Is Hungary the "dental capital of Europe"?

A recent visit to Budapest, the "dental capital of Europe" made me consider the perception of medical travel. Many people think that if you're travelling abroad for treatment because it is far cheaper, then the standard of services can in no way match what you would expect in your home market. Hungary's dental treatment providers provide a strong contradiction to this perception. I was speaking at the Business Travel Show in Budapest at a dedicated session on dental tourism, organised by the Association of Leading Hungarian Dental Clinics.

Aware of the number of new entrants into the dental tourism market, Hungarian dentists are keen to maintain their position as market leaders. They are also keen that the Hungarian government and tourism board take note of their success and provide support for the dental tourism sector.

Hungary was one of the first countries to exploit the healthcare needs of neighbouring countries and encourage patients to cross borders for treatment. It became common for German and Austrian patients to travel to Hungary for dental treatment in particular, and Hungarian dental clinics prospered in border villages and towns. When we launched Treatment Abroad five years ago, it was to some extent a response to requests from Hungarian dental clinics to increase their profile in the UK healthcare market. Having succeeded in attracting large numbers of German and Austrian patients, Hungarian clinics were spreading their wings and seeking to promote their expertise in other markets. Now, Hungarian dental clinics and services represent the largest segment of services on Treatment Abroad.

The Hungarian dental tourism market is one of the notable successes in the medical tourism market worldwide. In Budapest, the Association of Leading Hungarian Dental Clinics has been formed. The Association represents the interests of seven significant players in the dental tourism business:

• VitalCenter

• VitalEurope

• Bátorfi Dental Implant Clinic

• ImplantCenter

• Kreativ Dental

• Madenta

• Solydent

The Association has some clearly defined criteria for joining. For example:

• The practice must employ a minimum of ten dentists / oral surgeons.

• The practice must be equipped with a minimum of 5 modern dental medical operating units.

• The practice must place a minimum of 1,000 dental implants a year.

• The practice must provide digital intra-oral and panoramic X-ray.

• The practice must ensure that all practitioners work within industry recognized protocols, including clinical governance and undergo regular internal clinical audits and assessments.

See the full list of Association criteria at ALHDC Code of Practice.

The number of patients from overseas that are going through these seven clinics is staggering. Association members carry out around 75,000 treatment sessions per year. Around 60% of these are for dental tourists. The Implant Center alone inserts around 1,800 dental implants each year. Each clinic has multilingual staff and dedicated cars and drivers for transporting international patients.

Although established markets such as the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia provide the bulk of patients, new opportunities are developing in France, Italy and Russia. I visited three of the facilities - ImplantCenter, Kreativ Dental and Vital Europe. Each has a different approach to marketing its services. Whereas Vital Europe focuses on UK patients and provides both consultation and treatment facilities in London and Manchester, Kreativ relies on its overseas agents to convince patients of their quality of service and flies patients straight to Budapest without prior consultation. ImplantCenter has also dental office in Dublin and London.

The expertise and extent of dental services in each individual clinic is quite something. Each clinic has around eight to ten dentists employed by the clinic, some general dentists and some with areas of specialty such as implantology or orthodontics. All three clinics have extensive dental laboratories on site, owned and operated by the clinics themselves.

There are few private dental clinics in the UK that can match the set up of thes dental facilities in Budapest. The challenge for Hungary is how it maintains its lead in dental tourism. New competitors are entering the market, such as Croatia, Czech Republic and Slovakia, some at even lower prices than those in Hungary. The challenge for these new dental tourism competitors is how they match the standards of the "dental capital of the world".

Posted by Keith Pollard at 5:15 PM

After the bust, is dentistry about to boom?

There is a growing view that things are getting better. But the end of a recession is the most dangerous time. If it's true that recovery has started, this will be the time when more businesses than ever go bankrupt. It will also be the time when businesses invest too early and the economy dips again, or invest too late and fail to be capitalise on customers out there spending money. So, for anyone running a dental business what should you do? How do you ride this part of the rollercoaster?

Economic prospects

This recession has been truly dreadful. Only the fact that we have achieved such a high standard of living has meant that we haven't witnessed queues outside soup kitchens. We have said for a long time that we believe it will be a long grind and that will continue through into the recovery phase. It could have been even worse with a full-scale depression. At least that looks to have been avoided. So, is there going to be sustained economic growth in the UK? At this point the simple answer is nobody knows. It is dependent on too many factors. Our view is that there is going to be some growth, but it is likely to be patchy favouring some sectors. Hopefully, it will gain momentum.

At this point in an economic cycle anyone running a business needs to be monitoring what could derail growth or bring any recovery to a shuddering halt. The UK has amassed a massive debt recently that needs to be funded.  We can't just keep on spending. There are two obvious ways of doing this. Spend less by cutting government programmes and/or raise taxes. These options could prompt a further recessionary dip, which is why politicians are being so cagey (a looming election doesn't help either). Linked to this is the fact that interest rates will have to go up, 1.5% by the end of 2010 is an average prediction and 3% by the end of 2011. They could rise much faster if inflation takes off or it becomes difficult to attract global funds to fund the debt. If they do, we could be back in a recessionary spiral.

