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With the global market for dental implants and prosthetics poised to grow to more than $10 billion by the end of the decade, the dental tourism sector in Costa Rica is also expected to experience substantial growth. However, not all dental clinics in our country are prepared to meet the demands of health travelers who visit us for their treatment needs.

According to a recent report by Markets & Markets in Dallas, periodontal conditions such as tooth caries seem to be on the rise around the world, and the aging members of the Baby Boom generation are not very interested in dentures as they are in dental implants and prosthetics, particularly in zirconium crown technology.

Restorative dentistry has advanced significantly in the 21^st century. As recently reported in the respected journal Dental Economics:

The arrival of the new millennium seemed to be the catalyst for change in digital dentistry; several different CAD/CAM systems have been introduced as restorative dentistry solutions since then, though it has taken slightly longer than anticipated to integrate this technology into daily practice.

Today’s chairside and laboratory-based CAD/CAM systems are used to design and manufacture implant abutments, bars, zirconia restorations, all-ceramic and composite full-contour crowns, inlays, and veneers that may be stronger, better-fitting, and more esthetic than restorations fabricated using traditional methods.

In countries such as the United States, few dental insurance plans are comprehensive enough to cover the full cost of zirconium crowns, which tend to be expensive. Dental insurance coverage in the U.S. is mostly focused on hygiene and emergency services; zirconium crown implants are seldom included. For this reason, many dental patients seek dental treatments in Costa Rica.

As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star, a zirconium crown treatment in the U.S. can cost upwards of $35,000. At the Flikier Dental Institute of Costa Rica, located in the western suburbs of San Jose, zirconium crowns implanted under the All-on-4 method typically cost 30 percent less than in the U.S. One of the reasons for the reduced cost is that the Flikier Dental Insitute has wisely invested in the above-described technology, which allows dental health professionals to diagnose, evaluate, create, and implant zirconium crowns without having to dedicate resources to the creation of traditional stone models.

In other words, what the Flikier Dental Institute has accomplished is the creation of its very own laboratory for the development of dental implants and prosthetics. This is a dental clinic that no longer has to outsource work to outside laboratories, and thus the savings are passed on to patients. In the past, few dental clinics could afford their own laboratories; this is something that Flikier has accomplished through technology, and it is one of the few dental clinics in Costa Rica to have done so.