Tony Higgins

Tony Higgins 's jawbones were slowly but surely parting company from his roots and he faced a grim choice: false teeth or an investment of £50,000 to have the job done privately in the UK. "The bone needed regenerating before the teeth could be secured but there was no way I was going to spend £50,000. I simply punched in the word 'Implants' into Goggle and came up with the The Dental Implanto Prosthetic Centre in Rovinj Croatia

He then paid £95 to get his upper and lower jaws X-rayed from every conceivable angle and emailed the results to Dr Popadic in the smart medieval resort of Rovinj, an hours drive from The Italian border. "I thought I might as well go somewhere that appealed as a holiday resort".

Dr Zeljko Popadic took a look at Tony's X-rays and declared that there were indeed problems, but not insurmountable ones. "So I took a cheap flight to Venice a city I had always wanted to visit before spending 3 days in Rovin"j.

"I had gingivitis, so Dr Popadic cut away the infected gums, took out a few teeth and cleaned up. On my second visit he quite literally took a mallet and chisel to my face, chopping out bits of chin bone which he spliced into the upper jaw to enable the bone to regenerate. On my third visit he took out the stitches and placed implants into the bone and on the fourth visit he put implants into the lower jaw".

This may all sound highly expensive but to date Tony has spent £7,500. After a fifth visit when further crowns and implants will be fitted Dr Popadic will have performed seven implants and eight crowns saving 15 teeth for just £10,000.

Before committing Tony checked with other patients attending the surgery and they all said what a brilliant job Dr Popadic had done. "That's what eventually persuaded me, I felt totally reassured by an extremely professional attitude, high-tech surgery and was impressed by everyone's level of English.

Saga Magazine June 2007