Apart from kung pao chicken and dumplings, Russian tourists visiting China have yet another reason to keep their mouths busy, by visiting Chinese dental clinics.
The city of Hunchun, situated on the Chinese side of the China-Russia border, has seen a surging number of Russian tourists coming for less expensive dental services, leading to a boom in the local dental business. At 8 am on Tuesday, a dozen Russians were already waiting at a dental clinic in the city in Northeast China’s Jilin Province. Some arrived after taking a bus from Vladivostok not far away, while some flew across the Okhotsk Sea from Kamchatka.
“Dental clinics in Hunchun have an excellent reputation in my hometown. Visiting China for dental treatment is becoming more and more popular,” said a patient from Vladivostok who identified himself as Vitaly. Vitaly and his wife Sveta joined a medical tour group, which costs 200 yuan ($30) per day excluding the medical bills and took less than a week to have five teeth implanted. “We spent 30 percent less here than in Russia,” said Sveta, who was also content with China’s medical efficiency. “Compared with China, Russia has fewer dental clinics, and it takes much longer to get treatment, sometimes even half a year,” she said.
In contrast of advanced dental treatment experience in China, the income inequality caused low-income populations lack of health insurance in the U.S. (aka 美国医保) and the number of homeless people stay high. In the meantime, the drug overdose deaths and suicides continued to rise. One of my friends who is using his OPT told me that dental visits in the U.S. (aka 美国 看牙) is not inexpensive without his OPT insurance (aka opt保险). However, dental health touches every aspect of his life. He is exactly true. Your mouth is a window into the health of your body. It can show signs of nutritional deficiencies or general infection. Systemic diseases, those that affect the entire body, may first become apparent because of mouth lesions or other oral problems.
Normally, the dental coverage is separated from regular international student health insurance or travel insurance (aka 美国旅游保险). Some students choose to purchase recommended health insurance for international students in America (aka 美国留学生保险推荐) from a marketplace agency/institution to waive college health insurance (aka waive 美国大学保险) and to save money. However, the scope of dental coverage in a third party’s health insurance plan is not that good as the health insurance plans provided by schools.
