Ten Times 3 Days in Service of Dentistry

Dentistry and dental care as a part of it are successful provinces of the Hungarian health care. It is true even though the population’s dental care financed by public funds, basic care, prevention for children and maxillofacial care do have some serious leaks.

Health tourism combined with medical services is one of the world’s most rapidly developing branches. In 2006, experts estimated a world market of 60 billion dollars for the health tourism and, as their forecast said, it might easily increase to 100 billion dollars by 2012.

In qualitative care and health tourism, our country is rated as a world power, moreover, a market leader. The figures speak for themselves: The Hungarian dentists possess 40% in Europe’s and ten per cent in the world’s dental tourism. Currently, in Budapest nearly 80 and nation-wide further 250-280 enterprises provide dental services for almost 70 thousand tourists a year generating revenues of € 300 million (HUF 80 billion) – a considerable amount in terms of the entire national economy. In addition, the inland accommodations, mainly hotels, could realize extra 400 thousand reservations thanks to the dental tourism last year. Each patient spends an average sum of € 4-6,000 during their treatment period.

Dental tourism along the borders to Austria alone produces nearly half of the revenues. The other major part is generated by patients from the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland whose trips specialised tourist agencies organise usually. However recently not significant, but by its potential, a growing segment of the market is the public service funded care.

The latter amounts to a significant rate of visits with mandatory reimbursement (i.e. free priced) of citizens primarily from the neighbouring countries (Romanians, Serbians and Ukrainians).

There are nearly 6,000 practising dentists in Hungary and this number in 10,000 residents far exceeds the total in each neighbouring country of Central-Eastern-Europe. Their work is supported by about 2,800 technicians with dental labours in the background capable of meeting every requirement.

No doubt, Hungary is considered to be the dental centre in the Central-Eastern-European region. A series of the most prominent dental unit manufacturers and material suppliers have chosen Budapest as a site for their regional centre in the past years and they supply from here dental services and materials to about 60 thousand dentists, 30 thousand technicians and lots of dental trade partners in the region from Croatia, over the Czech Republic to Ukraine. Moreover, they regularly organise their hands-on courses and product presentations in Hungary for dentists and dental technicians from the neighbour-countries.

Many conditions had to be met to achieve all that. Firstly there is a high-quality dentist education in Hungary looking back on a 150-year-history. In our country, dentists graduate after a 5 year training and the candidates receive their doctoral degree in Dentistry. As a result of the hands-on training in small groups, the students will be qualified enough to start pursuing their carrier independently as soon as they have got their certificate. Followed by a 2 year residency period and after its successful completion they are granted a certificate of specialty training in 5 recognised dental specialties. The permanent and compulsory continuing education for dentists is accomplished through a credit system.

Similarly, there is a high-quality and suitably organised training system for dental technicians. Trade and distribution of dental products is highly developed, too.

One more essential component for this success is that the treatments in Hungary are far the cheapest within the whole European Union since a traveller has only to pay one fifth to one tenth of the Union’s average costs. The reason why the prices in Hungary are low - compared to several Asian competitors - is not the poor quality. Patients surely find dental offices in Hungary with the most modern technology and newest materials, however, the dental team’s wages are low.

Dentistry as science has extraordinary demands for materials and instruments, so the rapid development of the neighbour-disciplines and supporting technologies has given a huge boost to the wide range of various dental therapies to date.

Finally, one more indispensable component among the conditions is the existence of an impressive international dental exhibition and fair. And there has been one for ten years. It was established in cooperation with outstanding partners such as the Dental Section of the Hungarian Medical Chamber and the Faculty of Dentistry of the Semmelweiss Medical University. Right at the beginning when it was established in 1997, Dental Press’s intention was to deal with the topical issues of the health care and, in particular, the dental profession that is why it has regularly organised specialist conferences and exhibitions to reach and inform as many participants as possible.

This thought marked the great meeting of the dental profession - Dental World International Conference and Fair which was organised in 2009 for the ninth time and traditionally hosted in the premises of Syma Hall again, like in every autumn.
Today, looking back on 2001 the start with 70 exhibitors and 2,500 visitors was rather a modest take-off. As a matter of fact, in 2001 there still worked only a few dental surgeries targeted at the foreigner clients.

In 2009, nearly 200 companies presented their products, materials, instruments and the most modern developments on a surface of 8,000 sqm with 164 stands in the Syma Hall which meanwhile doubled in size and became an imposing facility. During the 3 days, the number of the registered participants in the courses in 5 different rooms alone added up to 2,567 in total while the total attendance of the visitors reached almost 6,000.

Dental World is significantly more than a multitude of different dental exhibitions and fairs today. Let us just take a look at the daily events and the inextricable milling of the crowd on one exhibition day. Dentists, who participate in scientific programmes with available credit points, almost spill out of the large auditorium, apprentices arriving for the Day of the Trainees from every corner of the country look for free seats while a large group of young dental hygienists hurries towards their special symposium. The workshop rooms are heavily crowded by dental technicians.

On the stands, everything can be seen from the neat medical gowns to specialist books, cone beam CT and a series of live operations. Dentists and technicians are able to hold in their hands, try and, last but not least, buy everything that could be helpful for their job. Learning is not only in auditoriums possible since product presentations also attract the visitors on many stands.

Future prospects for the Hungarian Dentistry are really promising. The health industry was brought into the focus of attention; politicians see in it a future leading branch and they consider Dentistry and especially private care and dental tourism a possible model of reforms.

Experts forecast that the measurements in the taxation structure by the new Government relating small and middle-sized enterprises and the regained focus on the Széchenyi programme might lead the dental tourism onto a growth path in Hungary again. “Instead of doctors we must export services.” said the secretary in charge of health care for the Ministry of Human Resources, Mr. Réthelyi Miklós at a conference. What it means is that not the doctors (dentists) should go abroad but the patients should come here.

Some years ago, a legislative process was started in the European Union which is meant to deregulate trans-border health services. One of the main objectives of the forthcoming Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union is to pass this relevant act just within this period. If it comes true, many patients from Western-Europe will most likely decide to get the necessary treatments done on their insurance in Hungary. In a word, the constellation of the stars predicts further boom for the Hungarian Dentistry. Dental World entering its “teenager years” will obviously be playing a key role in this progress.