With virtual parity between the euro and sterling, dentists in Northern Ireland are reporting a rapid increase in patients from the Republic, who are making huge savings on treatment
THEY CALL IT the “pain train”, the 7.30am express from Connolly Station in Dublin to Belfast Central. Among the dark-suited business community muttering into their mobile phones and tapping away at their laptops are a band of equally determined passengers: the dental patients.
One is sixty-year-old Barry Kiersey, from Maynooth in Co Kildare, who decided to go North because he couldn’t afford to have his dental treatment done in Dublin. He was quoted €35,000 for a large amount of work, including a number of implants. So he got a quote from Cavehill Dental Care in Belfast, which came in at £12,500.
“In my case, it is costing me around one-third of what I was quoted in Dublin,” he says. “I am having five implants, four root-canal treatments and other work done. It will be completed by Easter and I am looking forward to being able to smile again with confidence – and, of course, the thought of being able to eat a steak once more and bite into an apple is keeping me going.”
Dentist Martin MacAllister, of Cavehill Dental Care, has seen a huge increase in the number of patients from the South in recent months, something which he says reflects the slide of sterling against the euro.
“Cavehill has been operating for more than 40 years and we always had a trickle of patients from the South because my old boss did rally driving throughout Ireland and friends and colleagues of his always came up,” says MacAllister, who employs six full-time dentists. “In the last decade, the volume of Southern patients has continued to grow each year. It now represents a substantial part of our business. Within the last six months we are receiving about 12 new inquiries per day, which translates into about 30 new patients per week.”
He adds that the type of patient who travels up North for dental work is, typically, highly motivated and knows what they need done. They come for both the prices and the quality of work. The majority will have done research on the internet and will make their first inquiry by e-mail.
Most patients who come to us from the South are very well-informed and have already been to see a dentist down South,” he says. “Usually they have been given a quotation. They are looking for high-end work, such as dental implants, crowns, veneers and root canal treatments at prices they can afford. I don’t think it is an exaggeration to say that quite regularly we can deliver the work they want at up to 50 per cent less than they have been quoted in the South. We also get parents who want orthodontic services for their children, but find they get better value with us.”
CAVEHILL ATTRACTS people from all walks of life, including famous faces from RTÉ and even two TDs. It has a state-of-the-art surgery and is located 10 minutes from the train station, from where a free pick-up service is provided.
"Today we have the technology to ensure that you don't need to lose your teeth," MacAllister says. "Implantology has changed dentistry for ever. If you lose a tooth, we can replace it. If you chip or break a tooth, we can crown it. And if you want a more perfect smile, we can apply veneers. And people dowant it. It makes them feel better and look better, and gives them a better quality of life."
Joe Scullion, of the Finaghy Dental Practice in south Belfast, says the fact that his surgery is located just off the motorway has attracted patients who like to drive the 90-minute journey and pop into Ikea on the way home.
He reckons that, within the last six months, Finaghy is treating 20 per cent more patients from the South due to the drop in the value of sterling.
“In my experience, the Southern customers are canny customers who are price- and quality-conscious,” he says. “They want the work done to a high standard, they don’t want to pay over the odds and they want it to be a time-efficient experience. We schedule the work so that it can be achieved with the minimum number of visits. Also, I think that those patients who travel to us like the reassurance that we are only 90 minutes away if they ever have a problem.”
Scullion says he finds it humbling that someone will drive from Co Tipperary to his surgery. “We don’t take their custom lightly. It always strikes me that they drive past a lot of dentists to reach us. We provide the same top-quality service as our colleagues in the South, but there is no doubt that we can do it more cheaply. In fact, I know that many use our high-quality laboratories in the North anyhow.”
In Dublin, Thomas Linehan advertises his clinic in Seapoint in Blackrock in the Golden Pages. His practice and Cavehill advertise that they specialise in high-end aesthetic dentistry and both have websites. Linehan says that there are no regulations on dental pricing in the South and that he has no problem with patients shopping around for better value.
“There is no question that we have higher overheads in the South, and often our laboratory costs are considerably greater,” he says. “There are NHS labs that some Northern Irish dentists use that would not deliver the sort of quality that we deliver as a matter of course. I have no issue with patients who choose to go North or anywhere else for dental work.”
HUGH BYRNE, OF the Dalkey Clinic in Dalkey village, says that dentistry is a rapidly changing business, delivering 21st-century technology to an increasingly better-informed patient.
“When I trained in London there were three types of patient: the NHS fixed-price patient, the independent or semi-private patient, and the private,” he says. “The lab gave the dentist three different prices for what were, in effect, three very different grades of the same product.
“To my mind, you get what you pay for in dentistry as in everything else. You can buy a pair of trousers for, say, €20 and you go into Louis Copeland and the price will be significantly more. Yes, they are both trousers, but there is a world of difference between the products.”
Byrne adds: “We have people coming in to us all the time asking for a Hollywood smile. Most don’t understand the technical aspects of achieving this, so it takes time to explain how it all works. An implant is a three-part process that takes place over a period of months, and four visits are required to fit a veneer.”
Byrne says several factors account for the price difference between North and South including higher salary scales, higher indemnity costs, and higher lab cots. For example, he uses high- quality Swedish laboratories for porcelain crowns. But while cost is a factor, it is not the only one.
“Personally, I think that some of these extreme-makeover television shows can influence people to do drastic things,” he says. “I know patients who have gone to eastern Europe for veneers that don’t last. Veneers should last for 10 years, but some of these will last for just three years. I feel that you get what you pay for.
“I am not saying that dentists in the North of Ireland are bad dentists. They are not. But their fixed costs are considerably lower than ours. The thing I do have a problem with is treating dentistry merely as a commodity to be purchased. To me, dentistry is about health as well as aesthetics and I think that building a good relationship with your dentist on an ongoing basis is a desirable thing for the patient.”.
Interestingly, patients qualify for tax relief on their dental work whether it is carried out North or South.
Ray Gordon, spokesperson for the Irish Dental Association says people have a right to go North if they so choose. “But we would advise them to make sure that they are actually comparing like with like in terms of both materials used and procedures followed.
Pricy gap: dentists North and South
Cavehill Dental Care, Belfast
Consultation fee:none
Implant:£2,000
Crown:£500
Root canal:£250-£550
Veneer:£450 per tooth
Finaghy Dental Practice, Belfast
Consultation fee:none
Implant:£1,750
Crown:£400
Root canal:£200+
Veneer:£300-400 per tooth
Dalkey Clinic,
Dalkey, Co Dublin
Consultation fee:€65 (initial charge)
Implant:€3,000
Crown:€750-€1,250
Root canal:€250-750
Veneer:€500-€975 per tooth
Seapoint Clinic, Blackrock, Dublin
Consultation fee:€120
Single Implant:€2,500. For multiple implants €1,900 each
Crown:€600-€1,200
Root canal:€400-€1,000
Veneer:€1,100- €1,200 per tooth
