How do you book an appointment from Luxembourg, and what happens next?

‘I would like an appointment for implants, ideally in the afternoon.’ The request is clear, but what gets booked on the phone is not yet an appointment for implants. It is an appointment to find out whether there will be any, how many and how: the diagnostic consultation, during which the 3D X-ray, or CBCT scan, is taken.

This consultation is paid for, and its cost is then deducted from the treatment if treatment goes ahead. The amount is not published on this website: ask for it when you call, along with the available slots and how far ahead a date can be had. It lasts 30 to 60 minutes depending on the complexity of the case, an indicative duration that depends on a prior individual assessment and diagnosis.

The published hours are Porto time, and mainland Portugal is one hour behind Luxembourg, all year round. The establishment’s 09:30 to 19:00 therefore corresponds to 10:30 to 20:00 in Luxembourg City or Esch-sur-Alzette: a call made on leaving the office, at around 18:30, still falls within opening hours in Porto.

The establishment is closed at weekends. For someone coming from Luxembourg, this matters less for the call than for the journey: every appointment day in Porto is a weekday, and so a day to take off work.

For the consultation, bring everything that exists about your medical, clinical or dental condition: reports, current treatments, old quotes, old X-rays if there are any. The X-rays needed for the diagnosis are taken at the clinic.

The minimum stay stated by the Instituto AreLuna is three days: one for the assessment, one for the surgery, which generally takes place the day after the diagnostic consultation, and at least one to recover before flying home. It is a minimum, not a standard timetable: the actual length depends on a prior individual assessment and diagnosis.

The consultation produces an image and a plan. The CBCT scan shows the height and thickness of the bone at every point, and the case is planned on a computer from that image. The plan says what treatment is involved, and only then does a written amount appear, which depends on a prior individual assessment and diagnosis.

An ordinary quote has two readers: the clinic that writes it and the person who signs it. A Luxembourg resident’s quote has a third, the fund. The Instituto AreLuna prepares it in French, with the nomenclature codes, ready to be submitted. That document is what opens the next step, not the clinic’s diary.

This is the step no clinic diary shows. The CNS does not cover the implant; it contributes to the fixed prosthesis, at 80% of the official tariffs, or at 100% with the annual preventive dental check-up in each of the two previous calendar years. The prosthetic procedure concerned depends on a prior individual assessment and diagnosis.

Portugal is a category 1 country for the fund: outpatient care there does not require prior authorisation, which does not remove every formality for the prosthesis. Yet surgery generally follows the consultation the very next day — an order that itself depends on a prior individual assessment and diagnosis — which leaves little room, once there, for an exchange with the CNS. What has to be submitted, and when, should therefore be asked of the fund before leaving.

‘Generally’ does not mean ‘always’: anyone who would rather have the fund’s answer, quote in hand, before any surgery should say so when calling, and the order chosen depends on a prior individual assessment and diagnosis. The fund’s own procedure is not described here: only the CNS can give it in full.

Dental care is provided at Rua de Júlio Dinis, 194, 4050-327 Porto, an establishment registered with the Entidade Reguladora da Saúde, the Portuguese health regulator, under number 161637, operating licence 21593.