Dental care a medical tourism lure

One of the major players in medical tourism is dental health care."The Philippines has the best expertise and facilities in oral health care," said Dr. Joseph D. Lim, president of Dr. Smile Dental Care Center. "Filipino dentists are trained in excellent dental schools here and abroad and many undergo specialized training in prestigious universities all over the world."This is why, he told Malaya Business Insight, "many Filipinos who have migrated abroad include dental check-ups and treatment while in their balikbayan visits here."In recent years, he said, foreigners have increasingly included oral health care in their itineraries.This is true especially regarding dental implants, a specialized procedure that is very expensive in North America and Europe, said Lim, a diplomate in oral implantology and adviser to the Philippine College of Oral Implantologists which he helped organize."Foreigners prefer Philippine dentists because the procedures here are very affordable, especially with simple treatments like tooth extractions, implants and braces," he pointed out. "They return home satisfied with the procedures as well as the clinical environment in which these procedures were performed."Lim is the steward behind the changing face of oral health care in the Philippines with the opening this year of Dr. Smile Dental Care Center. Of the nearly 50 personnel, 41 are dentists, 18 of them prominent specialists who are among the Who’s Who in Philippine dentistry.Dr. Smile is not what you would traditionally think of as a dental clinic. It specializes in cutting-edge technology in a setting that is the largest and most advanced, state-of-the-art dental center in the country."It is at par, even better, than the best in Asia and the world," said Lim.Stepping into Dr. Smile is like entering a new dimension in dental health care. It has the facilities and equipment that are normally found in tertiary levels of health care.It has gone to extremes, even constructing a water treatment facility and installing high technology air compressors from Metasys of Austria that produce completely dry and oil-free air. Its sophisticated centralized suction system even comes with several amalgam separators to protect its patients, staff and the environment."In any dental procedure, besides rinsing, it is inevitable that air, water, separately or combined, will always be introduced into the patient’s mouth," Lim explained. "We want to make sure that both these air and water are pure and clean. And we spare no efforts in doing so."At Dr. Smile, cases are discussed by specialists in all aspects of dentistry to custom-fit treatment and oral care to individual patients, providing diagnoses and procedures based on the best and most up-to-date, computerized equipment.All procedures are done in 15 ultra-modern treatment rooms with brightly colored decors, floor to ceiling glass panels. All non-glass areas are painted with antibacterial paint for maximum infection control.Each room is self contained and is equipped with the latest ergonomically designed dental chairs from Ritter, Germany, a prestigious 122-year-old company. Each dental chair comes with intra-oral cameras or mini-cameras that enable patients to see the state of his or her oral health on a monitor.Every treatment room is fitted with connection ducts for iPods and music devices, all by Bose, to plug your own MP3s or listen to in-house sounds. Dentist and assistant have their own touch pad controls.The operating room, with its adjacent recovery room, comes complete with ECG machine, cardiac monitor, pulse meter and oxygen tanks. It has a unique and powerful mini-camera that allows doctors and staff to view the oral cavity at different angles, many of which cannot be seen by ordinary mirrors. This helps the operating team perform any procedure better, faster and with better coordination.A first in the country is Dr. Smile’s Waterlase MD Turbo, reputedly the most expensive and definitely the most advanced dental laser made by US-based Biolase."Dental lasers are an entirely new category in dental treatment and has changed many concepts of traditional dental care," said Lim. "It is really cutting edge with an application in all aspects of dentistry."The three types of dental lasers at Dr. Smile include the famous EZlase and the popular portable iLase regularly used in tooth whitening, cavity preparation, dental implants, sinus lifts, tumor excision, removal of tartar, gum disease, root canal treatment, oral surgery, orthodontics, TMJ pain, gum depigmentation, smile line correction, crown lengthening, cold sore and many other procedures.Laser, Lim said, is a beam of concentrated light energy that can initiate biostimulation, cut, cauterize and disinfect. This is different from light coming from a halogen or LED source which is commonly used in the light curing of dental composite filling materials.The Waterlase MD Turbo is unique because unlike most lasers, it can cut both hard and soft tissues. It can cut faster than a dental drill but without the noise and associated pain.Since only a gentle spray of water touches the tooth in removing tooth decay, there is almost never any pain felt at all. This same cutting action and coagulating capabilities result in significantly reduced bleeding, less trauma and therefore, less swelling, risk of infections, faster healing. The need for antibiotics and pain medication is often unnecessary."With lasers, not using anesthesia also allow the dentists in a single appointment to perform procedures that used to require more than one visit, a very viable alternative to needles and drills," said Lim. "It is fast, safe and is a very comfortable, relaxing experience especially for children and very affordable."Another first at Dr. Smile is the Galileos Comfort 3D Dental CT Scan. This top- of the-line equipment from Sirona of Germany does away with laborious and multiple X-rays.It uses no films and is able to do 14 three-dimensional views, all in one scan designed specifically for dentistry. It is faster, and thus exposes a patient to a lot less radiation.Still another first is the the Cerec Computer-Aided Design/Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) System. In Southeast Asia, this complete system is available in only two countries.The world renowned Cerec system, also from Sirona, is able to scan and "capture" the images of a tooth or an entire jaw arch quickly – in about one minute. This is made possible by the latest Cerec Bluecam model which is placed directly over the tooth to take a quick optical impression.The images can be accessed and immediately on a monitor by the dentist and the patient. More remarkable, the collected data is then fed to a computer and passed on to a milling machine which then fabricates either a crown, inlay, onlay or veneer in as short as 10 minutes.All these are done without the patient leaving the dental chair. The entire treatment is completed on the same appointment and on the same day.

Source:Malaya Business Insight