"In the future, demonstrating value is going to be even more important. Customer focused, brand driven organisations are going to be more successful than the introverted and product driven. Fluff and puff without substance is going to receive short shrift"

An enormous financial impetus has been pumped into the UK economy. It appears likely that to a great extent it has not had much effect so far.  When a government does something like this there is a big time-lag. It's like driving a super tanker. It takes ages to increase speed and as importantly it takes a long time to slow down. This investment in the economy may be too much and could provoke an inflationary spurt that then has to be damped down.

Finally, just in case you are feeling too euphoric at this point, when looking to the future there is another concern that needs to be borne in mind. The global interlinking of economies and the management of investments on formulaic criteria is making many fearful that far from being banished, 'boom and bust' could become a much more common part of our economy and the global economy.

Is there a future?

Yes there is. For those who are smart, energetic and focused on delivering value and service to their customers there is always a future and it could be quite rosy. After all you've survived the recession haven't you? Perhaps one of the best ways of understanding the future is to look at those businesses that aren't going to be sharing in that future with us. The dental market has had a tough time. From what we can see major surgical procedures and more general check ups are down, while lower priced, less invasive cosmetic procedures have remained popular and uptake may have increased. People have become more discretionary, making visits to the dentist more infrequently with the attitude 'you can defer it can't you?' This would suggest there is a role for a big campaign by the industry to demonstrate how important going to the dentist is.

The Losers

Quite a few businesses have left the market. In our view they went for a whole myriad of reasons that are often interconnected; they didn't have a real point of difference, they weren't delivering value that customers could see clearly, they weren't very committed and lost the will to keep going, they had spent too much money and were over indebted and they were late entrants to the market, intent on riding the crest of a perceived wave. Perhaps all obvious risks, but that is what recessions do. They weed out the weak from the determined. This has been going on in lots of markets. Businesses that don't really know why they are there and had little momentum in good times have been found out. Woolworths, Zavvi and Borders are obvious examples. Christian Lacroix recently went bankrupt.  One of the most extraordinary fashion designers who is revered by many, his business had never made money in any of the 22 years of its existence. When the financial backers went so did the business.  It's an extreme example, but it does illustrate what is happening.

There have been winners, too

Dominos Pizza, Primark and Premier Inns have all done well out of this recession as have insolvency practitioners. For the latter group, they are likely to be doing even better over the coming months. As I referred to at the beginning, more businesses go bust as a recession is coming to an end.  They have hung on and find they finally have to give up as people start to spend again - galling for those who have struggled to survive to see the Promised Land and as it appears they can't be part of it.

Winning in a recession can also mean higher margins and profits. Majestic Wine for example realised that because people were eating in more they might be prepared to pay more for a bottle of wine. They have been pushing their premium ranges and introduced a minimum six bottle purchase rather than 12. In the last six months its sales are up 13% and profits 9%. They thought about their customer and won. They are also likely to have won a new generation of loyal customers because people who make a positive decision to buy from you in a recession are more loyal in the longer term - they made a positive, considered choice.

You wouldn't want to be in packaged goods

In the packaged goods market times have been tough. Sara Lee, Colgate Palmolive and Kimberly-Clark have all reported revenues down. Unilever saw its profits fall 17% in its second quarter and Procter & Gamble produced an 18% fall in profits in its most recent three month reporting cycle. That's a fall in profits of $2.5 billion in a single quarter. In the midst of all this red one company, Reckitt Benckiser, has been doing rather well. In the last quarter its sales were up 8% and profits 14%.

Unlike its competitors, Reckitt Benckiser has a very shallow hierarchy. It aims to have a new product on the shelf in nine months, three months quicker than its main competitors. It increased expenditure on marketing by 25% as the recession took hold and maintained it. While taking pains to cater to all budgets it has been busy introducing premium products and increasing prices, while its competitors have been doing the opposite. Not only is Reckitt Benckiser having a good recession, it is going to be in a very good place in the market and with its customers when the recovery finally comes.

How's the customer?

Well, they've changed and they haven't. They still believe they will return to the standard of living and level of relaxed expenditure they were enjoying before they had to put their hair shirts on. They still like brands, celebrity and glamour and they still want to be made to feel special. It's going to be with a bit more reality, though.

For everyone, this recession has been shocking and made people re-evaluate what is important to them and their families. It has changed the way we buy things forever. Perhaps most obviously, access to credit is going to be more limited and more expensive and many more people will be positively avoiding debt.

In the future, demonstrating value is going to be even more important. Customer focused, brand driven organisations are going to be more successful than the introverted and product driven. Fluff and puff without substance is going to receive short shrift. Increasing cynicism means personal recommendation is taking precedence over anything a company might promote. Companies are going to have to combat this with greater attention to corporate citizenship - it will motivate customers the team and suppliers.

The internet is hugely powerful and has proven its worth in this recession. People rely on it more than ever to find the value they want.  Over the last 18 months we have all been doing a lot more experimenting and found different ways to run our lives from the middle class family found in Aldi to the phenomenon of eBay.

Author

Roddy Kemp

Claritysmc.com

Source: dentistry.co.uk