Following on from my post last month about what treatments Irish dental patients were interested in, here is a more comprehensive look at what dental and cosmetic patients in the UK, Ireland, and the US & Canada are enquiring about on RevaHealth.com. This time I’ve included the data for the past 12 months as well as the month just gone. This gives a good indication of what treatments are growing in popularity over time.

As ever, your comments and feedback both about the figures we’ve published and other figures you might like to see are more than welcome. You can leave a comment at the end of this post or contact us via email or Twitter – full details on the contact us page.

British Patients

British Dental Treatments - May 2010

Top 10 Dental Treatments Requested by UK Patients - May 2010

First up we take a look at what UK dental patients are interested in. The classic cosmetic treatments of teeth whitening and veneers lead the way. This month I’ve broken out Invisalign from traditional braces as they account for such a big share of the market by themselves, 11.05% in the last month, a 55% increase over their yearly average.

Looking at the other differences between last month’s and last year’s figures you can see a shift towards more basic treatments like teeth cleaning, extractions and dentures to the expensive of some of the more expensive cosmetic treatments. Veneers in particular are 37% behind their yearly average despite still being the second most popular individual treatment. It will be interesting to see if the cosmetic treatments make a comeback as the UK economy turns around.

British Dental Tourism Breakdown - May 2010

British Dental Tourism Patients - May 2010

Patients from the UK heading abroad for their dental work are still interested primarily in the top end treatments like veneers and dental implants, but the number one treatment enquired about last month was teeth whitening, traditionally one of the cheaper cosmetic dental treatments. Last month it accounted for 26% of enquiries for dental treatment abroad.

Patients thinking of having teeth whitening abroad are more than likely going to be travelling to their chosen clinic’s location already, as it would be hard to save the travel and accommodation costs on the reduced treatment cost alone.

Plastic Surgery Treatments for British Patients - May 2010

British Cosmetic Surgery Patients - May 2010

For this month’s figures I’ve rolled a lot of treatments up into their category, and one surprising result is shown here in the UK’s cosmetic surgery figures. Genital reshaping is and has been for the last year the most enquired about area of treatment in the UK. I didn’t really believe this when I saw it myself, so I looked into it a bit further and it turns out that in the past this was largely down to circumcision being included in genital reshaping. However, last month it accounted for only 35% of genital reshaping enquiries. Other treatments enquired about in the last month include vaginoplasty, labiaplasty, hymenoplasty and penis enlargement.

Seeing as genital reshaping accounts for so much of the market we will probably start breaking it out into its individual treatments in next month’s figures.

Beauty Treatments for British Patients - May 2010

Top 10 British Cosmetic Beauty Treatments - May 2010

The cosmetic beauty sector has one of the most dependable treatment breakdowns around, being solidly dominated by Botox again and again. Judging by last month’s figures it shows no signs of declining in popularity.

British Medical Tourism Breakdown - May 2010

Breakdown of British Medical Tourism - May 2010

Looking at what treatment areas British people are looking for when travelling abroad, you can see that plastic surgery, cosmetic beauty and fertility enquiries are all increasing. We haven’t seen any decrease in the number of enquiries for treatment abroad so although it accounts for less of the market overall, that is just down to the increasing popularity of the other areas mentioned.

British Medical Tourism Treatments - May 2010

Top 10 Medical Tourism Treatments for British Patients - May 2010

As reflected in the breakdown by treatment area, cosmetic surgery treatments are growing in popularity relative to their market share over the past 12 months.

Irish Patients

Dental Treatments in Ireland - May 2010

Top 10 Dental Treatments in Ireland - May 2010

There is an interesting spike in last month’s figures for dental implants compared to their yearly average market share, this despite being among the most expensive treatments available. Similarly there is an increase in interest in Invisalign treatment too, again one of the more modern and expensive treatments available. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues into next month.

Dental Treatments for Irish Patients Travelling to Northern Ireland - May 2010

Top 10 Dental Treatments for Irish Patients in Northern Ireland - May 2010

Northern Ireland remains a very popular alternative for dental treatment for Irish patients, accounting for 26% of all Irish dental enquiries last month. Again the expensive treatments dominate the enquiries, with braces leading the way. There is evidence of prices falling somewhat in the Republic recently and the Euro is getting weaker at the moment, so it looks like Northern dentists will be in for some competition over the coming months.

