Dental tourism is a rapidly growing trend, as it should be due to the inflated costs in many countries. Every year, tens of thousands of Americans, Britons and Western Europeans leave their home countries in search of dental treatments abroad. Dental treatments that provide them the look they are after without consuming their life savings. To put the cost in perspective, in the U.S., a new set of teeth for a ?dentally challenged? person can exceed 50 thousand dollars, relative to the cost of some homes or luxury vehicles in rural America. Dental implants, with a price tag typically over 2500 USD each in the U.S., are the single most sought after dental treatment abroad.

The types of dental implants and their costs vary from clinic to clinic and country to country. A potential dental tourist may already know the most popular destinations for dental work are Hungary, Mexico and Turkey, but finding the right clinic within these countries requires some online research. VisitandCare.com, a medical tourism agency that refers customers to dental clinics around the world, offers a simple solution for the would-be dental tourist: The online price quote.

Users of VisitandCare.com request online price quotes for dental implant or other medical treatments by adding the procedures to a virtual ?cart?, similar to the traditional online buying experience for books and CDs. Users than choose among hospitals and clinics in selected countries, and are e-mailed the prices for the selected procedures, as well as ?Doctor's Notes? from the physician in charge that describe treatment or give information about other expected costs such as medicine and tests.

?We're trying to make cost-comparison easy for the dental tourist,? said Tolga Umar, founder of VisitandCare.com. ?Our aim is to provide one place on the Internet where consumers can go to compare apples to apples and get price information that is as accurate as possible. More often than not, savings is the real reason people are traveling abroad for dental procedures, they should know upfront what the costs are. The last thing you want when you are making the effort to travel to another country for dental procedures are unexpected costs and fees on your dental bill.?

Still, Umar admits that providing a completely accurate price quote is impossible, since patients often do not know exactly what kind of dental work they need. The company has a disclaimer that the price quote can only be confirmed upon physical examination by the dentist. ?It's difficult to be one hundred percent accurate,? Umar said. ?But we can for sure help you get a good idea about the costs and where to travel in order to get the best value for your money.?