Toothache or Tourism—Finding Dentists Abroad

There are two reasons you might need to find good dentists abroad:  either you have a toothache or you are participating in the new “Dental Tourism” trend.  As dentistry becomes outrageously expensive or unavailable in some western countries, people are combining dental care with a vacation.  You can save quite a sum of money by going to a dentist abroad—sometimes you can save enough to pay for the vacation.

No matter why you need a dentist in a foreign country, you want to know that he or she is qualified to work on your teeth.  The surest way to ensure that you are getting good dental care is to ask if the dentist is certified.  Each country has certification standards for dentists that determine what kind of education they have and what kind of dental care they are qualified to provide.  If your dentist is certified in his country, you can be fairly certain that he or she can take good care of your teeth.

It’s really, really nice if you and your dentist speak the same language.  Ask what language or languages the staff speak.  If you don’t have a common language, ask if they provide translation services.

Ask for references.  If you are going to a dentist abroad, it may be difficult to check references.  Just getting the references tells you something, though.  If a dental clinic is unwilling to give your references, you probably don’t want them to take care of your toothache.  Dental clinics that specialize in dental tourism should be able to furnish you with references from people in your own country, and you should be able to contact those people.

Ask what kind of guarantee they offer on the dental work they do.  Ask how they handle follow-up visits or problems for clients who are from out-of-country. 

Get a price quote for whatever dental procedures you need to have.  Ask if that quote is guaranteed.

Check out the location.  If you have a dental emergency, you need to know how far the dentist is from where you are.  If you are taking a dental vacation, you want to make sure the clinic is reasonably close to an airport or other travel hub, and that it’s in a place you want to vacation in.

Ask if they have dental vacation packages.  Some dentists abroad specialize in these dental vacations, and they offer package deals.  The package often includes transportation from an airport, hotel, sightseeing and dental care.

Dental vacations are a great way to take a very nice vacation abroad, and get your dental care done at very low cost.  A dental vacation abroad may not be much more expensive than the dental care itself would be at home.