Irish Dental Tourism Treatment Breakdown - May 2010

Top 10 Dental Treatments for Irish Patients Travelling Abroad - May 2010

The increase in interest in dental implants at home in Ireland seems to be mirrored by a decrease in their popularity last month among patients intending to travel abroad, while the other traditional favourite veneers remains just as popular. Dental crowns, invisalign and dentures all experienced a relative boost in popularity this month too.

Cosmetic Surgery Treatments in Ireland - May 2010

Irish Plastic Surgery Patients - May 2010

There has been a fairly steady interest in the cosmetic surgery treatments that are popular among Irish patients for the last year, and it continues this month. The biggest change in the last month has been an increase in popluarity for breast implants, which are 18% ahead of their yearly average.

Cosmetic Beauty Treatments for Irish Patients - May 2010

Irish Beauty Patients - May 2010

As with the UK, the cosmetic beauty sector is dominated by Botox enquiries, here accounting for just under 30% of the market. Frequent television ads for a laser hair removal company seem to have increased the popularity of that treatment also, with enquiries running 23% ahead of their yearly average.

Irish Medical Tourism Breakdown - May 2010

Breakdown of Medical Tourism in Ireland - May 2010

Again, following the trend in the UK, Irish patients looking for treatment abroad are increasingly interested in cosmetic surgery and beauty procedures, as well as fertility and bariatric surgery. The relative decrease does not represent a drop in enquiries numbers for dental treatment abroad, rather it reflects in the increase in numbers for the other treatment areas.

Irish Medical Tourism Treatments - May 2010

Top 10 Medical Tourism Treatments for Irish Patients - May 2010

The top ten individual treatments for Irish medical tourists are dominated by dental treatments but interestingly botox makes an appearance along with breast implants.

US & Canadian Patients

Medical Tourism from the US & Canada - May 2010

Medical Tourism Breakdown - USA & Canada - May 2010

Much more so than in the UK or Ireland, US & Canadian patients are looking for dental treatment aborad, and the increases in popularity of other treatment areas is much smaller. Mexico remains by far the most popular destination, followed by the Philippines and Costa Rica.

Medical Tourism Treatments for Patients from the US & Canada - May 2010

Top 10 Medical Tourism Treatments for American and Canadian Patients - May 2010

As with dental tourism in Europe, the most popular treatments are the expensive cosmetic treatments of dental implants and dental veneers.

Next Month

As ever we are interested in providing information that is not only useful to us here in RevaHealth.com, but also is of use to you, our readers. Whether you are a journalist, a business owner or a patient, we’d love to hear your feedback and any requests for additional information you might have.

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With the recent changes to the way that Irish patients can claim money back on dental treatment, the cost of treatment for many looks set to rise. I thought now would be a good time to benchmark what treatments Irish patients were enquiring about over the last year and see how this changes over the coming year. Here are some statistics about the different types of treatment that Irish dental patients are interested in based on where they are having the treatment performed. First of all here are the treatments that people are enquiring about through dentists in the Republic.

Republic of Ireland dental treatments

Braces and orthodontics top the list, with new treatments like Invisalign helping to increase their share of the market. Of interest also is the fact that optional cosmetic treatments like teeth whitening and veneers are still so prominent in the list despite the downturn. It will be interesting to see if they remain so prominent over the coming year.

Next, we take a look at what patients from the Republic are looking for from dentists in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland dental treatments

An even greater proportion of patients looking for treatment in Northern Ireland are interested in braces, not surprising given that it is one of the more expensive treatments available – starting prices for treatment in Dublin are close to €4,000.  I’d be interested to hear what prices people are being quoted for orthodontics in Northern Ireland by way of comparison.

Root canal treatment also accounts for a far greater share of the market here than with local dentists. It is a necessary precursor to many other treatments, but again they can be quite costly, especially as it is done as needed per tooth.

