Dental Tourism and Foreign Dentures
Empirical willingness-to-pay analyses based on representative samples in the year 2008
David Klingenberger, Peter Kiencke, Juliane Köberlein, Ina Liedmann, Reinhard Rychlik
Materialienreihe Vol. 32
Deutscher Zahnärzte Verlag 2009
ISBN: 978-3-7691-3426-1
purchase price: 39,95 EUR
Abstract
Volume 32 in the material series of the Institute of German Dentists (IDZ) entitled “Dental Tourism and Foreign Dentures. Empirical willingness-to-pay analyses based on representative samples in the year 2008” has just been published. The current situation in the field of dental care in Germany is characterized on the one hand by more and more dentures being imported and on the other hand by the increasing mobility of patients travelling to other countries to receive prosthetic treatment from local dentists.
The present empirical study documents the results of a nationwide representative survey involving interviews of the German population in the age range of 30–75 years on their pattern of attitude and demand motives regarding foreign dentures and dental tourism. The project methodology of the study is based on the so-called willingness-to-pay-approach, a current health economical analysis instrument which here for the first time is being applied to the field of dental care in Germany.
The analysis of the individual willingness-to-pay reveals the wide spectrum of individual preferences in the population and exemplifies that the demand for foreign dentures has to be seen multifactorial and cannot be reduced to a simple mechanical reaction to price signals. The analysis clearly shows that especially the often close social “patient-dentist relationship” as well as “scepticism about quality” are independent aspects of the patient’s decision for or against foreign dentures. The study is completed by a short documentation of a survey of dentists on the same theme and thus additionally also reflects the set of problems from the dentists’ viewpoint.
The research project was carried out in scientific cooperation with the “Institute of Empirical Health Economics” (IfEG/Burscheid). The authors are Dr. David Klingenberger (IDZ) and Dr. Peter Kiencke, Dr. Juliane Köberlein, Dipl.-Stat. Ina Liedmann, Prof. Dr. Dr. Reinhard Rychlik (IfEG).
The publication (IDZ-Band 32) by the Deutscher Zahnärzte Verlag DÄV, ISBN 978-3-7691-3426-1 can be ordered at specialized booksellers (price: EUR 39,95).