“Hungary saved my life!” – thousands of French receive dental care in Hungary

French magazine Le Monde wrote about the French dental tourism to Hungary. Since the price of the treatment is half than it is in France, many French pensioners come to Budapest in order to have a new denture done.

Same quality, much lower bill

“I had a new denture done in Hungary for 12 thousand EUR while this would cost me in France more than 27 thousand” – said Maria Figliuzzi, a French pensioner from a small rural village, to the French Le Monde magazine. She added that waiting lists are very long in France so she could not have waited until the end of the procedure – hvg.hu reported.

The 70-year-old woman living in the small settlement of Aix les Bains has been a homemaker all her life, but she has a valid social insurance thanks to her husband who worked for the French railways. Even so,

she would not have been able to pay the bill of the treatment.

However, since she learned that in Hungary, costs are much lower, she got on a charter flight and travelled to Budapest.

“Hungary has saved my life” – she told Le Monde, and she added that when she travelled to Hungary for treatment at least 20 pc of the passengers on the plane were “dental tourists.”

Mostly impecunious French travel to the country who do not know anything of it and do not understand its language, at all. Moreover, they do not speak English, which is inevitable in Hungary because most

Hungarian dentists do not know French

and can provide service only in English. This is a significant problem for the mostly older generation coming to Hungary for treatment who grew up believing that their mother-tongue can be used everywhere in the world.

Good for everybody

A Hungarian dentist stated that French patients come to the country because of the low prices. For example, a dental implant costs 550 EUR in his surgery while the price of the same process increases to 1,000 EUR in France. Therefore, it is easy to calculate that even accommodation and travel costs included in the final bill will be much less in Hungary than in France. Furthermore, the

quality of dental treatment is like in France.

Of course, the business is also worth for the Hungarian dentists who received an altogether 2.74 million EUR income from their French patients in 2011, and this sum almost reached 4 million in 2018. However, these are just the official numbers. Still, Le Monde wanted to know exactly how many foreigners received dental treatment in Hungary and among them how many were from France. Furthermore, they also wanted to know how much tax Hungarian dentists paid in connection with their service provided for non-Hungarians. However, the dentist association they were in contact with did not want to say anything in the issue.

In fact, Le Monde wrote on purpose about the French dental tourism towards Hungary because they wanted to prove their citizens that Europe functions. And the reputation of the Hungarian dentists spreads in France, not because of advertisements, but because locals tell each other that Hungary is much cheaper than their country while the quality of the treatment is the same. For example, Mrs Maria Figliuzzi told her good experiences to everybody, so her niece is going to fly to Hungary the next week.

If you want to read about Pierrouf, a French man who lost a bet and had to walk home from Hungary, click HERE.