Asia - A new dental Superpower
Recently, a report by the US National Intelligence Council made it into headlines around the world, forecasting that the current financial crisis on Wall Street is just the first phase of a global economic reordering, with the United States in decline and countries like China and India competing for more influence in a multipolar world. Global wealth was also seen as shifting from the developed West to the energy-rich Gulf States and Russia, as well as to Asia, a rising centre of manufacturing and service industries.
With a new presidential agenda in the United States, it might be hard to predict what is going to happen in the years to come. Maybe Barack Obama will become a great president who will help markets to re-establish and sustain America’s post-cold war role. Perhaps he will be hindered by the political and financial constraints that the politics of his predecessor leaves behind. More predictably, whatever the outcome of his politics, he won’t have much to play with on the international field.
In dentistry, we are already experiencing these developments and we are not just talking about China’s steady rise to a dental laboratory superpower. In most Asian countries, the majority of dentists are not only internationally educated, but also eager to stay up-to-date with the latest technical developments in the field. They also have state-of-the-art equipment at their disposal. Nowadays you will probably find more dental practices with the latest equipment and more treatment options in Singapore or Shanghai than you will in a practice in New York, Sydney, or Auckland. In addition, local manufacturers, especially those from China, are constantly gaining more market shares, not only in their domestic markets, but also internationally.
A Wall Street Journal article recently said that more and more insurers and employers in the United States are offering their clients and staff medical or dental treatment in countries abroad (see “Medical tourism: A new option for patients in the US, Dental Tribune Asia Pacific, 9(2008):8). This shows that, even in the West, people are increasingly considering the Asian continent a rising superpower, in general, and particularly, in dental health care. Asian dentists should be aware of this. They could soon be on the forefront of shaping the future of the profession.
