reesesWeb

Kat had a weird pain in her tooth that throbbed in time with her step while she was walking around. She made an emergency appointment with the dentist (only because I kept insisting), and went in for an exam, complete with panoramic x-rays. The dentist was an american dentist living in Budapest, not some former Soviet bloc guy asking,"Is it safe?" while drilling into her incisors, never diagnosing her sinus infection as the cause.

Anyway, that little snippet above is from my recent Amex statement. Unadjusted by insurance.

In the past few years, Budapest has become quite the destination for dental holidays. The prices are miniscule compared to procedures in the west, many of the dentists are western-trained, and if you live in Europe, the travel and lodging to get to Budapest are much less expensive than the procedures at home, so you get a free vacation to dirty Hungary on top of it. With decent American insurance, it's much less compelling, especially if the airfare is relatively expensive, as it is from the US to Budapest. Then again, if you're planning a trip to Hungary anyway, and you have some expensive procedure to go through, you might as well hit the dentist on your last day and sleep off the return flight with a bottle of percoset. Can you tell I'm not a doctor? If not, don't intentionally go flying around with serious, recent oral trauma upon my recommendation. Take a couple extra sick days instead, and fly back later.

Of course, with an influx of cash like this, opportunisim abounds, and even hotels are getting into the act, with on-site dental surgeries and package deals including dental exams.

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