Dental Travel Advice For The Stay At Home

Dental tourism, and medical tourism in general was set up to entice people with middle income to travel abroad and seek medical services for less money. The problem is that many people in that income bracket do not travel. With the advent of affordableairline tickets and accommodations, travel is no longer the resort of the rich, and can be accessed by anyone at all, yet it is taking some time for those in the middle and lower middle classes to make use of these possibilities.

Many people would like to take the opportunity and get their teeth done for less, could afford it, but are held back because they have never really traveled, and are not much of a traveler. I intend to give some general advice about traveling to a foreign country in order to entice people to take the opportunity, and travel abroad for medical purposes if need be.

The holy trinity of medical travel

Going to any foreign city at all for medical travel will become a breeze if you remember the holy trinity of medical travel; tickets, clinic and accommodations. Book your accommodations ahead of time, and find out where it is in relation to the clinic where you will be treated. Do not panic if they are far away from each other, instead, devise a route between the places. Tickets are of course extremely important, know which days you will be arriving, when you will be leaving, and how much time that gives you to stay in the city you will be in. Ask the dentist who will be doing the work how long you will have to stay, if there is a healing time, etc, and book your tickets accordingly.

What to bring

What kind of accommodations will you be staying at? If you are staying at a hotel, you will not even need to bring towels or a toothbrush, as everything will be provided for you (although bringing your own toothbrush is always a good idea). However, if you go to a hostel or a rented apartment, you may want to bring toothbrush and paste, a towel, and some slippers you can wear in the shower, as communal bathing spaces may carry the risk of athletes foot, even if they are super clean and maintained on a daily basis. If you are staying for a very short time and do not plan on going outside at all, you should also bring your own toilet paper. Which brings me to the next most important thing.

Currency

Know what currency is used in the country you are going to, and how much of it you need to have. Find out basic prices, and how much your currency can buy of the host currency. Do not change money at the airport, or they will rip you off mercilessly. Try and find a place in the inner city or near a tourist district but not quite in it, those have the best exchange rates.

If you keep these things in mind, you should have a blast, and come back in one piece to tell the tale.  

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