AUSTRALIA DENTAL ASSOCIATION - Not telling the tooth about dental tourism.
Are the Australian dentists protecting patients or are they just protecting their turf?
Recent articles in the Australian press and on the Australian Dental Association website have discussed the pros and cons of seeing a dentist in Asia. It’s been much the same story in the US for decades. Dentists in developing nations promote dental tourism while dentists in the Western countries cry wolf and shed alligator tears.
The attacks by Western dentists on dental tourism are always the same. They suggest that patients have little recourse should things go wrong after returning home. Then there’s the sly hints of poor hygiene, training, inferior materials and equipment.
Actor Steve Martin playing dentist gasses himself before treating the patient
The Australian Dental Association should lay off the laughing gas! Top quality Seimens dental chairs and Nobel Biocare dental implants are sold to dentists around the world. Not just in Australia. Dental colleges and health authorities abroad teach and inspect for sanitation, sterilization, proper hygiene and proper disposal of medical waste. The dental dark ages are long gone.
Here’s a quote from the Australian Dental Association’s recent blasts on dental tourism:
“...Australian Dental Association federal president Karin Alexander said that, while prices for offshore treatment seemed cheaper, there was no way that the quality of work performed overseas could be guaranteed.”
Show me one dentist in Australia or anywhere on the planet who will guarantee their work. Dentistry is both an art and science and one’s mouth is a dynamic entity. Teeth move around and sometimes skip town. Teeth and gums are affected by smoking, alcohol, drugs, poor oral hygiene and bad habits such as teeth grinding, crushing ice, opening beer bottles and from people ingesting the copious amounts of the sugar found in our modern diet.
Professionals of any sort from dentists to heart surgeons would never guarantee their work. Only that they will do their professional best. Reputable dentists anywhere will fix any problems should they occur.
Any other corrections such as re-cementing a crown, a bite, plate or denture adjustment can be handled by a local Australian dentist for a price far less than returning to your dental holiday dentist in Manila. But you can reasonably expect that if you are saving substantial money on your dentistry in Asia and you have to get an adjustment back home you will still come out money ahead (unless the Aussie dentist wants to punish you).
One Sydney dental patient suggested the reason could be that Australian dentists are more concerned about making their Mercedes, luxury home and country club payments than their patient's ability to afford dental treatments. I don’t buy that. Not all Western dentists drive a Mercedes. Not true. In fact, my dentist in South Pasadena California drove a Lamborghini. So there.
But finding the right dentist in Manila, Thailand, Vietnam or in any developing nation can be as much fun as a root canal for some. And here’s where Australian dentists have a real toothache with dental tourism. Specialist and general dentists in Australia are separated legally (and in the minds of the patients) into 2 distinct camps. And they don’t cross-dress.
In many developing nations, both general and specialist dentists can legally perform advanced dental procedures. Learning as they drill away on unsuspecting patients. (You better read that again).
That means that if one is not careful, and one selects a general dentist in Hanoi for their crowns or dental makeover - they are getting a dentist who is not formally trained and certified by a dental specialist school for advanced dentistry. General dentists everywhere are only trained for basic general dentistry i.e. drilling, filling and pulling teeth. Not certified for dental makeovers or dental implants.
A general dentist in a developing nation may have taken a quickie course by a dental implant manufacturer to be able to hustle their product but a weekend course does not in any way equate the years a specialist dentist spent learning oral or maxillofacial surgery in order to do dental implants properly. Dental implants and oral restoration involves oral surgery and don’t let anyone tell you different.
A general dentist normally has only 4 years of basic dental college. A specialist another 2 to 6 years. Yet both can cost the same in developing nations due to competition by general dentists seeking large treatment foreign patients. I say ‘foreign patients’ because the locals are savvy enough to head for a specialist when they need advanced dentistry.
One can safely assume that a dentist offering dental implants in Sydney or cosmetic dentistry in Brisbane has been properly trained, certified by a board of specialists and knows his craft well enough to do it in his sleep. But not necessarily so for that general dentist who is offering you the a real deal in Phuket.
The safest way to get your money's worth when taking a dental holiday is to select a Certified Doctors & Dentists Internationale' Association member dentist. The Association staff gives free dental estimates, resumes, referrals, dental tourism advice and can set appointments.
And their patient advisers are all doctors and dentists - not call center agents.
And their patient advisers are all doctors and dentists - not call center agents.
With a certified dentist in Asia you can be assured that you will be getting the high-quality dentistry you would expect from a cosmetic or implant dentist in Sydney. Or South Pasadena.
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