"AcciDental" Tourism



Earlier in the fall, a group of girl friends and I had decided we would spend our November long weekend in Budapest, Hungary. I had talked up the capital city for its thermal baths, cheap salons, spas, accommodations, and shopping, that now everyone else wanted to go, too. And, of course, I was happy to return to one of my favorite summer 2014 travel destinations and serve as a bit of a tour guide. We booked our flights and an Airbnb apartment and in November off we went with an empty suitcase intended for goodies and a list of beauty treatments we wanted done.

And then, on the first night, dental disaster struck.

It started with a series of strange headaches followed shortly after by pain in my jaw and then BOOM! - full on excruciating pain on the entire left side of my mouth, both inside and out. It was at this moment that one of my friends informed me of "Dental Tourism" - a subset of medical tourism that was completely unknown to me beforehand. As it turns out, Budapest is a hotbed for it and people come from all over Europe and even the US to have cheap and high quality dental procedures done for a fraction of the cost. Before I knew it, another of my friends was on the phone with the 24/7 Emergency Dental Hotline and had booked me an appointment for the next morning.

And so, while the rest of the girls got massaged, bathed, and dined, I spent our only full day in Budapest in a 24/7/365 dental clinic downtown. I was x-rayed and numbed up and within 45 minutes of the start of the surgeon's shift in the early evening, the offending and heavily impacted wisdom tooth was out.

Had I been at home in Switzerland or in the United States, a procedure such as this (done on a Sunday and at last notice) would have easily cost me 5x the price. And although I missed out on spending time with friends, I consider the event a stroke of luck. I'm calling it, "AcciDental" Tourism.   :)

List of dental services and prices at the 24/7/365 Clinic. 




Post AcciDental Tourism Surgery. 



That's all for now.

A la prochaine,

SwissMissD






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