Albania's medical tourism boom: Affordable smiles and cosmetic procedures attract visitors

Albania has transformed from a reclusive state to a leading destination for medical tourism, offering affordable dental and cosmetic treatments.

Once it was Europe's North Korea, a cloistered communist dictatorship. But now Albania lures millions of tourists a year, with a growing portion coming in search of a radiant smile, luscious lips or better breasts. "I don't like to talk about medical tourism. It's a bit scary," said Dritan Gremi, who heads a dental clinic in the capital Tirana. "I prefer to talk about happiness tourism, which makes people happy."

Gremi said his clinic offers "high-quality care with equipment that is guaranteed and certified" to European standards at a fraction of the price. He has Italian, French, Belgian and Swiss clients often lured with package deals that include travel and accommodation costs.

With scandals about shoddy work and disfigured clients taking some of the shine off medical tourism elsewhere, Albanian health authorities say they insist on high-quality care. Prosecutors carried out checks on 30 cosmetic clinics this month looking for contraband products and Botox, which is banned in Albania.

Smile sale

Stephane Pealat's journey to Albania started with hopes for a new, affordable smile. He and his brother, who are from Valence in the south of France, have long suffered from dental problems, including tooth loss that pushed him to seek a complex dental implant procedure. "In France we had an initial estimate which was very, very expensive. Then we started looking on the internet -- Bulgaria, Turkey, Albania, Spain," Pealat told AFP.

He learned about the Gremi clinic during a consultation session in Lyon with Albanian dentists. After an initial visit in August to tour the facilities in Tirana, Pealat and his brother returned in the autumn. According to Pealat, the dental implant operation he opted for cost roughly 50,000 euros ($54,000) in France, compared to just 13,500 euros in Albania.

It was no small amount for Pealat. "It is important to have a beautiful smile," he said. Nathalie Gangloff, who works as an event organiser at a nursing home in Cognac in western France, also opted for an Albania clinic to treat her dental issues. "My doctor in France told me about a TV documentary" about medical tourism in Albania, Gangloff told AFP.

She paid under 15,000 euros to have her teeth done compared to the 42,000 euros that she would have had to spend in France. After extractions and implants in February, she returned to Tirana in mid-September for her final work, happy to have regained her smile. "With my job, it's important to have beautiful teeth and a good hairdo," she told AFP, saying she immediately changed her Facebook profile picture to show off her new pearly whites.

‘Love and happiness’

Low overheads and tax have helped Albanian clinics lure customers with lower prices. The country's medical tourism sector is estimated to earn between 200 and 250 million euros a year, with at least 50,000 Italians visiting Tirana for treatment every year.

However, the procedures are not risk-free. The head of Albania's national doctors association Fatmir Ibrahimaj said both foreign and local patients should not rely on online advertising alone for cosmetic procedures and should do their due diligence before undergoing treatment. "A doctor is not a five-star or no-star hotel," Ibrahimaj told reporters.

For Anna Maria, an Italian from Milan, the "smile of the soul passes also through the lips". The psychologist in her 30s -- who did not want to give her surname -- visited Albania for dental veneers and a lip procedure with the hopes of improving her smile. "More and more foreign tourists are also getting cosmetic treatments to brighten up their smile," said Monika Fida, a dermatologist and university lecturer in Tirana.

Injections of hyaluronic acid into the lips are particularly popular. "Above all, they want to feel good, and have well-shaped lips as naturally as possible," added Fida, who said between 750 and 1,000 foreign patients visit her clinic every year. Vera Panaitov, a 60-year-old Italian chef from Verona, initially came to have her teeth done.

But once in Tirana, she had opted for procedures on her breasts and waist. "You have to be beautiful at any age and experience love and happiness at every moment," she told AFP, smiling from her hospital bed, saying she felt "happy and rejuvenated". Christine Cincunegui, a French businesswoman, may soon follow her.

In Paris, she seemed set on going ahead with a dental procedure in Albania after consulting practitioners visiting the French capital. "Feeling more beautiful and having fun? What more do we want?" she told AFP.