On teeth

We had been called to board our flight on time and everything for the first part of my long weekend back home seemed to be going well. However, after we had all stuffed our bags in the overhead lockers, put our arm rests down and fastened our seat belts nothing happened.

After a few minutes they announced that there was 'an air traffic control restriction' and that we would have to wait for a new minutes. So I pulled out my book and started to read.

However, the lady sitting right behind me decided to have a loud conversation with the person sitting across the aisle, revealing to us all that she had been in Budapest to have 13 crowns fitted. More details followed about the cost (£3000) and the procedures and problems she had had. This was not detail I particularly wanted, but found that I could not concentrate on my book while the story unfolded.

In fact, dental tourism seems to be a significant part of the Budapest winter economy. The week before last I met a friend of a friend who had come for a few days to have some dental treatment. Entire hotels seem to be filled with Western Europeans coming to have their teeth fixed at budget prices, a result of the combination of high quality dental practice and low salaries in the medical sector. Googling "dental tourism Hungary" gives over 50,000 hits, and quite a few websites whose name revolves around a combination of dental, tourism and Hungary.

Maybe I'm getting old, but it all sounds just a little bit wacky to me.