Finally, here is a look at which treatments patients are looking at having done abroad.

Overseas dental treatments for Irish patients

Dental implants jump to the top of the list here. From our own survey of previous dental tourism patients we know that price is their primary concern, and with implants starting around €1,500 at home and around €600 in Hungary it is no wonder that they are asking about treatment abroad. Surprisingly the relatively inexpensive teeth whitening is also very popular, as is the other cosmetic favourite, dental veneers.

Even more surprising though is that braces abroad are so popular. With regular visits needed to tighten and adjust most braces, traveling abroad each time can prove to be very expensive if you’re not careful. As you’ll hear in a patient case study later this week, even with the greatest planning there can be unexpected problems that can force the price up to more than the cost here in Ireland.

We’ll take a look at this information again in the months to come to see how things are changing. In the meantime, if there is more information like this you’d like to see, please leave a comment below. We’ll be publishing similar information for the UK market soon too.

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Dental Tourism in Ireland

Dental tourism is a very divisive topic. On the one hand the advocates of dental tourism espouse the financial savings that can be made, while on the other hand its opponents often talk about poor quality work being carried out abroad. Unfortunately for everyone involved hard facts are very difficult to come by.

Last August the Irish Times reported on a Consumer Choice magazine report which said that “Dentists were found to be 29 per cent more expensive in Dublin compared to Belfast“. A couple of weeks later the Irish Dental Association released the results of their own survey which said that “More than three out of four dentists have had to treat patients for problems linked to treatment received abroad“.

A previous dental tourism survey carried out by us here at RevaHealth.com showed high levels of satisfaction with the treatment received, but worrying levels of education when it came knowing in advance exactly what treatment was needed.

So Where Do We Go From Here?

Ideally we would like to see everyone involved in dentistry in Ireland, whether at home or abroad, publish information and minimise spin. Putting the facts in the public domain should help everyone involved; patients will be able to make better informed decisions on where to be treated, and dentists will be able to make better informed decisions based on what patients want and need.

Luckily, we’re in the position of being able to ask thousands of patients both before and after their treatment about their expectations and their experiences. We already ask patients on an ongoing basis about their post treatment satisfaction levels. We intend to expand this into other areas of questioning and share the results as soon as we can. As a start, here are the results of surveying all RevaHealth.com’s users from Ireland who had dental treatment outside of the Republic in 2009.

Irish Dental Tourism Satisfaction 2009

Survey Results

There are a number of things I would point out about these results. We believe there is a natural tendency for people who have travelled abroad to slightly inflate their satisfaction scores as  a means of self justification. That said, the scores do indicate a high level of satisfaction across the board.

One change I would like to see to this survey is to do with the question of quality of work. I think this topic is actually contained in the “Overall Satisfaction” score, but for the sake of clarity I’d like to see it broken out into its own section.

How You Can Help Us Help You?

If you are involved or interested in the industry, this is where you come in. Satisfaction levels are one thing, but what questions would you like to see answered by Irish dental patients? Over the coming months we intend to publish the results of our survey of Irish patients who were treated in Ireland, as well as continuing to publish more information from Irish, British and overseas patients in general.

If you have questions that you think would add to overall quality of information available about the Irish and British dental industries, or another international market, please leave a comment below or email me directly at pboyle@revahealth.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

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With the film and TV award season in full swing, Brits are mirroring the stars of the red carpet by getting their teeth into tip top shape. Teeth whitening and veneers, perennial favourites of A to Z-list stars around the world top the list of dental treatments Brits enquired about in February through RevaHealth.com, the world’s leading dentist finder website.

Red Carpet Smile

Red Carpet Smile

RevaHealth.com’s monthly check-up of UK dentistry finds there is also increasing interest in top dollar treatments such as dental implants, along with big brand names like Lumineers and Invisalign, showing that the UK dentistry industry may finally be heading out of recession along with the rest of the British economy.

Interest in teeth whitening grew by a healthy 16.2% when compared with January, while veneers were 42.1% more popular. Putting both of these in the shade though was the explosive growth in interest in Lumineers, a newer thinner kind of veneer that saw their share of the month’s dental enquiries rocket by 95.3%.

