Asia's Medical Tourism Destination #1: Singapore

Singapore is a major medical tourism destination and one of the five hottest spots for medical treatments in Asia.

Visitors can select from a wide range of services to enhance their health and well being. These include health screening, medical wellness, aesthetic and anti-ageing programmes.

This island city boast a growing list of number 1 spots under its belt. No. 1 port, airport, mathematical geniuses... and the list goes on. Medical treatments' standard is top notch, and service is uniformly excellent.

It is therefore no surprise that Singapore is a popular destination for medical tourism as well as medical evacuations in the region. Prices are also generally lower than the West, although may be more expensive compared to its neighbors in the region. Three key agencies, the Economic Development Board, the Singapore Tourism Board and the International Enterprise Singapore have come together under the Singapore Medicine Banner to develop the Republic in one of Asia's leading health care destinations.

Statistics in 2003 showed that 230,000 foreigners sought medical treatments here. Singapore Medicine is aiming to serve one million foreign patients a year by 2012 and generate $3 billion in revenues and create at least 13,000 jobs in the medical tourism industry.

Singapore provides the complete spectrum of healthcare services from primary care such as health screening, to quaternary care services such as organ transplants. Tourists coming for medical treatments also come to Singapore for a broad range of specialist care including Cardiology, Gynaecology, Orthopaedic Surgery, Oncology, Otorhinolaryngology, Urology, Neurosurgery and Opthalmology, besides General Surgery and General Medicine.

The country specializes in services for cardiology, ophthalmology, and oncology. Singapore is also a thriving dental hub.

Singapore's Dental Care

Some of the most advanced dental care in Asia can be found in Singapore. The island has one of the highest dentist-population ratio of 1:5,000, and almost half of the population here adhere to the twice a year visit to the dentist.

Here, the dental infrastructure is of the highest quality, with most of the equipment and dental products manufactured abroad. The equipment are also well maintained according to stringent criteria, ensuring that dental care is prompt and professional, and of course, safe.

With the high standard of dental care, Singapore is Southeast Asia's dentistry center and you would come here for the best dental treatment available. Patients seeking treatment come from western countries, but dentists here also see to many patients from neighboring countries like Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.

So if you are looking to brighten that smile of yours, straighten the wry tooth gone crooked or perhaps even to change your whole set of smilies altogether, Singapore may just be the country to make you smile once more.

In 1996, Singapore coined a "Smile Singapore" campaign. The island was then worried about its tourism industry, and decreed that Singaporeans should put on a happy face when meeting a visitor to the country. Fast forward 10 years, the island has done away with the slogan for a new one that is "Uniquely Singapore", and has even more to grin about. It has found a new niche in medical tourism to earn those fickle tourist dollars.

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