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Deflated charges at the blow-up dental surgery: Travelling Hungarians offer half-price treatment in the UK

Last updated at 09:36am on 03.09.08

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The first inflatable dentist surgery is set to tour Britain undercutting the hefty prices charged by private dentists.

Hungarian practitioners using the latest equipment will offer treatments for half the price of their UK counterparts.

Such is the team’s confidence, they believe the whistle-stop tour of major towns and cities will attract thousands of patients who have been unable to register with an NHS dentist or cannot afford to travel abroad for treatment.

Enlarge tent

The inflatable dental surgery where a team of Hungarian dentists are preparing to tour the UK

Around 40,000 ‘dental tourists’ each year travel to Hungary, Poland, Turkey and Bulgaria, and even as far afield as India and Thailand, to take advantage of the low-cost, high-quality treatment available there.

Most dental treatments in Hungary cost as little as a third of the average price charged by private dentists in the UK.

The mobile surgery will initially offer a full consultation with X-rays and advice from five Hungarian dentists registered with the General Dental Council.

Chris Hall, managing director of Hungarian Dental Travel, said: ‘The dentists will carry out a full examination and then advise the patients on what treatment they require and organise a price plan for them.’

dentists

Hygiene and safety standards will be exactly the same as at a more orthodox surgery, he added.

It will travel around England and Scotland, stopping off in Glasgow, London, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Lincoln and Stockport.

Mr Hall, 38, said: ‘Hungary has become the dentistry capital of the world and treatment is still a great deal cheaper there than in the UK.

‘We get a lot of people coming to us who cannot afford to pay for treatments in Britain or who aren’t happy with the standard of care.

‘The mobile surgery means patients can find out what treatment they will need and what the likely cost will be.’

The standard of the treatment carried out by the dentists was comparable to some of the top Harley Street practitioners, Mr Hall added.

inflatable

The surgery will be touring the UK

‘We only use the highest grade materials when we are dealing with our patients that cost an arm and a leg for patients in the UK,’ he said.

‘We often have people come to us who say they have been quoted prices of around £25,000 and we are able to provide the same treatment to the same, if not higher, standards for around £7, 500.’

Hungarian Dental-Travel, which was set up in Aubourn, near Lincoln, four and a half years ago, takes more than 20 patients to Hungary each month.

However, it expects an explosion in numbers in the coming months.

The inflatable surgery, which took a year to develop, is also equipped with an X-ray gun and shield, never before used in the UK.

The dental market is still reeling from major reforms made to it in the past few years.

In 2006, the Government introduced contracts for NHS dentists, claiming they would improve access to treatment.

However, the deal was so unpopular that a tenth of dentists refused to sign it, and left the NHS for the more lucrative private market.

The latest figures for England released last month show that 27 million – 53.3 per cent of the population – were seen by an NHS dentist in the past two years – 1.1million down on those seen before the contracts were introduced.


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I am an expat from London living in Vienna, Austria - 1 hour's drive from the Hungarian border.

Four years ago I decided to visit a Hungarian dentist to have 40 years of dental malpractice at the hands of the NHS repaired. The numerous amalgam fillings that I had received from an overzealous and incompetent NHS dentist as a child were promptly replaced with ceramic inlays and a new bridge fitted at an absolute fraction of the price it would have cost me anywhere in the UK.

I am absolutely satisfied and can unreservedly recommend the Hungarian dental industry! The treatment was extremely friendly, professional, absolutely painless and I also received a 5 year guarantee on the work carried out.

- Bob, Vienna, Austria

I assume that before they are allowed to practise that each dentist will need to have their qualifications approved? If not what is to stop anyone setting themselves up as a dentist and undercutting even these prices?

- Patrick Griffin, Dalston, London


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