If there is one field of medicine that can make a strong case for the merits of medical tourism then it is surely dentistry. Travelling abroad for treatment can be an overwhelming experience, especially if the procedure involves a long period of recovery or rehabilitation. In dentistry, however, an operation has to be pretty serious if the patient can’t walk out of the clinic and onto a plane a matter of hours after a trip to the dentists. Traditionally, too, dentistry has been a field of medicine where both price and quality can vary hugely across the globe. But with the emergence of stricter regulation, online training, and a burgeoning international community, the standard of dentistry is starting to improve across the globe – prompting a fierce battle for patients from competing healthcare systems.
Even before the emergence of Dubai Healthcare City, Dubai has been well known for its dental community. The cluster of clinics on Dubai’s Jumeira Beach Road has been a destination for dental tourists for more than a decade – providing both aesthetic and traditional treatments. Nevertheless, the number of residents in Dubai who still leave the country for treatments is still higher than it should be, says Dr Sanya Mooraj from the North Carolina Dental Practice at Dubai Healthcare City. “Dubai comprises a largely expatriate population and this is one of the reasons people wait to go home to get their treatment done,” she says. But patients rarely recognise that, due to the advances in the field of dentistry, they are often paying out extra for the exact same procedures, using the same equipment, that practices are carrying out in Dubai. “Dentistry has evolved in terms of modern dental care… and the equipment and materials assure that patients can expect a certain result,” she reasons. One of the biggest drivers of dental tourism – as opposed to general medical tourism – has been aesthetic concerns.
People can have healthy teeth but still be unhappy with their color, shape or other aspect of appearance. It might be prohibitively expensive to have addressed in their own countries, or it might not be available at the right quality, but aesthetic dentistry is certainly proving popular with North Carolina Dental Practice’s patients, says Mooraj. “We provide patients with the possibility of full mouth ‘smile makeover’,” she explains. “This involves simple teeth laser whitening to cosmetic veneers – we also provide full mouth rehabilitation and implants for people with missing teeth,” she adds. And yet, getting most patients to visit the dentist when it is just down the road can be difficult enough. So what is the key to convincing patients to travel hundreds of miles to visit a dentist? The answer, says Dr Hans van der Elst, clinical director of the German Dental Oasis, is trust. “You have to trust somebody you don’t know and who is going to take influence on an essential part of your body – your mouth,” he reasons. This is why, he argues, DHCC’s growing reputation is so important to protect and to continue to build.
For instance, his native country of Germany has long been a destination for patients from the Middle East and he believes DHCC has the potential to provide the exact same level of treatment. But the big advantage Dubai has in the dental tourism stakes is the tourism. Van der Elst believes that, once all are equal in clinical terms, Dubai has a real opportunity here. “All patients, especially from Europe, love to come to Dubai,” he says. “You can relax at the beach, shop in the malls, play golf on the most beautiful courses in the world – and at the same time patients can have their teeth fixed in high-end clinics, which are equipped with the best equipment and some of the best European doctors are available to make the treatment as comfortable as possible.” Van der Elst suggests that Dubai might want to think about having formal partner clinics across the world, where dental records can be shared and trips of this sort can be arranged seamlessly. “This would be a challenging project for the tourist industry,” he admits. “But in my opinion this will be a huge opportunity and travelling agents should start thinking about programmes that might be fitting to the European customers and also can be adapted to the European insurance market.” There is an argument, too, that Dubai’s dental community could work closer with its medical colleagues to create these sort of packages. Indeed Mooraj is keen to dispute the idea that a distinction exists between ‘medical’ and ‘dental’ tourism. “It is my firm belief that oral health should be considered a part of an individual’s general health,” she reasons. “If a person is suffering from anemia it will manifest itself in the mouth in the form of a pale mucosa and ulcers. In this way many systemic conditions may be diagnosed by looking at the health of the oral cavity. Based on this we should consider it as ‘health tourism’ as opposed to ‘dental tourism’.”
For developments such as Dubai Healthcare City, this sort of collaboration between medical professionals makes perfect sense. The health city was created to foster clusters of excellence, and Mooraj reckons the development of future ‘heath tourism’ should be a shared goal of the health disciplines in the freezone. And despite Dubai’s relative abundance of dental clinics, Mooraj believes the strict standards in DHCC are starting to differentiate its clinics from the rest. “There are a multitude of dental clinics in Dubai,” she says. “[But] being in DHCC there is great importance placed on the qualification of the practitioner. To get a license to practice in the candidate has to go through a comprehensive process of documentation to be able to get a license. It is a tedious process but one that ensures that only those doctors who have met a certain criteria can practice. It raises the bar for us and this serves to motivate us to improve ourselves.
