Today's most viewed
Dental tourists head for Ilkley
DENTAL treatment is now joining Ilkley's famous moor as a leading tourist attraction, according to one of the town's largest dental practices.
Visitors from as far away as London are combining the area's wide open spaces with a chance to open wide.
Dental tourists were now a familiar sight alongside local patients in the dentist waiting room, said U-Dentistry director Chloe Booth
Ms Booth said that mini-breaks to Ilkley allowed patients to enjoy the town's famous tea-rooms, shopping, and surrounding countryside - and to return home with their teeth put to rights.
The family-owned practice is hoping to team up with local hotels to put together a teeth and tourism package for visitors.
Some patients, said Ms Booth, were driven by necessity because the dental practices where they lived were either not taking on any more patients, or else had lengthy waits for an appointment.
Others found it hard to fit a visit to the dentist into their working week, and so combined a short holiday in Ilkley with a chance to have routine or cosmetic work carried out.
Patients are also referred to U-Dentistry by other dental clinics which don't have the specialist skills or equipment necessary to carry out certain advanced procedures.
U-Dentistry - which opened up three years ago in Valley Drive - has its own web site which comes up during internet searches of the area.
Although some patients come for routine treatments such as fillings others use their dental away-days for implants, bridgework and complete cosmetic dental makeovers, said Ms Booth.
She said: " have people coming from as far away as the Midlands and London for appointments, and they say it's a far less stressful experience when the treatment is combined with rambles over the moors, or a round of tea-shop testing.
"We often get asked for advice on where to stay, and I hope we will soon be working with local hotels to offer inclusive breaks to dental visitors."
5:19pm Monday 19th May 2008
Print 
Email this
CommentPosted by: Ian Wood, Hall Green on 1:49pm Tue 20 May 08
This article is brought to you in association with U-dentistry
This article is brought to you in association with U-dentistry
Posted by: Carl Chinn on 10:50am Wed 21 May 08
Indeed this is more PR than news
Indeed this is more PR than news
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!