{
 "schema": 1,
 "id": "poland",
 "type": "destination",
 "names": {
  "name": "Poland",
  "aliases": [
   "Polska",
   "Rzeczpospolita Polska"
  ],
  "said": "In the trade Poland means Kraków and Wrocław for teeth, Warsaw for cosmetic work, and — for a decade — the flight a Polish family in Britain or Ireland was already taking home."
 },
 "region": [
  "europe-central"
 ],
 "facets": {
  "iso2": "PL",
  "direction": "both",
  "currency": "PLN",
  "languages": [
   "Polish",
   "English",
   "German"
  ],
  "draws": [
   "dental-implant",
   "dental-crown",
   "veneers",
   "rhinoplasty",
   "breast-augmentation"
  ]
 },
 "text": {
  "what": "A dental and cosmetic destination whose first customers were its own emigrants. Polish practices price in sterling and euro, against columns labelled average UK price and average Irish price, because the patient flying in often has a Polish surname and a British dentist. Poland is also one of the heaviest users of the EU cross-border reimbursement route in the other direction: Poles going abroad, mostly next door.",
  "story": "The Commission's data for reference year 2022 makes the two-way traffic legible. Poland received 14,176 requests for reimbursement of care that needed no prior authorisation and granted 11,862 — more than any country except France and Germany — and the report names the flow from Poland to Czechia among the busiest in the EU. In the other direction Poland received one request for care subject to prior authorisation and authorised none.\n\n*Trade practice —* the inbound dental trade grew on the same aircraft routes. Budget airlines opened Kraków, Wrocław, Gdańsk and Rzeszów to British and Irish cities in the 2000s for a labour migration, and the practices that advertised in Polish to that migration were already set up in English when the non-Polish patient arrived.\n\n*Inference —* the price pages show what is actually being sold. A Kraków clinic's list prices an implant with its abutment and zirconia crown at GBP 1,450 or EUR 1,552 and sets it against columns it labels average UK and Irish prices of GBP 4,000 and EUR 3,750. Those comparison columns are the clinic's own reading of other people's websites, not a survey, and they are the number most quoted and least sourced in this trade.",
  "how": "Itemised price lists rather than bundles, with examination, x-rays and local anaesthetic often listed free — the loss leaders that get a treatment plan written. A deposit is taken against each stage rather than the whole plan: one Kraków clinic asks 80% of a stage on signing. Implant work runs across two visits months apart; crown and veneer work can be done in one week if the laboratory is in the building.",
  "today": "As of 16 September 2026 a Kraków clinic lists a complete implant at GBP 1,450 and a full-ceramic zirconia crown at GBP 429, and states that American Express and Diners Club are not accepted. What the list does not price is the flight taken twice, the week off work, or the dentist at home who inherits the case."
 },
 "geo": {
  "lat": 52.2297,
  "lon": 21.0122,
  "precision": "country",
  "source": "s:natural-earth"
 },
 "metrics": {
  "note": "14,176 reimbursement requests for care not subject to prior authorisation, 11,862 granted, in reference year 2022. That counts Poles treated abroad and reclaiming at home; no comparable official count exists here for patients travelling into Poland.",
  "as_of": "2022",
  "source": "s:ec-crossborder-2022"
 },
 "prices": [
  {
   "procedure": "dental-implant",
   "country": "PL",
   "city": "Kraków",
   "amount": 1450,
   "currency": "GBP",
   "as_of": "2026-09-16",
   "kind": "list",
   "includes": [
    "implant screw",
    "healing ring",
    "individual abutment",
    "full-ceramic zirconia crown"
   ],
   "excludes": [
    "flights",
    "accommodation",
    "bone graft or sinus lift where needed",
    "treatment at home afterwards"
   ],
   "source": "s:indexmedica-prices",
   "url": "https://www.indexmedica.com/prices/",
   "note": "Index Medica, Kraków. The same page lists the implant screw alone at GBP 575, and the euro table prices the complete implant at EUR 1,552 for its Irish readers. The clinic's comparison columns — GBP 4,000 and EUR 3,750 — are its own estimate of prices at home, taken from other practices' websites.",
   "tier": "cited",
   "usd": 1954.0,
   "usd_high": null,
   "rate_date": "Wed, 16 Sep 2026"
  }
 ],
 "kin": [
  {
   "to": "warsaw",
   "as": "The capital cluster, weighted to cosmetic and aesthetic work.",
   "rel": "part"
  },
  {
   "to": "dental-implant",
   "as": "The line item its price lists are built around.",
   "rel": "procedure"
  },
  {
   "to": "united-kingdom",
   "as": "The source market its sterling price column is written for.",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "to": "ireland",
   "as": "The second source market, priced in euro on the same page.",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "to": "czechia",
   "as": "Where Polish patients themselves cross for care, the busiest flow in the EU reimbursement data.",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "to": "hungary",
