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Dental tourism, which is the most popular type of medical tourism in the world, is making its first steps in Greece. It affects one quarter of the people who travel in order to combine vacation with treatment.

Greece is becoming very attractive, both because of its tourism product and competitive prices for people who live in countries with extremely expensive dental services such as the UK, the USA and Russia. Data show that Greece is climbing slowly but steadily to a higher place in the world medical tourism ranking, and in particular - dental tourism.

In 2013, the country left the category of "other countries" and reached the 18th place. According to the annual report of the International Medical Tourism Organization, Greece is among the 15 countries which are expected to have greater development of their medical tourism in the next 5 years. "Greece has many advantages over countries which compete in terms of dental tourism," said director of Dental Holidays Stavros Maraveias for Ethnos newspaper, and added: "These are countries such as Turkey, Israel, Tunisia and Morocco, which, however, do not enjoy high scientific levels. On the other hand, from a tourist point of view, we are superior to countries such as Slovenia and Croatia."

A complete package

Maraveias is a dental technician and collaborates with dental specialists in Kefalonia for the provision of a complete package of holiday and dental services.

According to his explanation, 80% of visitors in Greece have their dentures and dental bridges there, because of the big difference in prices.

"Last summer, about 30 people from the USA came to Kefalonia. Future visitors send a dental panoramic radiograph, which is considered by dentists. We answer questions about what should be done and provide information about the price. If visitors also agree with the number of days which will be needed for the treatment, we arrange for their arrival," explained Maraveias.

Statistics show that every person who visits a country for dental tourism spends about 2,500-3,000 euro on treatment alone - these are visitors with a high social status, who may contribute to the rise of the tourist product.

Greece is starting to understand this, since besides Kefalonia, similar services are also being offered in Athens, Rhodes, Santorini, and Halkidiki.

An ideal destination

"Greece can become the Mecca of dental tourism. It is ideal because in most cases it is not necessary to have a subsequent treatment period. Therefore, upon leaving the dentist’s office the visitor can go directly to the beach. Furthermore, prices can be compared to those in Hungary. We are not an expensive country," said Mary Georga, who is responsible for South East Europe at the Treatment Abroad Organization.