A holiday with a difference – a visit to see the dentist!

Dental tourism is an increasing trend with more and more Britons combining a holiday with a visit to the dentist. It sounds odd but for a growing number of Britons who cannot get treatment on the NHS and do not want - or cannot afford - to pay huge bills for going private.

Turkey, Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria and now Thailand are cashing in due to their low-cost, high-quality dental care.

The medical search engine, revahealthnetwork.com, has revealed that 35,000 Britons a year travel overseas for dental work and nearly 60,000 searched online for information on dentists. The company declared that Britons can save up to 70% by travelling overseas for dental treatment - before accommodation and flights are taken into account.

The growing business is a direct consequence of the difficulty Britons face when seeking an NHS dentist after the launch of new contracts in April 2006 that saw a limit in the number of treatments that dentists could claim for from the NHS. This resulted in several dentists moving into private practice.

Data from the Department of Health established that the amount of people with access to NHS dentists has dropped by 47,000 since 2006. In 2006, over one million were left without access to NHS dental care and the situation is likely to deteriorate.

There are large savings to be made - veneers that cost £500 in the UK are £270 in Hungary, £215 in Poland and £150 in Thailand.

A spokesperson for Reva Health Network highlighted that dental tourism is increasing and there are huge savings to be made. However, the company did point out that some situations are not suited to dental tourism. For example, if you need braces fitted, you would be better off having this done in Britain as the procedure requires follow-up visits.

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