   "as": "The older dental corridor it competes with.",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "to": "eu-directive-2011-24",
   "as": "The route its own residents use heavily, and its inbound patients almost never.",
   "rel": "governed-by"
  },
  {
   "to": "facilitator",
   "as": "The agent between a British patient and a Kraków chair, paid by the clinic.",
   "rel": "term"
  },
  {
   "to": "the-price-that-isnt",
   "as": "The comparison column on a clinic's price list, and who wrote it.",
   "rel": "story"
  }
 ],
 "links": [
  {
   "label": "Member State data on cross-border patient healthcare, reference year 2022",
   "url": "https://health.ec.europa.eu/publications/commission-report-operation-directive-201124eu-application-patients-rights-cross-border-healthcare-0_en"
  }
 ],
 "sources": [
  "s:ec-crossborder-2022",
  "s:indexmedica-prices",
  "s:eu-directive-2011-24",
  "s:natural-earth"
 ],
 "provenance": {
  "default": {
   "tier": "cited"
  },
  "fields": {
   "text.story": {
    "tier": "cited",
    "source": "s:ec-crossborder-2022",
    "note": "the reimbursement figures are cited; the airline paragraph is marked trade practice and the price-column paragraph is marked inference"
   },
   "text.how": {
    "tier": "tradition",
    "note": "the shape of a Polish dental price list; the 80% stage deposit is cited to the clinic's own page"
   },
   "geo": {
    "tier": "harvested",
    "source": "s:natural-earth"
   }
  }
 },
 "x_commons_files": [
  "File:Kraków - Rynek Główny.jpg"
 ],
 "needs_verification": true,
 "confidence": "medium",
 "updated": "2026-09-16",
 "blurb": "A dental and cosmetic destination whose first customers were its own emigrants.",
 "region_terms": [
  {
   "key": "europe-central",
   "name": "Central Europe",
   "note": "Poland, Czechia, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia"
  }
 ],
 "kin_out": [
  {
   "to": "warsaw",
   "type": "hub",
   "name": "Warsaw",
   "as": "The capital cluster, weighted to cosmetic and aesthetic work.",
   "rel": "part"
  },
  {
   "to": "dental-implant",
   "type": "procedure",
   "name": "Dental implant",
   "as": "The line item its price lists are built around.",
   "rel": "procedure"
  },
  {
   "to": "united-kingdom",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "United Kingdom",
   "as": "The source market its sterling price column is written for.",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "to": "ireland",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Ireland",
   "as": "The second source market, priced in euro on the same page.",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "to": "czechia",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Czechia",
   "as": "Where Polish patients themselves cross for care, the busiest flow in the EU reimbursement data.",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "to": "hungary",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Hungary",
   "as": "The older dental corridor it competes with.",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "to": "eu-directive-2011-24",
   "type": "rule",
   "name": "Directive 2011/24/EU on patients' rights in cross-border healthcare",
   "as": "The route its own residents use heavily, and its inbound patients almost never.",
   "rel": "governed-by"
  },
  {
   "to": "facilitator",
   "type": "term",
   "name": "Facilitator",
   "as": "The agent between a British patient and a Kraków chair, paid by the clinic.",
   "rel": "term"
  },
  {
   "to": "the-price-that-isnt",
   "type": "story",
   "name": "The price that isn't",
   "as": "The comparison column on a clinic's price list, and who wrote it.",
   "rel": "story"
  }
 ],
 "source_list": [
  {
   "id": "s:ec-crossborder-2022",
   "kind": "report",
   "title": "Member State data on cross-border patient healthcare following Directive 2011/24/EU — reference year 2022",
   "publisher": "European Commission, DG Health and Food Safety, Unit B.3; written by PredictBy Research and Consulting and Baltic Media; Publications Office of the European Union",
   "url": "https://health.ec.europa.eu/document/download/69e33702-c7cc-4f0e-afc0-f3cf13e127ab_en?filename=crossborder_2022_patient-healthcare_data_en.pdf",
   "license": "CC BY 4.0",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "note": "final version January 2024, ISBN 978-92-68-14858-7. 23 countries reported 547,890 reimbursement requests for care not needing prior authorisation in 2022, of which France 300,254 and Germany 160,647 are 84%; Poland 14,176, Slovakia 13,904, Ireland 1,841, Romania 889, Czechia 440, Croatia 192, Lithuania 131, Greece 56, Cyprus 44, Portugal 27 (all refused), Spain 9. Total reimbursed EUR 86,462,491. For care needing prior authorisation, 4,552 requests and EUR 7,708,041. Belgium and Hungary could not report; Czechia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden and Norway run no prior-authorisation system; only Denmark and Romania have a mechanism to limit inflow."
