Two French friends who needed implants went to Budapest for the procedures. Apparently much cheaper. 

What is refundable from your mutual and CPAM?

Ouch!

Replacement of teeth by implant-supported prostheses is extremely complex and depends on many factors such as medical history, local anatomy, position, quality of supporting bone and a host of other, sometimes quite technical, reasons.

Firstly do no harm. In other words what would the implant do to improve your life compared with the risks. If you don't need one, why get one (or more)?

Other people's experiences are pretty much irrelevant because each patient is different. While it's comforting to hear that many folk have had successful implants it doesn't follow that everyone can expect that success.

As for costs (bear in mind I'm going back over 10 years) - the material cost for an osseo-integrated implant (basically the drill tip and implant) is, around £150.Add to that time, pre- and post-op assessment and the surgeons skill then anything under £1k per implant is, suspiciously cheap. I'd be thinking £1500 per implant. Expect maybe 300 to 500 for the crown or other superstructure. There's a reason why you can get cheap treatment in Hungary, Czechia etc - their overheads are lower and they aren't going to be there if things fail (which, sadly, is increasingly likely as the price falls).

So:

1. Do you need one (or more)? Is no treatment or an alternative prosthesis more appropriate?

2. Is the surgeon doing full pre-op assessment and are they fully qualified and experienced?

3. Can you afford it?

4. Are you prepared to accept failure at your cost if the implant(s) doesn't integrate?

5. Do you smoke? If yes you should NOT be offered an implant.

Ideally, the implant should be placed by the same person who provides the crown so that the implant placement and positioning is done with due regard to the finishing prosthesis. I think this is quite important. At the very least the surgeon should liaise with the dentist on this point.

I never placed implants for prosthetic purposes without the dentist's agreement on placement. The implant and prosthesis are separate units which must integrate properly in the treatment plan.

Hope that helps

I had a single implant done for a molar, in France. I didn't like the gap and the teeth either side were not stable enough for a bridge ( but having had a bridge before that I don't particularly like,  I wouldn't go down that route again). The process took a while, because I needed a bone graft. So all in all six months for the bone to consolidate, another 3 months for the implant to integrate into the bone, and then the crown fitted. Process itself was relatively quick and painless and the resulting prosthesis feels better than anything else in my mouth. They don't like to do them if you smoke and you have to pay special attention to your dental hygiene before and after. Cost was around 2000 euros in total. Some of the cost of the crown was reimbursed but not the implant. I'd happily do it again.