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Apr 21

UK Dental and Cosmetic Surgery Trends – March 2009

By Philip Boyle Monthly Barometer Add comments

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%

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%

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.

3 Responses to “UK Dental and Cosmetic Surgery Trends – March 2009”

thomassabastein says:

April 25, 2009 at 11:32 am

Provided info is of great use. thanks a lot for providing such a useful information. Hope u would continue doing this.

Reply
Dental Visalia says:

May 20, 2009 at 2:15 am

This is very informative. This proves that there are still people who would want to experience dental treatments and cosmetic treatments despite economic crisis. I think that in terms of taking care of one self is important regardless of whatever problems comes. Health care sector will always have unlimited patients to serve. Thank you for a very interesting topic.

Reply
Breast Augmentation in UK says:

October 6, 2009 at 6:55 am

Really Very nice information thanks for sharing.

Reply