The main reason for which many people decide to have a medical treatment done abroad (i.e. Medical Tourism) is most certainly to find the needed treatment for a much lower price. The fact that the same treatment can have drastically different cost in various countries isn’t news, especially when comparing western and eastern countries. But by how much could Western Europeans save on medical services should they decide to have them done in Croatia? To be able to give an accurate and objective answer to that question we have done an extensive study on dental treatment cost in United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and the neighbouring Slovenia that we compare with the prices or CroMedicor partners in Croatia. The survey has shown some expected results, but we were still surprised to find out that for certain treatments dental clinics in the aforementioned EU countries (the UK particularly) may charge more than three times as much as renown dentists in Croatia.
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Before we present detailed results of our study we should take a bit of time to discuss another key factor when deciding to undertake a medical treatment abroad – quality of service. Low price of a treatment which is performed with outdated equipment by insufficiently trained medical staff in a hygienically questionable environment cannot in any case be considered a good deal. There have been far too many horror stories about negligent doctors, infections after surgery and otherwise poorly performed medical treatments that cast an ugly shadow on the business of medical tourism. It is our strongest opinion that the quality of treatment one wishes to undertake abroad for a lower price should be at least as good as in their home country, but preferably even better.
Since Croatia is, by its historical and cultural heritage, a part of Western Europe so are the private health clinics in Croatia of the highest professional standard and are equipped with the best medical equipment available. Croatian specialist doctors are exceptionally well trained and regularly attend all relevant medical conferences. For that reason we can confidently and proudly claim that all doctors, clinics and services provided by the CroMedicor platform are of the highest quality and we guarantee that every patient will receive medical service of the highest European standards.
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In order to get an objective and relevant comparison of prices in the selected countries, but which would not be too detailed and cluttered with data, we have decided to focus our investigation on just a couple of most popular dental treatments. They are: ceramic crowns, zirconia crowns, implants, veneers, dentures and teeth whitening. Although there are a few similar studies publicly available (1, 2, 3, 4), they are all several year outdated so we took a survey by contacting up to 10 dental clinics in the U.K., Germany, Italy and Slovenia and noted their prices of individual treatments.
As the above table clearly shows, dental prices are much more affordable in Croatia than in other countries. United Kingdom is convincingly tops the chart as the country with most expencive dentist prices, followed by Italy, and to our great surprise the neighbouring Slovenia whose average dental prices are almost double of those in Croatia. As for Germany, we have expected to find similar prices as in the U.K., but our research shows that Germany’s average dental prices are amongst the lowest in the EU, but still considerably more than in Croatia.
It is quite clear that high standard of living comes with a high price of all commodities and services. That is especially demonstrated with the high prices of medical services in the U.K. So it is not surprising that we at CroMedicor also noted an increasing interest for our services from the U.K. as thy can save more than 70% by booking a treatment in Croatia. With such high savings, patients from the U.K. can strike a good deal even for smaller procedures. Medical tourism in Croatia is even more convenient if the medical service is combined with a delightful vacation, as that splits the cost of traveling between vacation and medical treatment making both more affordable.
Italian citizens can also count on significant savings if they decide to take a short trip across the Adriatic and visit a dentist in Croatia. Most Italians, which are frequent tourists in Croatia, probably aren’t even aware that between sunbathing on our beautiful beaches and exploring small medieval towns they can get a top-notch medical treatment for half the price they would pay in Italy. It is an additional advantage that most dentists in Istria and Dalmatia speak fluent Italian, as a significant number of them have had their degrees at Italian universities.
We were quite surprised by high prices of dental services in neighbouring Slovenia. For a brisk two hour drive to Zagreb, citizens of Ljubljana can get an equally good dental service for half the price they would pay at home. Slovenians have an additional advantage as they don’t need to book accommodation in Croatia as they can go home right after the treatment. Of course, the whole experience will be much better if one would take the time to visit the mesmerising Plitvice lakes or take a tour of Zagreb. The cost of the whole trip with a professional dental treatment would still cost less than if the same treatment had been done in Slovenia.
Tourists from Germany are the most numerous visitors in the summer season and they can certainly appreciate the benefit of booking inexpensive medical exams and treatments while traveling to the Croatian seaside. Although dental prices in Germany are lower than in Italy and the U.K., if they wold decide to have the treatment in Croatia Germans can expect to save from 30% to 50% of the total cost. That is not at all an insignificant amount, especially when doing more costly treatments such as implants, dentures or veneer for which one can save up to 300 EUR compared to prices in Germany.
To illustrate the amount of savings you can achieve we have prepared the following table. As you can see, by having a dental treatment done in Croatia people from EU countries can save from 20% up to 73%.
We can conclude that medical tourism in Croatia can be highly cost effective for citizens of West-European countries. For half of their expected price they can get a highest quality medical service. And the money they save up can be best spent by taking a relaxing vacation along the way, which would certainly contribute to a faster recovery after the treatment.
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