Dental Marketing and Practice Management

We've been talking again about dental tourism — specifically, how US dental insurance company Companion Dental is including an "international treatment option" in all its dental plans for patients who'd prefer to go to Costa Rica for lower-cost care.

So how big is this whole "dental tourism" business, anyway?

It's not really mainstream, but it is growing — and that's why we should all be keeping an eye on it.

Think tank Deloitte Center for Health Solutions predicts that about 648,000 patients will take medical and dental vacations overseas this year — 20% more than in 2008. (Read the article)

According to Deloitte, this 20% growth is actually a reduction in demand. (Deloitte once predicted medical tourism would double every year, reports one website.) As many as 750,000 American sought dental tourism in 2007. The recession seems to be to blame, with patients having less money to spend on discretionary treatment.

“Barring any tempering factors, such as supply constraints, resistance from health plans, increased domestic competition or government policies, we project that outbound medical tourism could reach upwards of 1.6 million patients by 2012,” said Paul Keckley, Ph.D. and executive director of Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.

In a 2008 article on dental tourism, The New York Times stated:

"Roughly half a million Americans sought medical care abroad in 2006, of which 40 percent were dental tourists, according to the National Coalition on Health Care, an alliance of more than 70 organizations. That’s up from an estimated 150,000 in 2004…"

So it would seem that about 200,000 Americans will take a dental vacation in 2009. That's nearly 1% of our adult population!

But there might be an upside… As the dollar slides, will foreigners start visiting the US for low-cost dental care? Maybe we'll be the ones offering discount dental implants, affordable sedation dentistry, and relatively cheap dentures…

Deloitte predicts that by 2017, up to 561,000 people from other countries will visit the US for dental and medical care.

Deloitte mentions a few other juicy tidbits:

• "West Virginia and Colorado have attempted to pass legislation that would either require or incentivize insurers to incorporate medical tourism within their health benefits plans. Although both bills did not pass, they demonstrate that state legislators are paying more attention to the value of medical tourism."

• "India’s medical tourism sector is expected to grow 30 percent annually from 2009 to 2015."

Make no mistake about it: Globalization will affect dentistry just as much as every other profession.

Post a comment

1. Tweets that mention Editorial-1-Sparaga -- Topsy.com Says:
   November 17th, 2009 at 9:38 pm

   [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Josef Woodman, Bumrungrad Hospital. Bumrungrad Hospital said: RT @JosefWoodman: Dental tourism: An unsexy but huge growth market http://bit.ly/299fFb #medicaltourism [...]

2. Scott Minteer Says:
   November 17th, 2009 at 9:51 pm

   Disclosure: I work for Bumrungrad International hospital, located in Bangkok, Thailand.

   Next to plastics, dental is one of the big areas of medical tourism for Thailand.

   Undoubtedly, the US has some of the best dental care in the world. At the same time, the dollar would have to fall a lot for the entire trip to be considered cheap – travel, treatment, hotel, food – even tipping: it all adds up.

   Quality of care is often more important than the cost, it is true. And with the massive increase in quality of care in other countries – especially in hospitals with JCI accreditation like ours – this single competitive advantage may not be enough to draw massive numbers to the US – IMHO.

3. The Dental Maven Says:
   November 18th, 2009 at 5:53 am

   Here’s an indepth look at the subject of dental tourism:

   http://knowyourteeth.blogspot.com/2008/12/acci-dental-tourist.html

4. D. Kellus Pruitt DDS Says:
   November 18th, 2009 at 8:07 am

   “Make no mistake about it: Globalization will affect dentistry just as much as every other profession.”

   Come again?

   Perhaps if one’s dental practice commonly sells treatment plans that cost $10,000 or more, international dentistry might be a threat, and could indeed bring downward pressure in the price of extremely high-cost procedures. But if one’s practice is mostly bread-and-butter dentistry, like virtually all dental practices, you will never feel the competition from Thailand. I promise.

   Most of my patients cannot afford dental vacations even if they had dental insurance. Some can’t even afford vacations, yet they still buy their dentistry locally at a fair, free-market price.

   D. Kellus Pruitt DDS

5. Medical/Dental Vacations in 2009 Says:
   November 26th, 2009 at 11:34 pm

   [...] Read Jim Du Molin’s post at Dental Practice Marketing & Management [...]

6. Dental Says:
   March 25th, 2010 at 10:41 am

   Yeah its really true, more and more foreigners visiting our country for their dental treatment.

7. Smile Planners Says:
   March 26th, 2010 at 3:28 am

   There are three types of dental tourist, the casual, the accidental, the scheduled. You can walk down the street in Chiang Mai, Phuket and Bangkok and see an ad for teeth whitening or read about it in the local newspaper. A tourist might also seek out a dentist in the event of an accident, lost, chipped tooth etc. The scheduled dental tourist has researched procedures, costs and destinations well in advance and are most likely looking for big ticket items, dental implants, implant supported dentures bridge, or dental makeovers. I would like to know if the casual/accidental dental tourists are in these numbers presented as dental tourists or only those who scheduled the appointment from home.

8. Hershel Moynahan Says:
   May 24th, 2010 at 12:05 pm

   Thankyou, I never knew this, thankyou.