Clinical Insights

Dental Tourism: A Balanced Look at the Biggest Trend in Dentistry

Dr Max Ganhewa BDS · Dental on Flinders

March 2026 10 min read

Dental tourism is one of the fastest growing segments, not just in dentistry but global healthcare. Australians fly to Thailand. Brits fly to Turkey. Americans cross into Mexico. The pattern is the same everywhere: patients in high-cost countries seeking dental work in low-cost countries, often combining treatment with a holiday.

The global dental tourism market was valued at roughly US$8 to 12 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow at over 20% annually (Grand View Research, 2025; Precedence Research, 2025). Thailand alone attracts over 970,000 dental tourists per year (Persistence Market Research, 2025). Over 550,000 Americans travelled to Mexico for dental procedures in 2024. In Australia, up to 15,000 people travel overseas annually for medical and dental procedures, spending up to A$300 million (University of Sydney / Dr Alexander Holden, 2018). Social media, particularly TikTok and the #TurkeyTeeth hashtag, has accelerated this significantly.

Why People Do It

The drivers are legitimate.

Dental care is expensive. In Australia, around half the population lacks private dental insurance. A single implant can cost $5,000 or more. A full-mouth reconstruction can run into the tens of thousands. The same work in Thailand or Turkey might cost 50 to 80% less. When you are facing a $30,000 treatment plan without coverage, a dental holiday at a third of the price is not an irrational decision.

Even those with private health insurance are often locked out of major work. Most extras policies cap dental benefits at around $1,000 to $1,500 per year, with major dental sub-limits often as low as $200 to $400. A single crown costs around $1,600 at the median (AIHW, 2024), so the insurance barely covers one procedure, let alone a complex treatment plan. Nearly 1 in 5 people with private health insurance still report avoiding or delaying dental care due to cost (AIHW, 2024).

Access is also a factor. Wait times for public dental care in Australia and the UK can be measured in years. Not all dental tourism ends badly, and there are skilled clinicians in every country. But the question is whether patients can reliably identify them before committing.

What the Evidence Says About Risk

The problem is not that every experience goes wrong. It is what happens when it does.

A 2025 study in the British Dental Journal found that 86% of surveyed UK dentists had treated patients suffering consequences from treatment abroad, with crowns and implants the most at-risk procedures. Remedial costs ranged from £500 to over £5,000. A case series in the Australian Dental Journal (Barrowman et al., 2010) documented implant tourism complications in Australia, highlighting the lack of accountability when things go wrong overseas. The FDI World Dental Federation’s 2025 report noted that while 95% of countries have laws against unregistered dental practice, only 49% of national dental associations believe those laws are effectively enforced.

My Main Concerns

The Balanced View

Dental tourism exists because domestic dental care is too expensive for too many people. That is a systemic failure, not a patient failure.

Fixing that system means the profession focusing relentlessly on non-invasive prevention from a young age: diet, oral hygiene, fluoride, and regular monitoring. It means better education around schemes that already exist. Australia’s Child Dental Benefits Schedule provides up to $1,095 over two years for eligible children, yet utilisation sits at roughly 35%. It means more public awareness of what poor oral health actually leads to: preventable hospitalisations — one of the most common reasons for preventable hospital admissions in Australia — and growing evidence linking chronic oral disease to cardiovascular disease, dementia, and Alzheimer’s. And it means more federal investment in public dental services. If governments invested in prevention and access at the front end, the need for dental tourism would shrink.

I have also seen excellent work come back from overseas. It exists. The issue is that patients have no reliable way to distinguish excellent from catastrophic before they commit, and once they commit, the tooth structure is gone.

My Advice

I should be transparent. I would not travel overseas for dental work. But I am writing from a privileged position. I know hundreds of colleagues who would likely do work for me at cost or pro bono. Most people do not have that network. So while my personal answer is no, I understand that not everyone has the same options I do.

If you are considering dental tourism, ask yourself four things:

If cost is the barrier, talk to your local dentist about staging treatment, payment plans, or prioritising the most urgent work first. A phased plan done well at home will almost always outperform a rushed plan done abroad.

If you believe, as I do, that the real solution is systemic — that Australians should not have to fly overseas to afford basic dental care — contact your local MP and tell them dental care needs to be part of Medicare. Or visit Medicare for Dental to join the community and share your story. The more voices, the harder it is to ignore.

And if you do go overseas, research the clinic, the clinician, the materials, and the system they use. Get a written treatment plan. Ask what happens if there is a complication. Treat it as a medical decision, not a holiday add-on.

Dr Max Ganhewa

BDS, University of Otago (NZ) · Principal Dentist, Dental on Flinders · Director, CoTreat · Director, Medicare for Dental

Dr Max has been practising dentistry for nearly 20 years. He is the principal dentist at Dental on Flinders and the director of dental technology company CoTreat and non-profit Medicare for Dental, where he works on dental policy and improving access to care in Australia.