Hungary's tooth tourism

All of us want white and shiny teeth, also the British people are dreaming of "Hollywood teeth". Therefore this year, 25,000 Britons will take cheap flights to Budapest for bargain dental work. There you can regulate your teeth for a quarter of the price. Another few thousand will come for cut-price cosmetic surgery or lasik corrective surgery. Someone reported that he had needed a couple of fillings and a crown replaced which costs about 750 pounds in London, in Budapest it is quoted 266 pounds. With the return flights and car parking it costs about 352 pounds, which is still a bargain.

The clients come mainly from the UK, Ireland, Scandinavia and Holland. In 2004 the clinic treated about 16 Britons a month, which is quite a lot in my point of view. Three years later, work-of-mouth recommendations have pushed that to more than 100, with similar numbers arriving from other northern European nations.

But the British Dental Association warns that anyone who is thinking about treatment overseas must make sure that they are aware of the potential risks and the hidden costs. There can arise difficulties if there are problems with the treatment when the patient returns home. But the Bedfordshire-based dental travel agency Perfect Profiles ensures that if things go wrong, they fly their patients back to Budapest, put them in a hotel and resolve the problems - at their expense.

I read also some personal experiences of patients and nearly all of them were fully satisfied with the treatments in Hungary. But to be honest, I am a bit skeptic and I think I don`t want to be under medical treatment in Hungary although it is much cheaper as in Austria.