In recent years, dental tourism has become particularly relevant for dentists and patients. In the current study an attempt was made to find out why patients from a specific region travel to Germany for dental care.
In five different clinics in Germany, close to the Swiss (CH)/German (D) border area, 274 women and 236 men ranging in age from five to 94, who had visited a German clinic at least once, were asked about the reasons for their visit. With the help of a questionnaire, data concerning socio-demographic features and patient behavior were collected. Residents of CH took on longer travel distances, some of them even more than 50 km (9,7%) compared to German residents. For this group of patients the newest technical equipment of the visited dental facility was a significant factor in their willingness to travel such distances (p<0,001), while residents of D preferred cost-effective treatment (p<0,05). Almost all patients living in CH (95,6%) confirmed that receiving dental care in Germany is cheaper and that other family members also journeyed to Germany for dental treatment (65,0%).
