Madam, – Your feature of February 10th on “dental tourism”does a disservice to dentistry in Ireland by making a general point about price differentials between North and South on the basis of a survey of as few as four practices. In doing so, it feeds a damaging perception that dentists in the South are overcharging patients across the board.
While there are cases where dental treatment in the North may be cheaper, that is not always the case. For routine treatments our members find that prices are very similar in both markets. Moreover, simplified description of complex treatments often makes fair comparisons difficult.
The article also failed to ask why dental procedures can sometimes be more expensive in the Republic. There was no mention, for example, of the chronic underfunding of dental services by the State or the higher employment, property and utility costs for dentists in the Republic.
One should take extreme care when purchasing health services. The surgeries of my members are full of patients who received more treatment than they ever expected (or wanted!) when they went out of the jurisdiction or who now need remedial treatment at home to correct the apparently cheaper treatment they received abroad.
My advice is simple. You’re going to have a relationship with your teeth for a very long time. You should also aim to have a long relationship with the dentist who monitors their health and your general oral hygiene. – Yours, etc,