Why Dental Tourists Choose Kiknadze Dental Center — And What You Should Know Before You Book
- Ani Eliashvili
- May 24
- 5 min read
The patients who get it wrong book their flights before they have a treatment plan. The patients who get it right leave Tbilisi with a new smile, money still in their pocket, and a story they tell everyone when they get home.
We have been treating patients at our clinic on Navtlughi Street for over twenty years. In that time, more and more of them have been travelling to us from abroad — from Germany, Greece, the UK, and beyond. This is what we want every international patient to understand before they make a decision.
THE NUMBER THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING
A single dental implant in Germany costs between €1,000 and €2,500 — and that is before the crown. German statutory insurance classifies implants as a private treatment, so patients pay that in full, out of their own pocket. The UK and the US are no different.
At Kiknadze Dental Center, a Swiss SGS implant starts from 800 GEL. A zirconia crown is 400 GEL. At current exchange rates, that is approximately €270 for the implant and €135 for the crown — under €410 in total for a procedure that costs €1,500 to €3,000 or more in Western Europe.
This is not a budget implant. SGS is a Swiss system, specifically engineered for primary stability — the quality of the initial fit that determines long-term success. The saving comes from Georgia's cost of living, not from cutting corners on materials or expertise. The implant going into your jaw is the same Swiss implant used in clinics across Europe. The price is not.
Multiply that difference across a full mouth reconstruction and the numbers become significant enough to change what is actually possible for a patient.
WHO WE ARE
Kiknadze Dental Center has been operating for over 20 years in Tbilisi. We have treated more than 10,000 patients and hold 26 professional certifications across our team. The patients who built that number are not mostly tourists — they are Tbilisi families, referred neighbours, and people who come back because the work holds and we are honest with them.
Our clinic director is Dr. Lika Kiknadze, a therapeutic and surgical dentist. Our team covers every discipline an international patient might need: Dr. Giorgi Abuladze for implants and maxillofacial surgery, Dr. Tamuna Khodonashvili for orthodontics, Dr. Soso Shakiashvili for prosthetics, and further specialists in periodontics, oral surgery, and therapeutic dentistry. When you come to us, you are not seen by a generalist doing everything. You are referred internally to the right specialist for each part of your treatment.
Our team speaks English. Your consultation, your treatment plan, and your aftercare instructions are communicated clearly and directly — no language barrier between you and your doctor.
BEFORE YOU BOOK YOUR FLIGHTS
The single most important thing an international patient can do is send us a panoramic X-ray before making any travel decision.
We offer remote consultations for exactly this reason. A panoramic X-ray gives our team what we need to assess your bone density, understand what treatment is actually required, and give you an accurate, itemised quote — before you commit to flights or accommodation. We will come back to you with a clear treatment plan and a real price.
Patients who skip this step sometimes arrive with an idea of what they need and discover the reality is different — more complex, or occasionally simpler. Either way, a confirmed plan before travel is what turns a stressful unknown into a straightforward visit.
How to do it: obtain your most recent panoramic X-ray from your dentist (most practices can provide a digital copy on request), and send it to us by email at kiknadzedentalcenter@gmail.com or by WhatsApp at +995 579 504 477. Include a description of your situation — which teeth are missing, any pain or sensitivity, and what treatment you have been advised to have. We will respond with an assessment and a price.
If you do not have a recent panoramic X-ray, it is worth getting one before you travel. The cost is small. The clarity it gives you — and us — is significant.
PLANNING YOUR VISIT
Tbilisi has direct flights from most major European cities and a well-developed accommodation market. Getting here is the straightforward part. What requires planning is the treatment timeline.
Simple procedures — a filling, an extraction, a whitening session — can be completed in a single visit of one or two days. A single implant requires two visits: one for the implant placement, and one for the crown fitting, typically eight to twelve weeks later. Full mouth reconstruction requires more time and needs to be planned with us from the start.
This is why the remote consultation matters. We can tell you exactly how many visits you need, how long each should be, and how to structure your stay. Some patients combine treatment with time exploring Georgia. Others make two separate trips, using the waiting period between implant stages to return home. Both approaches work — but both require knowing the schedule in advance.
Things to have ready before you travel:
Your panoramic X-ray sent in advance, with a written treatment plan confirmed by us before you book anything.
Travel insurance documentation. Check whether your policy covers dental complications abroad.
A realistic budget covering flights, accommodation, and the full confirmed treatment cost.
Any existing dental records if you have had significant previous work done.
Our clinic is at 9 Navtlughi Street, near Isani metro station. It is easy to reach from anywhere in Tbilisi by metro or taxi.
WHAT WE TREAT
We are a full-service dental clinic. International patients tend to come to us for the high-cost procedures — implants, veneers, crowns, full reconstructions — because these are where the price difference is most significant. But we handle the complete range: routine examinations, hygiene, fillings, teeth whitening, orthodontic braces, periodontal treatment, and oral surgery.
If you are planning a longer stay, it is worth considering whether there is additional work worth doing while you are here. A cleaning, a filling, a whitening session alongside your main treatment adds little to the overall cost and our team can accommodate multiple procedures across your visit.
One of our recent published cases involved a full upper jaw reconstruction using SGS Swiss implants throughout — carried out entirely within our clinic by a team that includes two maxillofacial surgeons. This is the kind of treatment that in Western Europe would require multiple specialists across different practices and a bill running into tens of thousands of euros. We handled it in one place, by one coordinated team.
THE HONEST VERSION
We will not tell you Tbilisi is the dental tourism capital of the world. It is not. It does not have the volume infrastructure that some other destinations have built around foreign patients.
What Tbilisi has instead is clinics like ours: built on local patients over decades, where standards are set by professional reputation rather than tourist throughput. We do not fill our schedule with quick turnaround visitors. We build treatment plans, we communicate clearly, and we stand behind the work.
The patients who have travelled to us from abroad — including patients from Israel, who came specifically for implant treatment — found the same standard of care our Tbilisi patients receive. The SGS implants are the same. The zirconia is the same. The difference is what it costs to run a clinic in Tbilisi versus London or Frankfurt.
The patients who get it wrong try to arrive without a confirmed plan and without having shared their X-rays. The patients who get it right send their panoramic scan first, receive a written treatment plan and a real price, book their flights knowing exactly what will happen and what it will cost — and leave wondering why they waited so long.
Send us your panoramic X-ray. We will take it from there.
KIKNADZE DENTAL CENTER
9 Navtlughi Street, Tbilisi (near Isani metro station)
+995 579 504 477
Monday – Saturday: 10AM – 7PM
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