CHICAGO (PRWEB)
February 04, 2023

The number of patients seeking medical/dental care abroad, a practice called “medical tourism,” has grown dramatically in recent decades, to an over $100 billion market-value annually. Historically, the direction of travel for medical care was from less-developed to wealthier nations, but that trend has reversed: patients from wealthy nations with high healthcare costs, including the USA, are now seeking discounted health services in lower-income countries, and facilities in these destinations have expanded to meet the demand. As elective procedures with often out-of-pocket costs, aesthetic surgeries are particularly disposed to medical tourism, and an entire subset of the industry has developed specifically to support cosmetic surgery tourism, affecting not only patients but also US physicians and Dental surgeons.

As consumers, we all love a great “deal” right? says Dr. Atcha. But “great deals” sometimes seem to good to be true. Many medical/dental tourists may receive receive reasonable care, but issues of safety and quality can loom large. Substandard surgical care, poor infection control, inadequate screening of blood products, and falsified or outdated medications in lower income settings of care can pose greater risks than patients would face at home. In fact, there is an old saying when it comes to deals. “If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is,‟ says Atcha.

Patients who choose to fly to an unfamiliar environment for cheaper care are often looking to save money, however, some people seek treatments that are either unavailable or not approved for use in the United States. So why do some patients take the risk? The answer is usually one of the following factors. The patient is looking for cheaper medical care, the patient shares the same language/culture as the foreign destination or the patient wants a surgery that is not approved for use in the US but will get it due to cheap cost.

Medical findings have shown a number of risks associated with medical/dental tourism to destinations such as Mexico, costa Rica, Turkey, Dubai, India and other far east countries includes: Antibiotic-resistant infections such as MRS, unknown blood supplies used during surgery, bloodborne infections and bacterial infections due to unsanitary condition and infection from foreign and waterborne bacteria to which the patient has not developed immunity states Dr. Atcha

In dental surgery when we are seeing these cases Atcha asks, “If it’s a country you wouldn’t drink the water in why would you think of having a medical/dental procedure done there?” Fortunately, no one dies when dental work collapses. However, it is a near 100% guarantee that following the collapse, the work necessary to reconstruct the dentistry correctly will be 2-4X what the original cost to properly engineer your dentistry would have been by a dentist who understands these issues related to the engineering side of your dental work. In addition, it’s not unusual for the cost to not only be far higher but the amount of time to re-treat the situation to be far longer than it would have taken original. “We have to revise and retreat these patients who had full mouth dental implants done and they are all failing and are not placed with the proper surgical skill and have poor esthetic outcomes as well,” states Atcha

For over 26 years Dr. Irfan Atcha maintains a private dental practice with emphasis on Dental Implants placement and restoration and Cosmetic Dentistry in Chicago IL call New Teeth Chicago Dental Implants. He attended the University of Illinois and graduated with a D.D.S. (Doctor of Dental Surgery). He has completed extensive post-graduate training in Dental implants surgical and prosthetic components. He also has extensive training in Advanced Sedation and Anesthesia techniques for his patients comfort to rescue the dentally disabled and the disastrous. He has completed over thousands of advanced post graduate CE hours in Implants, Sedation and Cosmetic Dentistry to stay on the cutting edge techniques. He also is a Diplomate of the International Congress of Oral Implantologists (ICOI), Diplomate of International Dental Implant Association, member of Academy of Osseointegration and has presented his cases locally and internationally in dental implant meetings. Dr. Atcha can be found on the web at http://www.newteethchicago.com. Dr. Atcha also has active dental licenses in state of FL and CA as well. Patients travel form all over the US for complex full mouth dental implants surgical and cosmetic reconstruction to restore health, function, esthetics and quality of life.

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