Slovakia is a small country located in Central Europe with a rich culture, beautiful nature and very friendly people. Slovak Republic was established in January 1993 (former ‘Czechoslovakia’). Slovakia is also member of the European Union since 2004 and NATO. It is a peaceful country, with beautiful scenery, inexpensive shopping and hospitable people. The biggest cities in Slovakia are the capital – Bratislava, then Košice, Banská Bystrica and Žilina.
General information
The capital Bratislava is close to the capitals of neighbouring countries – to Vienna (60 km), Budapest (180 km) and Prague (320 km). Slovakia is in the Central European Time zone and the local currency is the Euro.
Bratislava belongs to one of the youngest capitals in Europe. It is actively developing modern city which is growing really fast, but you can still find some remains from communistic times. Slovak capital provides number of attractions and very interesting places. Moreover, shopping in Bratislava is really excellent, either in small boutiques in city center or in huge malls located all around the city.
Why you should consider Slovakia for dental treatment
Slovakia is good choice for medical tourism, because of the high quality dental services for very reasonably priced. Moreover, once you decide to choose Slovakia for your dental treatment, you can either stay a few days in traditional spa towns, in capital – Bratislava or you can spend some days in beautiful national parks.
Many clinics, mostly in Bratislava, are internationally recognized and they are able to speak several foreign languages as for instance English, German, Russian, Hungarian, etc.
Location
Slovakia is a small landlocked country in central Europe which shares a border with 5 different nations (Czechia, Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, Austria). Slovakia is a member state of the European Union since 2004. From this reason, travelling from EU countries should be really easy.
Most of the dental tourists in Slovakia are coming from Austria or West Europe (especially UK), where the dental treatments are much more expensive than in Slovakia. Indeed, Slovakia do not belongs to the top European dental tourism destination, but the trend is still growing.
Moreover, many Slovaks who are living abroad in countries such as Germany, Austria, England or Switzerland, actually come to back to Slovakia for dental treatments and cosmetic surgeries especially.
Once the international patient decide to come for dental treatment, they will either fly directly to Bratislava Airport (20 different airlines) or to Airport Schwechat in Vienna (62 different airlines), which is only 40 min. from Bratislava. Bus connection from Vienna/Schwechat to Bratislava is good, you can choose from up to 20 buses connections daily in each direction.
You can also fly to Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport in Budapest (180 km), Brno–Tuřany Airport (130 km) and Prague (320 km) and then transfer to Bratislava by train or bus.
Moreover, if you decide to undertake the dental treatment in the east part of Slovakia, you should definitely fly to Košice International Airport (flight connections to more than 30 cities).
Once you find suitable clinic for your dental treatment, you should definitely ask them:
- If they can help you with flights and accommodation
- If they can pick you up in the airport/help you with transportation
- If they need from you translated document or some medical records/documents
- If they provide any special packages/discounts for international patients
Price of dental treatments in Slovakia
Slovakia may not be the cheapest country for every medical procedures. However, many international patients believe that countries which offer the cheapest price also offer lower quality medical services in general. Indeed, the dental treatments in Slovakia can be 1/3 or even 1/4 cheaper compared to the Western Europe.
Are you curious, why the prices are so low? The cost of the materials and dental equipment in Slovakia is the same as abroad. The only difference is that dental professionals have lower salaries therefore the dental medical field is so affordable in this country.
Moreover, government has very little involvement in promoting the country, plus the marketing efforts in general are extremely weak. Furthermore, there are very few private practices or dental clinics that have a well set up website which contains many details such as prices, technologies used, etc.
Approximate prices for the most popular dental treatments:
- Dental Hygiene – 30 – 70 €
- “All on 4” dental implants (12 point bridge) – 6 000 – 10 000 €
- Tooth Whitening – 300 – 400 €
- Root Canal ( 1 Canal) – 70 – 100 €
- Crown – porcelain – 200 – 350 €
- Crown – Full porcelain – 350 – 500 €
- Single dental implant cost – 900 – 1 000 € (including dental implant crowns and dental implant abutments)
Quality of dental treatment
If you would like to receive your dental treatment in Slovakia, e.g.: veneers, teeth whitening, dental implants, dental crown, cosmetic dentistry we recommend that you do proper research beforehand.
