Dental Tourism

Dental tourism is a budding concept that combines a vacation with needed dental care. It is an innovative response to the the high cost of dental services in most European and North American countries.

The InciDental Tourist provides excellent dental and travel packages customized to meet your treatment requirements and, at the same time, treat you to an unforgettable guided visit that allows you to explore both the ancient and modern faces of China.

Increasingly China's modern dental facilities, advanced treatment techniques and world -class medical training and expertise have moved China to the forefront of international dentistiy.

Dr. Tom Chen's private Dental Clinic in Nanjing has become a recognized centre of excellence for clients from around the world. Here, you will receive the highest quality of dental care and service at up to 75% less cost than what you would pay at home for the same treatment. Dr. Chen, who is an affiliate member of the American Dentlal Association (ADA), guarantees all work performed at his clinic.

Medical and Dental Tourism

A combination of many factors has led to the recent increase in popularity of medical travel: the high cost of healthcare in industrialized nations, the ease and affordability of international travel, and the improvement of technology and standards of care in many countries of the world.

Medical tourists can come from anywhere in the world, but generally the bulk will come from Europe and the United Kingdom, the Middle East and Japan. This is because of their large populations, comparatively high wealth, the high expense of healthcare, lack of healthcare options locally, and increasingly high expectations of their populations with respect to healthcare. Of the above, Europe and the UK is probably the most promising source of medical tourists for the future, as it is large (with more than twice the population of the USA), while Europeans are much more likely to travel overseas than Americans (it is said colloquially that only 10% of Americans posses passports, and even the US state department only claims that 25% of US citizens have a passport as of 2007.

Clearly a large draw to medical travel is the convenience in comparison to the situation in other countries. Some countries that operate from a public health-care system are so taxed that it can take a considerable amount of time, to get needed medical care. The time spent waiting for a procedure, such as a hip replacement, can be a year or more in Britain and Canada; however, in Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Colombia, Philippines or India, a patient could feasibly have an operation the day after their arrival. Additionally, more and more patients are finding that insurance coverage either does not cover orthopedic surgery (such as knee/hip replacement surgery) or imposes unreasonable restrictions on the choice of the facility, surgeon or prosthetics to be used within the US. Medical tourism for knee/hip replacements has emerged as one of the more widely accepted procedures because of the lower cost and minimal difficulties associated with the traveling to/from the surgery. Colombia provides a knee replacement for about $5000 USD including all associated fees such as FDA approved prosthetics and hospital stay over expenses. Oftentimes many clinics will quote prices that are not all inclusive and include only the surgeon fees associated with the procedure.

Reasons pushing medical travel include lower healthcare costs as well as the search for medical expertise , quality of care, safety, and wait times. In Canada, the number of procedures in 2005 for which people were waiting was 782,936. Further, in that same year, Canada recorded the highest level of health spending in its history.

According to research found in an article by the University of Delaware publication, UDaily: "the cost of surgery in Bolivia, Argentina, India, Thailand, Colombia, Philippines or South Africa can be one-tenth of what it is in the United States or Western Europe, and sometimes even less. A heart-valve replacement that would cost US$200,000 or more in the U.S., for example, goes for $10,000 in the Philippines and India—and that includes round-trip airfare and a brief vacation package. Similarly, a metal-free dental bridge worth $5,500 in the U.S. costs $500 in India or Bolivia and only $200 in the Philippines, a knee replacement in Thailand with six days of physical therapy costs about one-fifth of what it would in the States, and Lasik eye surgery worth $3,700 in the U.S. is available in many other countries for only $730. Cosmetic surgery savings are even greater: A full facelift that would cost $20,000 in the U.S. runs about $2,700 in the Philippines or $2,500 in South Africa or $ 2,300 in bolivia."