The top five most popular dental treatments in the UK during February 2010 were:

Treatment % Of Enquiries
Teeth Whitening 16.8%
Veneers 15.0%
Dental Implants 12.1%
Lumineers 10.3%
Invisalign 7.5%

 

Commenting on the February’s trends Caelen King, CEO of RevaHealth.com said “After putting off cosmetic dental treatments during the recession, people in the UK finally feel it is OK to spend a bit extra on making their teeth look special again. By sticking to some of the more affordable cosmetic dental treatments such as teeth whitening and veneers they are able to mimic their Hollywood idols without breaking the bank.”

For further information please contact:

Aoife Ahern
Email: aahern@revahealth.com
Tel: +353 (0) 1 6520 520

About Revahealth.com

RevaHealth.com is a healthcare search engine that helps users find and compare health clinics worldwide. With information about 60,000 clinics in the UK and Ireland and thousands more in 99 countries around the world, Revahealth.com helps people take control of their healthcare choices and find the most suitable clinic and treatment for their needs.

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RevaHealth.com Visitor Trends – May 2009

One of the exciting things about working in a web startup company is the rapid growth that happens at the start as your ideas turn into actual traffic to your site. May 2009 was another month of continued growth for us here in RevaHealth.com. As you can see below, our traffic was up by 23.38% on the previous month, and the number of enquiries for clinics on our site grew by 20.98%.

RevaHealth.com Monthly Growth - May 2009

RevaHealth.com Monthly Growth - May 2009

Average monthly growth rates have been around the 20% mark since the start of the year, and we’re hoping to push these up to 30% per month as the year goes on. Obviously this gets hard the more traffic we generate, but we have our ideas and we’re making our plans so we’ll keep you posted!

As usual, the majority of our traffic came from the UK (37.21%), Ireland (26.10%) and the US (10.60%). According to our Google analytics, the remaining 26.09% came from 182 different countries or territories! This got us interested, and since the start of the year, we count only 13 countries on the map that haven’t visited our site since the start of the year. I wonder if we can get this number down by year’s end?

The split between people using our site to contact clinics at home or clinics abroad remained roughly the same this month for both the UK and Ireland. As our SEO efforts for our local listings take hold we should see the proportion of enquiries for clinics at home increase, but only time will tell.

Home vs Abroad (UK) - May 2009

Home vs Abroad (UK) - May 2009

Home vs Abroad (IRL) - May 2009

Home vs Abroad (IRL) - May 2009

Of interest here, we know that the number of people looking at clinics (as opposed to contacting them) is far higher than the contact figures above reflect, so from next month we’re going to look at providing figures for visitors and figures for users i.e. people who just come to the site versus people who use the site to contact clinics. The differences in their behaviours should be interesting.

Interest in travelling to Northern Ireland from the Republic is strong as ever, with the raw number of enquiries up another 12% month on month, and the percentage of enquiries slipping just slightly from 19.73% to 19.11%.

Poland leapfrogs Hungary and Turkey this month to claim the most popular foreign destination title, with Bulgaria taking Spain’s place at the end of the top 5.

Top 5 destinations (IRL) - May 2009

Top 5 destinations (IRL) - May 2009

Our methods of calculating which treatments people are interested in have changed slightly this month, so we can’t compare them directly to previous months, but there are no real surprises in the top 5 treatments in dentistry for Irish patients. Cosmetic surgery though has seen a slight shift towards weight related treatments, as expected as the summer approaches.

Top 5 dental treatments (IRL) - May 2009

Top 5 dental treatments (IRL) - May 2009

Top 5 cosmetic treatments (IRL) - May 2009

Top 5 cosmetic treatments (IRL) - May 2009

One of the fastest rising treatments we found in our incoming keywords was “Endermologie”, which was a new one on me. This was closely followed by “Mesotherapy”. It turns out these are both treatments aimed at reducing cellulite, so I guess bikiniphobia was particularly strong in May!

The countries outside of the UK that British people were interested in visiting stayed much the same, with only Spain replacing Bulgaria in the top 5. Poland remained the most popular destination for people from the UK.

