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"Dental tourism" boom in Poland
2004-09-03
Half price dental services as well as high quality equipment and professional doctors are the main factors explaining growing popularity of Polish dental treatment among tourists from Western Europe.
Due to their favourable location, cities like Gdansk, Szczecin and Opole enjoy the highest number of such visitors, usually coming from Germany, Sweden and Denmark, but sometimes also from France, Italy, Spain and the UK. One example of a clinic benefiting from Western tourists is Klinika Implantologii i Ortodoncji Hahs Protodens, one of the largest in the Szczecin region, treating on average 150 foreign patients per month. As Marcin Gaborski, the clinic's director, explained to Rzeczpospolita, the same quality service, materials and technology costs €150 in Poland, as opposed to €260 in Germany. Unlike in its Western neighbour, domestic labour cost is still low in Poland; consequently, labour-intensive services are cheaper.
Some Polish dental clinics, such as Stomadent in Slubice close to the Polish-German border, have already signed agreements with regional branches of the Health Fund from Frankfurt am der Oder. Pursuant to terms of the agreements, German patients can obtain dental treatment at Stomadent at lower prices due to financial settlements between the Polish and German medical units.
Transportation, accommodation and translation services are often included in the offer by Polish dental and optical clinics, often cooperating with foreign travel agencies. Danish Skan Rejser or Den Tour specialise in "dental" or "optical" tourism. Its clients are also informed about cost reimbursements for such treatment conducted in Poland, which are possible since the country's accession to the EU. Den Tour alone has served nearly 2,000 customers since that date.
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