Even before the emergence of Dubai Healthcare City, Dubai has been well known for its dental community. The cluster of clinics on Dubai’s Jumeira Beach Road has been a destination for dental tourists for more than a decade – providing both aesthetic and traditional treatments. Nevertheless, the number of residents in Dubai who still leave the country for treatments is still higher than it should be, says Dr Sanya Mooraj from the North Carolina Dental Practice at Dubai Healthcare City. “Dubai comprises a largely expatriate population and this is one of the reasons people wait to go home to get their treatment done,” she says. But patients rarely recognise that, due to the advances in the field of dentistry, they are often paying out extra for the exact same procedures, using the same equipment, that practices are carrying out in Dubai. “Dentistry has evolved in terms of modern dental care… and the equipment and materials assure that patients can expect a certain result,” she reasons. One of the biggest drivers of dental tourism – as opposed to general medical tourism – has been aesthetic concerns.
People can have healthy teeth but still be unhappy with their color, shape or other aspect of appearance. It might be prohibitively expensive to have addressed in their own countries, or it might not be available at the right quality, but aesthetic dentistry is certainly proving popular with North Carolina Dental Practice’s patients, says Mooraj. “We provide patients with the possibility of full mouth ‘smile makeover’,” she explains. “This involves simple teeth laser whitening to cosmetic veneers – we also provide full mouth rehabilitation and implants for people with missing teeth,” she adds. And yet, getting most patients to visit the dentist when it is just down the road can be difficult enough. So what is the key to convincing patients to travel hundreds of miles to visit a dentist? The answer, says Dr Hans van der Elst, clinical director of the German Dental Oasis, is trust. “You have to trust somebody you don’t know and who is going to take influence on an essential part of your body – your mouth,” he reasons. This is why, he argues, DHCC’s growing reputation is so important to protect and to continue to build.
For instance, his native country of Germany has long been a destination for patients from the Middle East and he believes DHCC has the potential to provide the exact same level of treatment. But the big advantage Dubai has in the dental tourism stakes is the tourism. Van der Elst believes that, once all are equal in clinical terms, Dubai has a real opportunity here. “All patients, especially from Europe, love to come to Dubai,” he says. “You can relax at the beach, shop in the malls, play golf on the most beautiful courses in the world – and at the same time patients can have their teeth fixed in high-end clinics, which are equipped with the best equipment and some of the best European doctors are available to make the treatment as comfortable as possible.” Van der Elst suggests that Dubai might want to think about having formal partner clinics across the world, where dental records can be shared and trips of this sort can be arranged seamlessly. “This would be a challenging project for the tourist industry,” he admits. “But in my opinion this will be a huge opportunity and travelling agents should start thinking about programmes that might be fitting to the European customers and also can be adapted to the European insurance market.” There is an argument, too, that Dubai’s dental community could work closer with its medical colleagues to create these sort of packages. Indeed Mooraj is keen to dispute the idea that a distinction exists between ‘medical’ and ‘dental’ tourism. “It is my firm belief that oral health should be considered a part of an individual’s general health,” she reasons. “If a person is suffering from anemia it will manifest itself in the mouth in the form of a pale mucosa and ulcers. In this way many systemic conditions may be diagnosed by looking at the health of the oral cavity. Based on this we should consider it as ‘health tourism’ as opposed to ‘dental tourism’.”
For developments such as Dubai Healthcare City, this sort of collaboration between medical professionals makes perfect sense. The health city was created to foster clusters of excellence, and Mooraj reckons the development of future ‘heath tourism’ should be a shared goal of the health disciplines in the freezone. And despite Dubai’s relative abundance of dental clinics, Mooraj believes the strict standards in DHCC are starting to differentiate its clinics from the rest. “There are a multitude of dental clinics in Dubai,” she says. “[But] being in DHCC there is great importance placed on the qualification of the practitioner. To get a license to practice in the candidate has to go through a comprehensive process of documentation to be able to get a license. It is a tedious process but one that ensures that only those doctors who have met a certain criteria can practice. It raises the bar for us and this serves to motivate us to improve ourselves.
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