Pavel Zingan in an interview with Vadim Vetrilă, CEO of Smile Dent Team, maib business customer.
Vadim, hello! Our interview takes place in one of your dental clinics in Chișinău. As far as I know, this location is just part of the Smile Dent Team project.
Indeed, Smile Dent Team is an international project that started in the Republic of Moldova and has expanded to Romania and Italy over time.
How did the project start?
I am a dentist and a graduate of the State University of Medicine and Pharmacy "Nicolae Testemițanu". Until 2019, I worked as a doctor, and then I decided to stop practising and dedicate myself to management. The story of Smile Dent began in 2009 when I was still a student. The clinic was founded by a doctor and a few partners in a small space with three dental chairs. I joined the Smile Dent team of doctors in 2012, and after a few years of medical practice, my wife and I decided to rent the clinic and start a new phase in its development.
We met Corrado Palmas in 2014, the Italian partner with whom we are still developing business relations. At that time, I wanted to move to a new level of dental services, allowing patients to solve the most complex cases in surgery and implantology. We also decided to expand geographically, so a new direction for us became medical tourism. Thanks to the collaboration with Dr. Corrado Palmas, we established this process and started working with patients from Italy.
Many people consider "medical tourism" the process by which the Moldovan diaspora temporarily returns home to meet their relatives and, meanwhile, to solve medical problems.
This process cannot be called "medical tourism," although we also deal with such situations because their mechanisms are very similar. Our main task is to bring patients from Italy or other European countries to Chișinău, providing them with the whole spectrum of dental services and logistics. Since 2014, we have had a constant flow of patients from Italy, developing the specific direction of medical tourism.
How does medical tourism work?
The first step is for the patient to apply online to our clinic, describe the problem and send X-rays or other investigations. Then, our specialists draw up a treatment plan and its duration. Usually, for the first surgical stage, the patient must be in Moldova for about a week, followed by a repeat visit after 6 or 8 months, lasting about 10 days. The medical tourism service involves the treatment and the organisation of the whole process - tickets, transfers, accommodation and even a cultural program.
Are these services included in your package?
Yes, of course. The patient does not need to look for accommodation or tickets in Moldova for the duration of the treatment. We manage all this.
What is the main argument for a patient from Italy when choosing a dental clinic in Moldova?
The price-quality ratio. Before starting working with us, Dr. Corrado Palmas carefully studied the dental market, evaluating different countries. Our clinic met all the standards- professionalism and experience of doctors, availability of modern technologies, quality of materials, and affordable prices. It is more advantageous for a patient from Italy or another European country to come to Moldova and undergo treatment in our clinic, as the quality of services is also at the highest level.
Why did you decide to expand in Romania?
Our decision to expand in Romania was not part of our initial plans. However, the pandemic presented us with new challenges and opportunities. Flight restrictions prompted us to seek an alternative solution. In 2020, we established a clinic in Iași, a city close to Chișinău with its airport. Our team of Moldovan specialists began operating there, treating some patients in Romania and arranging transportation to Chișinău when necessary. A year later, we further expanded our reach with clinics in Bucharest and Brașov. The medical staff at these clinics are primarily from the Republic of Moldova, and our main customers are tourists.
Opening clinics in Romania is entirely justified because it simplifies logistics during the pandemic. But how did the idea of opening a clinic in Italy come about?
In Italy, we work on a different principle. There, we opened a small clinic with local doctors, providing medical services to patients who have received complete treatment in Moldova or Romania. These services are primarily preventive and do not require severe treatment, but they need to be carried out from time to time to maintain the health of the oral cavity.
What plans do you have? Do you plan to expand further in Romania and Europe?
We focus on developing medical tourism in Moldova. We have already started working on an ambitious project for a new clinic, including a hotel block. This project will help us solve the main problem - comfortable accommodation for foreign patients. The clinic will be exclusively oriented towards medical tourism services and will become a unique project for Moldova.
Such a bigproject undoubtedly requires considerable investment.
Yes, that's why we turned to the maib team, a bank whose customers we have been for many years, for financing. The loan was approved quickly and on favourable terms, so we plan to open part of the clinic this autumn.
Could you give us more information about the new clinic?
The clinic will be located in Chișinău, in the Botanica sector, on purchased land with a total area of 25,000 square meters. The clinic will be located at about 3,000 square meters. The rest of the space will be used for the hotel for patients.
