For all their economic power, First World countries aren’t exactly known for cheap healthcare. Many get particularly bad marks in dental coverage. But what’s bad news for the middle class is a boon to dentists in Eastern Europe, where dental tourism is just taking off.
In Hungary, for example, the industry generates a cool 227 million euros every year. That’s 40% of the European market. And it doesn’t end there: the country has announced it will expand its dental tourism programs over the next three years, with the goal of doubling its revenue.
In a statement last May, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said dental tourism was the country’s most valuable tool for getting back on its feet. He promised to invest heavily in the field, striving to provide higher standards of care and offering up incentives to keep its top dentists at home.
Turkey is also an emerging destination for cheap dental care. In the next three years, the country’s medical and dental tourism markets are expected to grow 26% with the help of increased spending in both the public and private sectors. The government aims in particular to attract a North American market, banking on its hospitals’ ties with prestigious American institutions such as Harvard and Johns Hopkins.
Medical tourism, on the other, remains concentrated on the other side of the Atlantic. Costa Rica has risen in the last few years from providing little more than cosmetic surgery to offering spinal cord surgery, cancer treatment, cardiology, and orthopedic. …
