General dental care covers examination, scaling, treatment of decay, gum treatment and management of pain. It is the foundation everything else rests on: no veneer, crown or implant lasts on inflamed gums or on a mouth that is not being kept clean.
What a proper examination covers
A full assessment includes inspection of the teeth and soft tissues, probing of the gums, a look at how the bite meets, and imaging appropriate to the situation. It should produce a plan in order of priority: first what hurts or is progressing, then what stabilises the mouth, and only then what is cosmetic. A quotation that inverts that order deserves a second reading.
Treatment abroad needs planning
Dental treatment normally needs a series of visits to plan, carry out and follow up. European and Canadian dental bodies warn that compressed treatment abroad tends to come with very little pre- and post-treatment care, and they raise infection, nerve damage, failed restorations, overtreatment driven by commercial incentives, liability gaps and limited legal recourse. Two honest qualifications belong with that: there is no published comparison of complication rates between compressed and staged treatment, so these are professional positions rather than outcome data, and national dental associations have their own commercial interest in domestic treatment.
What to bring home
Leave with a tooth-by-tooth record of what was done, your radiographs, the references of the materials used and written aftercare instructions, all in English. Identify a dentist at home willing to handle reviews and any remedial work before you travel, not after something goes wrong. That arrangement, more than the price, is what separates a controlled plan from a gamble.