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Stuck in the middle
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Extensive dental labs, better fertility treatment, and California-credited medical studies—Moldova is playing big in the health sector.
Twelve years ago, a young Moldovan graduate, Vadim Vetrilă, was handing out flyers in Venice. “Come and fix your teeth in Moldova!” he would urge passers-by. “Moldova?” Italians asked him, puzzled. “What is that?”
Before Vetrilă started studying dentistry, all his family left Moldova to work in Italy. It became Vadim’s mission to show them that Moldova, too, could be a place to dream. “Everyone told me it won’t work,” Vadim recalled those early days: “Why do you waste money on flyers? Better buy a new car,” they said. He knew he had to start with putting his country on a map first.
He dreamt of building the biggest dental clinic in Moldova, bringing in patients from around the world. Vadim already saw what many couldn’t envision.
Back then, people may not have known much about Moldova and its dental clinics, but now, over 70 per cent of Moldovan dental patients are foreigners, mainly from Italy, France, and the US.
Vadim Vetrilă in his dental lab
Why Moldova? The medical tourism advantage
Today, Moldova is internationally recognised as a health tourism destination, and the sector is growing rapidly. In 2022, medical tourism contributed almost 50 million euros to the economy, and in 2024, a 30 per cent increase is expected. Moldova’s ambition is also seen on the global stage.
Incredibly, for such a new player in the field, Moldova was already recognised and selected to lead the Global Healthcare Travel Council (GHTC) for two years. Moldova competed with Germany and Saudi Arabia for the presidency and won.
“Moldova has good prices and visa-free travel for many countries,” Natalia Ciobanu, a president of the Medical Tourism Association of Moldova and president of GHTC, proudly said in her Chișinău office. Medical education is of high quality, too, she pointed out. The dental school at the Nicolae Testemitanu State University of Medicine and Pharmacy was granted full approval by the Dental Board of California in 2018, becoming the first such English-language dental school outside the US.
Besides fixing their teeth, foreigners also fly over for fertility, spa treatments or plastic surgery. Moldovan fertility doctors’ success rate exceeds 40 per cent, higher than the European average, according to the Medical Tourism Association of Moldova. Popular surgeries include breast surgery and facelifts.
Ciobanu wants to grow medical tourism into one of the biggest industries in Moldova. Economically, it makes sense. “An average tourist visiting Moldova would spend around 2,000 euros while someone coming to fix their teeth would spend 10,000 euros,” she explained. The economic benefits for the country are clear, in her view.
In September, the first Medical Tourism Exhibition was held in Chișinău. This year, the Global Healthcare Travel Forum will take place here, and 56 countries will be represented. Chișinău will be full with medical experts.
Europe’s biggest dental lab
The growth of the medical sector is vividly seen in Smile Dent Team’s laboratory, in the suburb of Botanica close to Chișinău’s airport. It’s a construction site with the lab in the middle, expanding in every direction. It’s the epicentre of Vadim Vetrilă’s dental empire: it’s like has never before been seen in this region.
Smile Dent Team’s laboratory is now the biggest in Europe. A new hotel with 280 rooms for patients is rising behind the building. How did he do it?
When Vetrilă returned to Moldova from his flyer-handing mission in Northern Italy, he met an Italian dentist, Corrado Palmas, who shared his ideas.
Together, they built Smile Dent Team. On his native island, Sardinia, Palmas urged Italians to fix their teeth in Moldova. It was cheaper, but for the same quality result, he said. Palmas became a well-known dentist, speaking about how he built his career in another country and what it meant. He saw how Moldovans appreciated his skills and felt he had something to contribute. Quickly, the word about Moldova and its dental care started catching on. Italians started flying over. At their biggest clinic in Chișinău, you now hear Italian everywhere.
“This is my third visit to Moldova,” 53-year-old Italian Ausilia said, sitting in Smile Dent Team’s bright white waiting area. She saw an ad on Facebook featuring Palmas and liked the price.
In Italy, dental treatment is about four times more costly. In Moldova, you can get a whole new set of teeth for about 10,000 euros. After fixing her teeth, her partner and son also flew to Moldova for the same reason. “I have gotten to know Chișinău pretty well,” said Ausilia, who comes from the mountains. “It’s such a cute city!”
International recognition
Smile Dent Team now receives 300-400 clients every month in their nine clinics. They specialise in repairing the whole set of teeth. The package includes pick-up from the airport, activities in the evenings, dinners, and visits outside the city.
Vadim gave me a tour of his laboratory. In one room, someone was painting the implants; in another, the fake gums. The design room looked like a start-up with rows of young men, all educated dentists, on their computers. In the printing area, teeth are coming to life in 3D. You could smell the powder in the air.
This autumn, Smile Dent Team was given an Excellence in Dental Care award at the Health Tourism Industry’s Summit, organised by HTI, the leading health tourism business platform in Europe. “They were impressed by how fast we are growing; they were amazed,” Vadim reflected on the visit by the representatives of the hub.
Before leaving, I asked Vadim if he felt he had finally fulfilled his dream. “I did build the biggest dental clinic,” he responded. “But my family still lives in Italy,” then pauses and quickly adds, with a cheerful voice and a twinkle in his eye: “They will come back!”
All photos by Marian Männi.
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