regardless of why, where or how, I'll be taken care of back home by any health professional I ask. No questions asked, it's their job -and their business too. Perhaps the work culture in the US is different...

Anyway, just for info, it's well known that some of the best health treatments in Europe are in Spain, so I wouldn't worry much. Anyhow, as in everything else in life, you should choose carefully, like in any other profession, there are the good, the mediocre and the bad. A starter: https://www.topdoctors.es/malaga-ciudad/odontologia/

You read so many horror stories about foreign medical treatment, regardless of which country, that I would be very careful.
It's the aftercare if there are problems, as much as anything.
And, of course, if anything goes wrong after you have come home..........

Having said all that, I lived not far from Malaga for 12 years and there is a very high standard of dentistry available.
At least two friends had implants done.

I have no direct experience of this company, but they have been operating for over 20 years, advertising in expat media, so must be doing something right.
https://www.clinicadentalcrookelaguna.com/en/dental-implants/

It is my understanding that getting implants requires several months of treatment.

To follow up on the point made by marsh

https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/dental-implant-surgery/about/pac-20384622

https://www.deltadental.com/us/en/protect-my-smile/procedures/dental-implant/step-by-step-procedure.html

Interestingly, the UK Government has started working with Tiktok influencers to publicise the risks of overseas cosmetic and dental surgery, together with precautionary advice.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-works-with-tiktok-to-help-safety-for-treatments-abroad

Enric, I wish I could live in Spain (lifelong dream) and would have no problem with seeing a dentist or doctor there. But the US health-care system is --let's just use the word "strange." There are dentists who will not touch a patient who had work done elsewhere, even elsewhere within the US.......

I'mm having implants done now, in the US...it is taking me more than a year so far but I do travel a lot.....months between the implant of the posts and the fitting of the crowns....sometimes you need a bone graft (I did) and also a sinus graft (I did)......and the cost of dentistry in the US is horrific, as you all know........and many, or most, people do not have dental insurance...

If you can't afford the implants they just pull out all your teeth and give you those fake teeth--not sure what they are called.....the kind you put in a glass next to your bed when you go to sleep......

Shame, shame on our health care system. I'd have no issue having all this done in Spain......

Not Spain, but "Turkey teeth" is the current British vernacular for a big shiny white smile because so many people travel to have OTT cosmetic dentistry done in Turkey.

@ekscrunchy

But the US health-care system is --let's just use the word "strange." There are dentists who will not touch a patient who had work done elsewhere, even elsewhere within the US.......

Why is that? Has anything to do with the sort of private-insurance-monopoly setup you have over there? Is it due the rather peculiar —at least to European eyes— system of professional liability claims in the US? It's a puzzling thought that someone turns away business coming his way...

Over here, a dental professional would take on (almost) every case that comes into the clinic—after all, it’s their business. I say almost, because there are probably some extreme cases where many might prefer not to get involved if another dentist caused great damage.

There are dentists who will not touch a patient who had work done elsewhere, even elsewhere within the US......

If that were true, then what is everybody doing for dental care when the first dentist they went to retires?

As to the question posed by OP, it looks like the hurdle is the prep time, that extends over a fairly significant stretch of time, that might be the critical issue.

When my dentist retired, he referred me to the person who took over (bought) his practice in NYC. They do not want to deal with "repairing" dentistry done in other countries. When I see my dentist in a few weeks I will ask her for more information.....

The conversation is not focused on going to a new dentist if yours retires. It is about a densit willing to take on a patient who had major work done in another country....again, I will try to get more info when I go in a few weeks...for yet more implants!!

I recall seeing signs in various mechanics' garages posting the hourly shop rates for labor. They often show something like this:

Repairs: $X per hour
Repairs fixing what you or somebody else previously screwed up: $XXX per hour

The message is pretty quickly understood.

Whenever one pays someone to perform any service, from a doctor to a plumber, to a great extent you are at their mercy. I always want that highly paid and qualified professional to be at their very best: ready to do their best work, and in a good mood. I never want to notice that they are grumbling, complaining under their breath, quietly cussing and clearly wishing they were not about to do what I'm asking them to do. If they are generally unhappy doing the work you ask for, your results may not be everything you're hoping for.

Let me tell you a story (I swear, it illustrates the issue above)...