Top 5 Destinations (UK) - May 2009

Top 5 Destinations (UK) - May 2009

While the UK interest in dental treatments pretty much mirrored that in Ireland, the cosmetic surgery treatments being requested differed in that acne / scar removal and tattoo removal weere 2nd and 3rd after Botox in the UK.

Top 5 dental treatments (UK) - May 2009

Top 5 dental treatments (UK) - May 2009

Top 5 cosmetic treatments (UK) - May 2009

Top 5 cosmetic treatments (UK) - May 2009

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Working out what our users have been doing this month has been quite difficult, but for the best of reasons. Thanks to sterling work by our engineering and design teams we have managed to improve the performance of our site dramatically, and consequently the percentage of people visiting our site who end up contacting a clinic has increased dramatically too.

By way of example, our April traffic increased by a modest 8.60% versus March, but the number of enquiries we processed increased by 47.81% in the same period.

RevaHealth.com Traffic and Enquiries Increases - April 2009

RevaHealth.com Traffic and Enquiries Increases - April 2009

Traffic from Ireland increased by 26.82%, traffic from the UK increased by 9.70%, but traffic from the US fell by 12.63%. Unsurprisingly, the fall in US traffic was most notable during the Swine Flu panic, which centred largely around Mexico, our number one destination for our US visitors. We expect traffic from the US to return to normal this month as the panic fades. We expect it increase dramatically in the coming months now that we have started to list local clinics in the US also.

Irish Visitor Analysis – April 2009

An interesting metric that we look at every month is the proportion of enquiries for clinics at home versus abroad. In April the split was 64.89% in favour of local clinics, versus 35.11% for clinics abroad. This is a significant shift towards people contacting clinics at home, as last month’s figure was 58.83%.

Irish Enquiries -  Home vs Abroad Split

Irish Enquiries - Home vs Abroad Split

Digging deeper, while the number of visitors from Ireland who contacted clinics abroad actually increased by 65.10%, the number who contacted clinics at home increased by a far greater amount, 74.83%.

Interest in dental treatment in Northern Ireland continues to be the talking point for Irish visitors. Following on from roughly doubling for each of the last two months, this month there was a staggering 256% increase in the number of enquiries for clinics in the North. The media coverage of “everything is cheaper across the border” seems to be having an even greater effect on people as the economic situation continues to deteriorate. Clinics along the border and on the main traffic routes to Belfast in particular are benefiting from people already travelling for groceries, alcohol and Ikea.

Clinics in Northern Ireland now account for 19.73% of all enquiries made by people in the Republic, up from just 9.96% in March.

The other most popular destinations abroad were Poland (7.91%), Hungary (4.51%), Turkey (3.40%), Poland (2.22%), and Spain (1.18%).

Top 5 Destinations (from Ireland) - April 2009

Top 5 Destinations (from Ireland) - April 2009

Back to the overall picture of visitors from Ireland, dentistry is still the number one thing on their mind, with dental clinics taking 70.81% of all enquiries, followed by cosmetic and plastic surgery clinics, with 21.80%.

The top 5 most commonly requested dental treatments are Teeth Whitening (17.12%), Braces (10.75%), Veneers / Lumineers (9.08%), Implants (7.62%), and Root Canal Treatment (3.24%).

Top 5 Dental Treatments (Ireland) - April 2009

Top 5 Dental Treatments (Ireland) - April 2009

The top 5 most commonly requested cosmetic or plastic surgery treatments are Botox (16.92%), Tatoo Removal (9.77%), Liposuction (8.27%), Mole Removal (6.39%), and Breast Reduction (5.26%).

Top 5 Cosmetic Treatments (Ireland) - April 2009

Top 5 Cosmetic Treatments (Ireland) - April 2009

UK Visitor Analysis – April 2009

As with Ireland, the breakdown of whether UK visitors are looking for treatment at home or abroad is one of the most interesting to look at. This month there is a continued swing in favour of contacting clinics at home, with the April figures showing that 63.60% of enquiries are for local clinics, versus 36.40% for clinics abroad. This is an increase from last month’s figure of just 43.89% of enquiries being for clinics in the UK.

