Gassan Yücel, Head of the Antalya Branch of the Chamber of Dentists, stated that patients from all over the world come to Turkey for dental treatment and that there is a great interest in Antalya in dental tourism.
Gassan Yücel reminded that health tourism has been carried out in Turkey for years and that the Ministry of Health issued a regulation in 2017 under the name of 'health tourism and tourist health'. Indicating that dental tourism has an important place in health tourism, Yücel said that patients come from all over the world for treatment, and they mostly apply for an implant and cosmetic treatments.
Number of Dentists Doubled in the City
Explaining that dental tourism is intense in Antalya, Yücel said, "As the patients adapt to the climate here more easily, the ease of travelling by direct flight, the excess in the number of hotels and the service in the clinics, Antalya has become a very attractive dental tourism center. "We are trying to ensure that dental tourism, which is very popular, is of sustainable high quality. The number of dental polyclinics in Antalya has increased from 100 to 350 in a short time. We are working with the number of members from 1000 to 1850-1900," he said.
High Quality at Affordable Numbers
Gassan Yücel, describing the applications, said, "Patients come here with a little more aesthetic expectation under the name of removing missing teeth, functional purposes or cosmetic, smile design. They come here 1-2 times or 3 times and stay for a week, 10, 15 days each. They get their treatment and go. They can get similar treatments in the countries they come from, but they prefer this place because they can get similar or high-quality treatments in Turkey with slightly more affordable numbers," he said.
Great Interest to Antalya
Emphasizing the importance of the city in dental tourism, Gassan Yücel said, "Antalya stands out especially in dental tourism due to the ease of transportation and the high quality of service here. With the increase in Antalya's awareness, there has been a great demand in the city. Therefore, dentists in Istanbul come to Antalya when they see this demand. It is trying to serve more institutionally by opening a clinic," he said.
Saying that patients come from all over the world for dental tourism, Yücel said, "They mostly come from European countries. They come from countries such as France, Belgium and especially England. We also have patients coming from the USA, Canada, Australia and South Africa."
Most Implant and Smile Aesthetic Treatment
Explaining the treatment most preferred by the patients, Yücel said, "Implant treatment is generally very costly treatment in European and American countries. Most of the patients prefer implants in Turkey. Most of them accept patients to make up for their deficiency. Recently, expectations regarding smile design or cosmetics. Some patients come because of the education we have received. We are not in favour of touching the healthy tooth much due to the education we received, but such awareness has arisen in young patients who come from abroad. They want their healthy teeth to be cut and white and shiny teeth. "We are trying to do this, but there is a slight shift in this direction. They started to prefer Turkey for smile design," he said. (Aslı Duran- DHA)