We have a Japanese toilet in a bathroom at home. It's a great toilet, very high quality, from a well-known manufacturer, and we love it. But it's not a garden-variety, plain-vanilla toilet that every plumber knows like the back of their hand (because, Japanese). We recently had a very small, presumably very simple repair needed (to replace the float valve, which had a tiny leak between the tank and bowl: a super-common, very small task most toilets need eventually, and that many an amateur home handyman can and does do themselves successfully, even if they are all thumbs and have zero experience repairing toilets). I took one look at it and declared to my dear wife: This is beyond my skills, lets call a plumber. No, she replies, and goes off to study YouTube. She says this will be easy and cheap, shows me videos. I google the cost for this repair and google says it'll run from $100-$400. I repeat to dear wife that this is beyond my skills (and hers). She insists it'll be easy, see, this guy on YouTube shows us step-by-step? Despite my misgivings, she looks up the parts on amazon and declares we can save over $300. I say I am very, very, very skeptical and believe this is not a wise choice. She stands her ground. I love her and want to stay married, and order the parts. Parts come, we follow the YouTube video. Things do not go well. There are minor differences in some small parts, it's hard to reach critical bolts, we have to take apart the big pieces off the toilet. I start waving this off before the toilet separates and cost to bail out skyrockets, she insists we continue. We try. We fail. After a full day of trying everything we can, she finally agrees our project has gone off the rails and despite our many heroic efforts, we can't get it right. Toilet is now in pieces, sitting in the bathtub, we're stuck (and lucky we have a 2nd bathroom). Meekly, she admits we need to call someone who knows WTF they're doing. I call the plumber who did all the plumbing work on an extensive remodel of that bathroom years ago, including installing that very toilet. They will fix it.

Plumber comes next day. The cost for replacing the cheap little float valve was probably less than $50 for the parts. But the final bill for installing that - and for putting our toilet back together so it wouldn't leak all over the bathroom floor...that came to around $1500, almost all of which was labor. As I sat in another room near the bathroom, I could hear the plumber quietly cursing and mumbling expletives as he wrestled with the toilet. He did not seem to be happy. But he fixed it, and it works. My wife and I do not discuss this matter any longer.

I suspect that my hometown dentist would rather not be called upon to try and "fix" what some foreign dentist did to me, especially if I went to that dentist because I thought my hometown dentist charged too much. Basic human nature.

If you need the work done but just can not afford it at all, it's a tough call. But I want to keep my doctors and plumbers happy if I can.

Good luck.

… funny, nobody mentioned ‘repairing’ anything… it sounds rather arrogant to assume that dentists do a good job only in the U.S. What it really shows is sheer ignorance by some, doesn't it?

There's many dentists working to very high standards at a cost a fraction of the US or UK right across Europe. I was being a little snobby talking about "Turkey teeth" but the standards are generally high.

The first thing my Romanian ex did when she made a bit of money working in London was go back to Romania to get her teeth done. Fraction of the cost of a UK dentist and it made a big difference to her confidence.

With all due respect, Enric, I think you may have missed the point I was hoping to make. My apologies if anything I wrote offended you.

Due to human nature, it's understandable for any professional to have a lower degree of trust and appreciation for someone else's work, especially if that professional believes you went to someone else where you could get that done cheaper rather than going to them from the start.

There may be nothing that "needs fixing", maybe just routine follow-up, but the fact remains that it may be viewed as "somebody else's" work.

I make no assumptions about the relative quality of dental or medical care between where I live and where you do. I am sure there are both excellent and less excellent providers in both. And while I have no experience with dental procedures overseas, my experience with that at home tells me that for complicated, months-long procedures requiring several distinct phases of care, I would prefer the whole process from end-to-end be performed by local practitioners who are at least in direct communication with each other, and work as a team (at least that has been my experience). Bringing in unfinished work from practitioners who may be both geographically distant and professionally unknown to each other may introduce uncertainty and complexity (ie the last one working on you may worry they could be held responsible for things others did, especially if things don't go well and/or the patient is unhappy - FWIW, here in the US, fears of "malpractice" claims loom large and may dictate standard practices, like it or not).

I believe you may have misunderstood what I was trying to say. My apologies in any case.

I’ll take it one step further, to expand upon what I wrote in my initial reply. If you have a medical emergency and go to an emergency room in the US they have to treat you by law. But an oral surgeon working in his/her office is under no obligation to treat you. When I said check with one here before you go, that is what I meant. Ask this” I’m going overseas to have a dental implant. If I run into problems with it when I return can I see you for that?” If the answer is sure, no problem, then you’ve covered your bases. But don’t be surprised if the answer is something along the lines of (politely said) hell no!

David, no need to apologise at all, I wasn't offended. Your views are always appreciated. Probably a language nuance: as we all learn that "to fix" = to repair something broken or to remedy something poorly done, but maybe it's being used figuratively in certain contexts.

We have friends who travel to San Luis Río Colorado, Mexico for all their dental work. It's a 3-hour drive for them. They claim they save 50% on their care, and they've been doing this for 20 years or more. They've never had any problems with the work done by their Mexican dentists, and they've not had any issues getting emergency care from US dentists during this time. So I wouldn't be concerned about that part of the question.