Dental tourism aka Dental holidays refers to a person travelling abroad in search of Dental treatment.
Around 3 in 10 people avoid going to the dentist and 1 in 5 of them due to affordability of treatments required. Many countries do not fund dental care for the majority of their people, therefore residents have to secure their own private insurers, however, this can be expensive (Balasubramania & Holden, 2018), partly being the reason for the rising figures in Dental Tourism.
We all want the ‘perfect smile’ some may call it the ‘Hollywood smile’. whatever it be referred to, we have seen a rapid rise in people seeking treatments such as, dentures, veneers and implants abroad (Ahmadimanesh, Paydar & Asadi-Gangraj, 2019). Destinations such as Turkey, Thailand and Croatia can offer treatments of more than 50% lower in price than places such as the UK and USA (Chen, 2017).
Like many other procedures abroad, dental tourism can become more attractive due to affordability, shorter waiting periods and convenience of treatment, (Barrowman, Grubor & Chandu, 2010) also states that the main disadvantage with travelling abroad for dental treatment is the professional, moral, legal and ethical duty of the practitioner regarding the outcome of treatment, implying it may be difficult to hold them accountable for mistakes that may be made or problems which may occur after treatment. More often than not insurance companies refuse to cover you for such procedures and when they do it is at a much steeper price, therefore compensation can be hard to receive.
We must remember that dentistry, where ever it maybe provided, home or abroad, is never risk-free. You might pay a higher amount to see the best dentists and still have something go wrong, it all depends on whether you are willing to take the risk at all.
References
Ahmadimanesh, F., Paydar, M. M., & Asadi-Gangraj, E. (2019). Designing a mathematical model for dental tourism supply chain. Tourism Management, 75, 404-417. doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2019.06.001
Balasubramania, M., & Holden, A. (2018, October 24). Dental tourism: Things to consider before going that extra mile for your smile. ABCNEWS. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-25/dental-tourism-overseas-dentist-cost-of-dentistry-thailand-india/10427136
Barrowman, R., Grubor, D., & Chandu, A. (2010). Dental implant tourism. Australian Dental Journal, 55(4), 441-445. doi:10.1111/j.1834-7819.2010.01267.x
Chen, D. (2017, January 10). THE RISE OF DENTAL TOURISM. TourismReviewNEWS. Retrieved from https://www.tourism-review.com/dental-tourism-growing-news5250
Cosmetic Tourism 