Firstly, you need to determine what kind of clinical quality is important to you. We really believe that you should look at every clinic from a holistic point of view. This means, that you should check the quality of the facilities, services, the expertise of the doctors in the clinic and also patients’ feedback.
A very useful platform for this objective and complete overview is certainly Global Clinic Rating, which evaluates medical facilities based on 100+ data. Within a few seconds, you can find the TOP dentists in more than 100 countries. After seeing the top results, don’t forget to check the individual profile of these clinics.In online platform GCR.org, you can find more than 200 dental clinics in Slovakia. Moreover, the top 3 dental clinics in Slovakia belongs to the 200 best clinics worldwide. Furthermore, 4 dental clinic in Slovakia received the GCR international accreditation.
Important fact to underline is that the Slovak doctors have a good reputation in the world. Many of them were settled studied abroad or worked/studied abroad for certain time so they have really rich experience and also they are able to speak several foreign languages, especially in Bratislava.
Here you can see the top dental clinics in Slovakia according Global Clinic Rating.
Finding a dental clinic in Slovakia
Before making a booking, still make sure not to forget to check these 7 important areas:
Expertise
You should always ask about the expertise of the medical staff in the clinic you are about to visit. You should definitely check the range and quality of medical expertise of the medical staff (education, practical experience, number of languages spoken in a clinic, number of medical specialists available, etc.).
Facility
Another important part of every clinic is the range and quality of medical/ non-medical facilities and technologies. You check out if the clinic owns the diagnostic devices, special facilities, and technologies or if it provides non-medical facilities such as parking, disabled access, free WI-FI, etc.
Services
You should also check the medical and non-medical procedures, services, amenities provided as for instance free extra services (consultation, diagnostics), special support for international patients, communication services (website, social media, etc.).
Review/Feedback Score
This point is also very important. Nowadays, you can find past patients’ treatment reviews all around the internet. The most valid reviews tend to be published on Google, Facebook, GCR.org, etc. Thanks to the patient feedback, you can learn how other patients evaluate the certain medical facility. Moreover, you can see their positive and negative comments.
Location
Location of the dental clinic is also really important part of your decision. You should calculate what will it cost to get into the certain country, if you’ll need visa permission, if the region is not too dangerous to visit, etc. If you need to visit a dentist as soon as possible, we suggest you choose a dental clinic which is located closer to your country (or within the convenient reach of the available transport services).
Payment methods
When choosing dental clinic somewhere abroad, always keep in mind to check the possibilities of settling the payment. You should ask if you can pay by credit or debit card, or even if they offer monthly installments for more expensive services.
Practical information
Getting a quote
The private dental clinic, mostly located in Bratislava, are happy to provide you free online or personal consultation, where you will find out the expected costs for your treatment. On the other hand, the clinic will learn more about your current health state and your expectations.
Visa
It is not difficult to visit Slovakia in general. Citizens of many countries do not need any visa for short stays. Even if you do require a visa, the process is relatively simple, but it is important to take the right steps.
People living in Union may travel to other countries of EU without . They need to have card or passport. Foreign passengers visiting the Schengen area and are subject to requirement, need to file visa application. There are three types of Schengen Visa:
- Airport transit visa
- Entry visa
- Long stay visa
Language
Most people in Bratislava speak English. However, when you travel further away from Bratislava, of English-speakers decreases rapidly. Moreover, many people are able to speak Hungarian, mostly inhabitants living close to with Hungary.
Popular is also German because Austria is really close to the capital and also many Germans were living in the area of Slovakia in the past. Moreover, generation is able to speak Russian or other Slavic languages. Many private dental able to speak 1 and more foreign languages.
Staying safe
Slovakia is a relatively safe country, but you should apply common sense when in larger cities.
Reviewed by Dr Marek Šalka.
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