UK Enquiries - Home vs Abroad Split - April 2009

UK Enquiries - Home vs Abroad Split - April 2009

While there was a modest increase of 37.62% in the number of people from the UK contacting clinics abroad in April, the number who contacted clinics at home increased by 112.36%.

Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are responsible for their fair share of enquiries from the UK, at 3.91% and 4.52% respectively. Outside of these countries, the most popular destinations for visitors from the UK were Poland (7.91%), Hungary (4.17%), Bulgaria (3.21%), Turkey (2.43%) and Thailand (2.09%).

Top 5 Destinations (from the UK) - April 2009

Top 5 Destinations (from the UK) - April 2009

While dental clinics are still the most contacted by visitors from the UK, with 60.82% of all enquiries, cosmetic and plastic surgery clinics have increased their share from 22.72% in March to 31.45% in April.

The most popular dental treatments requested were Veneers / Lumineers (14%), Braces (12.43%), Implants (9.86%), Teeth Whitening (9.86%), and Dentures (2.14%).

Top 5 Dental Treatments (UK) - April 2009

Top 5 Dental Treatments (UK) - April 2009

The most requested cosmetic and plastic surgery procedures were Botox (9.67%), Facelift (8.89%), Tatoo Removal (8.29%), Mole Removal (5.25%) and Trachea Shave (4.14%).

Top 5 Cosmetic Treatments (UK) - April 2009

Top 5 Cosmetic Treatments (UK) - April 2009

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Last month we focused on Irish Dentistry and Plastic Surgery Trends, so this month we’re going to zoom in on what’s happening in the UK. Traffic to the site continues to grow nicely, with a 33.05% jump from February to March, and yes, before you say it, we know that March is about 10% longer than February! You can read a summary of our key findings on our recently press release about UK dentistry and cosmetic surgery trends. For more detail, read on.

While traffic is up, what is of interest in the change in UK patients’ behaviour. There was a near 20% drop in interest in clinics abroad between February and March, which continues a trend going back to October. Since then we have seen a relative drop of over 40% in interest in heading overseas for treatment, with more and more UK visitors opting to contact clinics at home.

It would be easy to put this down to the Credit Crunch, like every other downturn story, and while we can sure it has had some effect on people, it seems to be more of a case of people putting off expensive treatment in favour of general maintenance. This would obviously have a knock on effect for the clinics abroad as they specialise in the high end “cosmetic” dental procedures.

Interestingly, the number of enquiries we are getting for cosmetic surgery continues to grow faster than our traffic, with the number of enquiries from the UK jumping by over 58% from February to March. Even taking into account our traffic growth that still leaves a growth figure of nearly 19% month on month.
One business in the UK that is booming right now is dentistry in Northern Ireland, where dentist’s phones must be ringing off the hook. Interest from patients in the Republic nearly doubled for the second month in a row.
Something new we’ve done this month is look at what people use the site to search for as well as what they actually contact the clinics for. Below is a summary of each in relation to dentistry and cosmetic surgery.

UK Visitor Research – March 2009 Search Data

Destinations (UK)
Searches (As % Of UK Search Total)
UK
63.88%
Ireland
6.48%
Poland
4.70%
Turkey
4.16%
Hungary
3.93%
Northern Ireland
3.23%
Spain
2.06%
Bulgaria
1.60%
Thailand
1.26%
India
1.03%
Dental Treatments
Searches (As % Of UK Search Total – Excluding General Consultations)
Teeth Whitening
21.28%
Dental Implants
17.79%
Lumineers
10.59%
Veneers
10.04%
Dentures
7.83%
Braces
7.77%
Root Canal
5.87%
Gum Surgery
3.37%
Plastic Surgery
Searches (As % Of UK Plastic Surgery Search Total – Excluding General Consultations)
Botox
25.37%
Facelift
15.67%
Liposuction
9.70%
Breast Implants
8.21%
Acne and Scar Removal
5.22%
Tummy Tuck
4.48%
Rhinoplasty
3.73%

