Overseas Tooth-Tourism is booming!

Introduction

The EU is planning to introduce new rules which will allow dissatisfied British medical and dental patients to receive treatment in a member state of their choice – and reclaim all or part of the cost from the NHS. This situation makes that, according to recent figures from a private medical insurer, more than half of NHS patients would travel overseas for healthcare if they could reclaim their bills. Besides that, dental treatment tends to be far cheaper in other EU countries. By going overseas patients could save thousands of pounds – even after travel and accommodation costs. Popular destinations in this are Hungary and Croatia as well as India outside the EU.

Original article at the Times Online: “Why it’s all smiles for tooth tourism” by Jessica Bown (24 August, 2008)

Essay by Wouter Wensink
Master in Tourism Destination Management student 2008/2009

Going to Hungary for new a new set of implants, it is like going to Luxembourg for fuel. Or going to Andorra for cigarettes and liquor. The only difference in this case is that having a new set of implants or a six-months check up is actually the real purpose of visit. It is not like buying boxes of cigarettes while driving on a holiday to Spain. Retired health-food shop owner Linda Williamson, 54, recommends ‘tooth tourism’ also for the experience: she stopped off for treatment while driving through Austria and Hungary. ‘It felt like a holiday,’ she said. And many more British feel the same way about it. These overseas dentists offer top quality treatment at a lower price. So we could say that price and the offered quality  are the main motifs for the British to engage in “tooth-tourism”. Although they enjoy their stay in, for example, Hungary.

The funny thing in this case is that the current situation of tooth-tourism is the result of a new coming regulation by the EU, instead of a result of all the deregulations which have happened before or are still happening. I think that in the coming years a fierce competition will commence, not only based on price, but also on the quality and the characteristics of the dental product. This is already happening but even more and also more brutal.

However, going abroad for getting your teeth fixed is nothing special nowadays. Going to Thailand and change your gender in a few days happens as well. So why not involving in modest tooth-tourism? People are communicating with each other all over the world. Decisions and actions taken thousands of miles away can affect the lives of people everywhere. If the EU decides to introduce new health insurance rules, Hungarian and Indian enterprises can profit from it. There is a global supply and people can get information every minute from every place in the world. The world is a “global village” (Marshall McLuhan). Boundary less thinking and acting is the standard nowadays and the emerge of tooth-tourism is again a clear example of that.

When I first heard about tooth-tourism I thought that it was a new chapter in the “body-culture” story. Perfection is the standard nowadays, fake hair, fake lips, liposuction, silicone breasts, whatever. In that light I thought that British people wanted to bleach their set of teeth overseas because of price and quality. Nevertheless, the only necessary dental work will be covered under the legislation. What a shame, me thinking that all these presumptuous British would go overseas only to reach the ultimate perfection.

To conclude, due to the introduction of new EU rules a new, probably unforeseen, tourism market has emerged. The world becomes smaller and smaller, so going to Hungary for a pair of new implants is becoming a trend among the British. Honestly, I would seriously consider it myself when dental costs were also that high in the Netherlands.