Dental Tourism: Is it Safe?
Dental tourism involves patients from the UK and US for example, travelling to other parts of the world including parts of Asia in order to receive cheaper cosmetic dental treatments.
Clinics found in areas of Singapore, Thailand and India are able to provide treatments that are at least half the cost of expensive treatments provided within UK dental clinics. As many of the dental clinics abroad can perform procedures without the need for dental insurance many UK citizens are finding they can save more money by travelling abroad.
In 2009 around 250,000 Brits travelled to other parts of Europe and Asia to receive significantly lower priced dental treatments. Many decided to travel in a bid to escape especially high dental costs in a time of recession.
Dr Neil Lunt of York University is currently conducting research into whether or not this means of receiving treatment is safe and if it does in fact save Brits money in the long run.
Currently, studies have suggested that the main advantage of dental tourism is that UK citizens are saving a substantial amount of money by travelling abroad to receive dental treatments.
However, the disadvantages far outweigh the benefits of dental tourism. For example, dentists abroad are more likely to use poor quality dental materials in comparison to UK dentists, which indicates that procedures are more likely to fail.
Furthermore, implant treatment require a lengthy recovery process over a period of around 6 months. This means that the patient would be required to re-visit the implant dentist abroad, further adding to the costs of the treatment as additional flights and accommodation would have to be booked.
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