Enquiry Data

Destinations (UK)
Enquiries (As % Of UK Enquiry Total)
UK
50.71%
Hungary
8.93%
Ireland
8.75%
Turkey
5.00%
India
3.21%
Bulgaria
3.04%
Northern Ireland
2.86%
Thailand
2.32%
Spain
2.14%
Malta
1.61%
Dental Treatments
Enquiries (As % Of UK Enquiry Total – Excluding General Consultations)
Dental Implants
21.56%
Teeth Whitening
15.58%
Veneers
14.29%
Braces
9.09%
Lumineers
6.75%
Bridges
6.49%
Crowns
4.16%
Root Canal
3.90%
Plastic Surgery
Enquiries (As % Of UK Plastic Surgery Enquiry Total – Excluding General Consultations)
Botox
25.37%
Facelift
15.67%
Liposuction
9.70%
Breast Implants
8.21%
Acne and Scar Removal
5.22%
Tummy Tuck
4.48%
Rhinoplasty
3.73%



Finally, here’s a little information about the organic keywords that bring people in the UK to our site. Looking at the keywords that brought people from the UK to our site in March, the striking thing is the breadth of the keywords that people have used. For example, there were only 17 unique keywords that brought more than 10 visits to the site. A staggering 92.63% of the keywords were unique, as in only one person landed on our site using that keyword in a search during the month.

This long tail behaviour is exactly as we intended it to be, and goes to show the incredible amount of data on our site that matched with these keywords. In next months barometer I will be going further in depth into some of the trends we can spot in what people are organically searching for. Some findings are surprising even at a cursory glance; only 0.2% of keywords contained the word “cheap” for example. When it comes to healthcare, maybe people aren’t willing to cut corners. More worrying would be if they are choosing to do without treatment during the credit crunch.

 

Our latest patient research shows some interesting trends emerging in February of this year. It was our busiest month yet for traffic on RevaHealth.com, with over 20,000 visitors from Ireland alone. Patients are understandably becoming even more price conscious in these hard economic times and shopping around for value for money dentistry.

There was an increase of nearly 75% in people in the Republic of Ireland looking for dentists in Northern Ireland. At the same time, there was a drop in interest of 24% in expensive "cosmetic" dental procedures, indicating that people are less willing or able to pay for top end treatments at the moment.

Over the same time period however, twice as many people from Ireland contacted cosmetic and plastic surgery clinics through our site, with rhinoplasty, breast implants and botox being the most popular treatments sought. Clearly, some people aren't quite feeling the pinch yet and are still prepared to go for a bit of a nip and tuck.

Our press release about the increase in the number of people heading north for dentistry is up on our site now, and here are all the facts and figures from our February research:

Irish Visitor Research – February 2009

Month
Visitors From Ireland
February 2009
700+ per day

Destinations (IRL)
Enquiries (As % Of Irish Total)
Ireland
53.29%
Hungary
16.09%
Poland
11.25%
Turkey
6.40%
Northern Ireland
3.11%
Bulgaria
2.94%
Spain
1.73%
Thailand
1.73%
Romania
1.21%
Portugal
0.69%

Dental Treatments
Enquiries (As % Of Irish Dental Total)
General Consultation
21.63%
Braces
18.32%
Implants
17.88%
Veneers & Lumineers
14.35%
Teeth Whitening
14.35%
Crowns
10.38%
Fillings
5.96%
Others
15.01%

Note: Visitors can choose more than one treatment per enquiry, meaning the percentages above can add up to more than 100%. The figure represents the percentage of all dental enquiries originating in Ireland that expressed interest in that particular treatment.

Plastic Surgery
Enquiries (As % Of Irish Plastic Surgery Total)
Rhinoplasty
22.47%
General Consultation
20.22%
Breast Implants
15.73%
Laser Hair Removal
11.24%
Botox
11.24%
Lip Augmentation
4.49%
Others
25.84%

Note: Visitors can choose more than one treatment per enquiry, meaning the percentages above can add up to more than 100%. The figure represents the percentage of all cosmetic and plastic surgery enquiries originating in Ireland that expressed interest in that particular treatment.

 
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