Travelling Overseas For Dental Work?
Travelling outside of Australia, to less developed countries to have teeth fixed is becoming a popular choice for patients. The cost of treatment is the biggest factor behind this trend. Each week, here at Corio Central Dental, we see a number of patients who experience financial hardship in their lives and see ‘dental tourism’ as an option. Yes, it can be cheaper to get teeth fixed overseas, but we suggest for patients to consider “all costs”.
5 Hidden Problems with Dental Tourism
Some of the biggest issues with getting complex dental work done while on holidays overseas, in less developed countries, are:
- Patients usually have limited time available in the chosen country, and therefore, local dentist may need to speed up treatment or “shrink” appointments to fit everything in. Many dental treatments have negative side effects when done in a hurry.
- Local dentist has minimal or no previous dental records and history of the particular tooth and may carry out dental treatment which would not be indicated, in the presence of good dental records.
- No follow up appointments, invasive dental treatment procedures are at risk of infection.
- Materials, equipment and infection control practices may be at a much lower standard, making the dental treatment procedure a high risk one, to your health.
- Who is responsible for further dental treatment if things go wrong, once the holiday is over? Dental tourism can end up being far more costly OVERALL, if inadequate work needs to be “fixed up” afterwards.
At Corio Central Dental, we have treated quite a number of patients who had dental treatment done overseas. A few were to a satisfactory standard, and less expensive than the Australian standard fees. However, the vast majority are below the standards we have here, in Australia. We have had to deal with many problems of dental treatment that failed, and this repair/re-treatment ended up costing the patient much more, than the original treatment would have been, to start with. Not to mention the time, discomfort, pain and biological tooth cost.
If you experience financial difficulty, and in need of complex dental treatment, please consider an Interest Free Payment Plan, as a first option, not travelling overseas.
APPLY FOR 12MTH INTEREST FREE PAYMENT PLAN
AUSTRALIAN DENTAL ASSOCIATION TALKS ABOUT DENTAL TOURISM