December 2018
·
5 Reads
Introduction: Dental tourism is defined as an act of traveling in a foreign country in order to obtain dental treatment. It is a subset of medical tourism. Some countries are receptive, and some are emitting to dental tourism. In the first come citizens of the second, in order to obtain dental services that are regularly multiple times more expensive in their home country. Purpose: The research aims to point out the attitudes and experiences of doctors of dental medicine for dental tourism in the Republic of Macedonia and the eventual gender difference in relation to some of them. Material and method: In the period from February to March 2018, a cross-sectional study was conducted. The respondents in the sample were selected using a simple random sample method with respect to predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The sample of the survey is made up of doctors of dental medicine, who were contacted electronically and accepted to participate in the research. Results: The sample is made up of doctors of dental medicine, with a healthy response rate of 71%. For p> 0.05, there was no significant difference between the sexes of the respondents in relation to the average age. There was no significant difference (p>0.05)between sexes in terms of experience of working with patients from abroad, as well as attitudes towards the motivating factors for the arrival of these patients. Significantly more doctors on dentistry considered that the risk of complication in patients from abroad was 1-2%, compared with those who thought this risk was higher (Difference test: Difference 69.30% [(60.73 -75.78) CI 95%]; Chi-square = 168.57; df = 1 p = 0.0001). Conclusion: An important part of the doctors of dental medicine have more years experience in treating foreign patients, suggesting that there is dental tourism in the Republic of Macedonia. Most often, the share of foreigners in the total number of patients , as well in the total income of the clinic, does not exceed 20%. Further research on this topic is necessary. Keywords: dental tourism, patients, dental tourist, dental treatment.