Managing Dental Tourism in India: Let’s Collaborate to bring more Smiles

Abstract

Dental tourism is patient movement from highly developed nations to other areas of the world for dental care, usually to find treatment at a lower cost. Dental tourism is different from the traditional model of international dental travel where patients generally journey from less developed nations to major dental centres in highly developed countries for dental treatment that is unavailable in their own communities. India stands out to be one of the leading destinations providing health care services along with other developing nations. While some patients benefit immensely from this industry, others are subjected to a number of complications and illegal practices. However, despite the conflict of opinions, this industry is continuing to grow and is major source of income from some developing nations. This study tries to get an overview of the dental tourism in India. This study explains why India has emerged as destination for dental tourism. It also explores challenges and competitive advantages and future outlook of dental tourism in India. This study also tries to understand why developing country like India is more successful in promoting dental tourism than others. The aim of this review is to highlight reasons for the emergence of dental tourism, the scope of dental tourism, in India as well as the possible complications associated while managing the same. This study was commissioned to investigate problems and challenges faced by dental tourists visiting India within the framework defined by its specific objectives.