4/03/2007

Patients from Great Britain, Germany, Italy and the United States are becoming the number one clients for Polish dentists, cosmetic surgeons and beauty salons, according to Polish newspaper Super Nowosci (Super News).

Patients fly out to Rzeszów in the south-east of Poland for a week and are willing to fork out 10,000 zlotys (around £1,700) at the dentists and even 3,000 zlotys (£500) at a beauty salon. But these prices are four times lower than in Western Europe. And since the introduction of cheap flights between Rzeszów and London two years ago, foreign patients are now “risking” going on a beautifying trip to the previously unfamiliar Poland. Today Poland’s specialists are inundated with foreign clients. These patients book appointments over the internet and can ask for online specialist advice on the smallest beauty matters. 
 According to Jaroslaw Cierplikowski, co-founder of the “Estetika” (“Aesthetics”) dental clinic in Rzeszów, “Around 50% of the patients requesting titanium implants and prosthetic dental surgery come from Great Britain, Germany and the USA”.
“The majority of Polish people can’t afford porcelain crowns or veneers. Foreign patients are delighted by our offers, which are three times cheaper than in England, for example. They are willing to pay 10 thousand zlotys (£1,750) or more for treatment”.
Bartlomiej Sobolewski, the owner of a Rzeszów hotel, has recently noticed an interesting phenomenon. Every Friday groups of three or four English men or women turn up and spend the whole weekend in places where they can make themselves look younger or more beautiful. According to Sobolewski, “The tourists are aged between 30 and 50 and come with the address of a specific clinic in their pockets”.
Beata Urban from the “Nefretete” salon has got used to the fact that many of the groups of clients coming in for massages, beautifying treatments or permanent make-up tattooing come from Great Britain, the Netherlands and Germany. In Rzeszów permanent lip make-up costs 1,000 zlotys (£175). In Rome the same treatment would cost at least three times as much. Many of these tourists have Polish family, but more and more often they are native English people, Italians or Germans” adds Urban.
“In the West improving your appearance is an everyday thing. And since our clinics observe world-class standards and the prices are several times lower then in the West, there is no shortage of willing volunteers” says Marek Rzaca from the Max-Med clinic.
In Rzeszów clients pay around 3,000 zlotys (£520) for liposuction, 1500-2500 zlotys (£260-£430) for plastic surgery on the ears or nose and 600 zlotys (£105) per treatment for wrinkle-filling injections. In Germany these injections costs between 2 and 3 thousand euros (£1,350-£2,000).

Source: http://www.interia.pl/

translated: Sonia Clough
J.S.