  },
  {
   "id": "s:indexmedica-prices",
   "kind": "web",
   "title": "Prices — dental treatment in Kraków",
   "publisher": "Index Medica, Kraków",
   "url": "https://www.indexmedica.com/prices/",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "note": "two tables, one in sterling against a column the clinic labels average UK price, one in euro against average Irish price. Read 16 September 2026: complete implant including screw, healing ring, individual abutment and full-ceramic zirconia crown GBP 1,450 or EUR 1,552; implant screw alone GBP 575; full-ceramic zirconia crown GBP 429 or EUR 469; root canal on a front tooth GBP 120. Examination, x-rays and local anaesthetic are listed free. A deposit of 80% of each stage is due on signing the treatment plan; American Express and Diners Club are not accepted."
  },
  {
   "id": "s:eu-directive-2011-24",
   "kind": "web",
   "title": "Directive 2011/24/EU on the application of patients' rights in cross-border healthcare",
   "publisher": "Official Journal of the European Union",
   "year": 2011,
   "url": "https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32011L0024",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:natural-earth",
   "kind": "dataset",
   "title": "Natural Earth — Admin 0 Countries, 1:110m",
   "publisher": "Natural Earth",
   "url": "https://www.naturalearthdata.com/",
   "license": "Public domain",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16"
  }
 ],
 "tiers": {
  "text.what": {
   "tier": "cited"
  },
  "text.story": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:ec-crossborder-2022",
   "note": "the reimbursement figures are cited; the airline paragraph is marked trade practice and the price-column paragraph is marked inference"
  },
  "text.how": {
   "tier": "tradition",
   "note": "the shape of a Polish dental price list; the 80% stage deposit is cited to the clinic's own page"
  },
  "text.today": {
   "tier": "cited"
  },
  "geo": {
   "tier": "harvested",
   "source": "s:natural-earth"
  },
  "prices": {
   "tier": "cited"
  },
  "metrics": {
   "tier": "cited"
  }
 },
 "primary_image": null,
 "tag_facts": [],
 "recognition_facts": [],
 "acclaim": 0,
 "kin_in": [
  {
   "from": "czechia",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Czechia",
   "as": "The source of the busiest patient flow into this country in the EU data.",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "from": "germany",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Germany",
   "as": "The other near border German patients cross, and a source of patients in return.",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "from": "hungary",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Hungary",
   "as": "The other Central European dental corridor, selling the same work to different markets.",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "from": "ireland",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Ireland",
   "as": "Second destination on the same return, at 371, and the dental corridor priced in euro.",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "from": "lithuania",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Lithuania",
   "as": "The bigger corridor selling the same work to the same markets.",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "from": "united-kingdom",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "United Kingdom",
   "as": "The dental corridor whose price list carries a column labelled average UK price.",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "from": "warsaw",
   "type": "hub",
   "name": "Warsaw",
   "as": "The country this cluster is the capital of, and one that trades in both directions.",
   "rel": "whole"
  },
  {
   "from": "abdominoplasty",
   "type": "procedure",
   "name": "Abdominoplasty",
   "as": "Where the ward day is a separate line from the operation.",
   "rel": "destination"
  },
  {
   "from": "bbl",
   "type": "procedure",
   "name": "Gluteal fat grafting",
   "as": "Where a clinic publishes a price stated to cover post-operative care.",
   "rel": "destination"
  },
  {
   "from": "breast-augmentation",
   "type": "procedure",
   "name": "Breast augmentation",
   "as": "Where the ward day is priced separately from the operation.",
   "rel": "destination"
  },
  {
   "from": "dental-crown",
   "type": "procedure",
   "name": "Dental crown",
   "as": "Where the clinic prints an average UK price beside its own.",
   "rel": "destination"
  },
  {
   "from": "dental-implant",
   "type": "procedure",
   "name": "Dental implant",
   "as": "Where one page quotes both the screw alone and the finished tooth.",
   "rel": "destination"
  },
  {
   "from": "root-canal",
   "type": "procedure",
   "name": "Root canal treatment",
   "as": "Where the front tooth is priced and the molar is not.",
   "rel": "destination"
  },
  {
   "from": "veneers",
   "type": "procedure",
   "name": "Dental veneers",
   "as": "Where the comparison column is labelled average UK price.",
   "rel": "destination"
  }
 ]
}