Dental Tourism
What is dental tourism?
Dental tourism is a subgroup of health tourism and could be defined as the process of traveling to countries abroad to perform dental procedures, mostly motivated by their low costs compared to the country of origin
Reasons why people do dental tourism
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) many people travel because:
• The cost of various procedures and treatments is much lower, there are even testimonials of savings of 18% including travel expenses and savings only in the procedure can range from 40% to 75%.
• Many procedures are not available in your countries
• Combine dental procedure with holiday tourism in the destination country.
Why are dental procedures cheaper?
è Lower cost of living generates lower fixed costs (labor and leases)
è Payment for negligence insurance is less expensive or there are no mandates on the purchase of negligence insurance.
è Much less student loan debt incurred by dentists.
World Market
As reported by the Market Data Forecast study, the global dental tourism market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 12.22% from 2022 to 2027. As a result, the market size is projected to grow to USD 5,967.63 million by 2027 of USD 3,353.13 million by 2022.
Furthermore, the same study already mentioned, the dental tourism market has been segmented into preventive treatment, restorative treatment, prostdental treatment, WHO treatment and others. In 2021, prosthodontic treatment accounted for more than 30% and is expected to grow with a CAGR of 13.2% from 2018-2025.
Prosthodontics or implantology is a specialty of dentistry that deals with diagnosis and treatment planning, restorative management and maintenance of patients with missing or missing teeth in the maxillofacial region (learn more about strategic implantology here)
As stated in a Future Market Insights study, India, Turkey, Hungary, Mexico and Thailand are expected to boost demand for this kind of tourism services.
Moreover, the top 10 destinations for dental tourism among US patients. are Mexico, Thailand, Hungary, Spain, Poland, Costa Rica, the Philippines, Malaysia, Turkey and the Czech Republic.
Below is a table created by the Ontario Academy of General Dentistry on the average costs of several common procedures in each of the top 10 dental tourism destinations illustrated below
Dental tourism Latin America
According to data from ProColombia, Latin America is the fourth region with the highest participation (8.24%) in global medical tourism sales (medical treatment: evaluation and diagnosis processes, surgical and/or rehabilitation processes) in 2021.
The same source shows that:
• 47% of foreign Americans who traveled abroad and did so for health reasons received some form of dental treatment, this being the main treatment performed abroad.
According to Statista the reasons for health tourism to Latin America are due to:
1. The price of the process in the U.S. versus Latin America,
2. The quality of the procedure.
3. The patient does not have health insurance in his country.
Dental tourism in Colombia
According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Tourism, Colombia receives more than 50,000 foreigners each year to treat or prevent a disease, or to perform beauty procedures, it is because procedures can cost between 10% to 35% less than at home
As reported by Colombia Productiva, the country is expected to capture at least 2.8 million health tourists and generate income of at least 6.3 billion dollars in the year 2032.
The countries from which most foreigners arrive for health tourism are the United States, the Netherlands followed by Panama.
What cities do tourists come to?
1. Bogota: Capital city with greater offer of procedures and clinics. Received approximately 3,369.
2. Cali: received 2,927 tourists for health reasons
3. Medellin: the city has received 1,266 people for procedures ranging from aesthetic to physical health
Square Dent is a dental clinic located in Bogota, Colombia that offers multiple dental health services provided by highly qualified professionals ensuring safety and quality in all procedures.
At Square Dent we offer
- Strategic implantology
- Oral rehabilitation
- General Dentistry
- Orthodontics
- Periodontics
- Maxillofacial Oral Surgery
- Endodontics
- Dental Aesthetics
- Pediatric Dentistry
References
Balaguera, P. A. G. (2022, August 9). Cali y Bogotá, las ciudades con más turismo de salud. Portafolio.co. https://www.portafolio.co/economia/finanzas/cali-y-bogota-las-ciudades-con-mas-turismo-de-salud-569369
Colgate. (2022, March 15). What Is Dental Tourism? https://www.colgate.com/en-us/oral-health/threats-to-dental-health/what-is-dental-tourism
Dental Tourism Market. (n.d.). https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/dental-tourism-market
Dental Work in Colombia | Cost, Safety, Quality & Tourism. (2019, September 27). Medicaltourismco. https://www.medicaltourismco.com/dental-work-colombia-south-america/
Elliott, G., & Elliott, G. (2022, September 27). The Global Dental Tourism Market Size | Statistics | Trends | MTB. https://medicaltourismbusiness.com/global-dental-tourism-market-statistics/
Informe de gestión 2018 – 2022. (n.d.). PROCOLOMBIA. https://procolombia.co/publicaciones/informe-de-gestion-2018-2021
Joe, A. (2020, May 13). What is dental tourism? Definition and meaning. Market Business News. https://marketbusinessnews.com/financial-glossary/dental-tourism/
Ltd, M. D. F. (n.d.). Market Data Forecast | Research Reports and Business Insights. Market Data Forecast. https://www.marketdataforecast.com/error
Moreno-Perozo, K. (2022, May 13). Turismo médico en América: una revisión de sus dinámicas e influencias en los sistemas de salud | Salud UIS. https://revistas.uis.edu.co/index.php/revistasaluduis/article/view/12468
Overseas, L. A. I. (2022, October 14). The World’s 7 Best Countries For Dental Tourism. Live and Invest Overseas. https://www.liveandinvestoverseas.com/health-care/dental-tourism-destinations/
Revista Semana. (2022, June 23). El turismo de salud crece cada vez más en Colombia: ¿cuáles son los beneficios que ofrece el país? Semana.com. https://www.semana.com/mejor-colombia/articulo/el-turismo-de-salud-crece-cada-vez-mas-en-colombia-cuales-son-los-beneficios-que-ofrece-el-pais/202258/
Rivera, M. (2021, October 12). El auge de la competitividad del turismo odontológico en la ciudad de Bogotá. https://repository.usta.edu.co/handle/11634/37951?show=full
Romero, M. (2018, September 4). Turismo médico Latinoamérica. Americas Market Intelligence. https://americasmi.com/insights/los-4-principales-mercados-de-turismo-medico-de-america-latina/
Salmon, M. (2019, September 1). Dental tourism — bargain dentistry and a vacation to boot. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/dental-tourism–bargain-dentistry-and-a-vacation-to-boot/2019/08/30/4fd4a466-aef0-11e9-a0c9-6d2d7818f3da_story.html
Statista. (2019, August 9). Estimated dental market worldwide 2016-2021. https://www.statista.com/statistics/731751/global-dental-market-size/
Worth the Trip? A Look at Dental Tourism. (2020, January 20). Constituent. https://www.agd.org/constituent/news/2020/01/20/worth-the-trip-a-look-at-dental-tourism