Britain's dental tourists are being sold up the Danube

How much more exotic to have a Hungarian crown, or a Franz Josef as they are known

Brian Viner

Apparently, increasing numbers of Britons are travelling to Hungary for private dental care, sold down the river by rising costs here, and forced up the Danube by cheap treatment there. One surgery in Budapest is even advertising "teeth holidays", a package - I prefer "plaqueage" - including return flights, discounted hotel rooms and cut-price cavity work.
It is an irresistible concept; a bunch of Brits with varying degrees of tooth decay, being offered pink mouthwash on the plane, and emerging into the arrivals hall at Ferihegy Airport to look for their rep, the guy with the white coat and the reassuring manner.

One man with gum disease who took advantage of the offer had been quoted £15,000 for bridgework by his dentist in England. He said of his trip to Budapest: "One good thing about it is that you are with other toothless people over there. We all went round the city with no teeth and had a good time." It must have been handy that the culinary pleasures of Hungary, such as sour cherry soup and stuffed cabbage, are perfectly compatible with missing molars. If the English are considered by the Americans to have poor teeth, imagine what the Hungarians must think.

Why Budapest, though, as opposed to Prague, say, or Kiev, the story didn't entirely make clear. But dental care there is certainly cheap. Crowns cost up to £950 in Britain, but only £180 in Hungary, and how much more exotic to have a Hungarian crown, or a Franz Josef as they are doubtless known in the trade. (Source: The Independent.co.uk)