Dental requirements?
Thread Starter
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 42
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From: us
Dental requirements?
Ok, so I want to go overseas to work as a helicopter mechanic, but my teeth need about $5000 in work for some companies to qualify. I don't have that kind of cash on hand to do it. What companies will hire me? I have 27 yrs exp. with I/A and military exp. (secret clearance).
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 505
Likes: 1
From: Wiltshire, UK
What have your teeth got to do with your job?????
sorath, Goo goo 'Hungarian Dental Tourism' - they have first class dentists in the best-equipped surgeries at a fraction of the cost of the UK - don't know how it compares to the US.
I speak from experience, and I can speak on behalf of my wife and 4 or 5 other people who've had work done there.
The surgeries will organise flights and accomodation - as well as fixing your teeth.
Joined: Feb 2005
Aviation Qualifications: ATPL
Posts: 533
Likes: 41
From: Canada / Switzerland
Hi Simon:
It's quite reasonable for employers who are hiring candidates for overseas (expatriate) positions to require that they be in good health, and that includes dentition. If an employee becomes ill (for example, gets an infected tooth root, etc.), it can be awfully expensive to have to pull them out, get them looked after, put a replacement person in (or face a downed aircraft, etc.).
I worked for the Red Cross for a number of years in overseas locations - at times for the Red Cross directly, at other times for the aviation contractor that supplied the planes - and I recall that when we did have to medevac out a co-worker, the typical cost of the whole excercise was about $25K, if you include salaries, airfare, medical attention both at the jobsite and once you got them back to 'civilization', etc. Some medevacs cost upwards of $100K just for the plane to get the employee out, although it is unlikely that kind of cost would arise from a dental problem (unless, perhaps, sepsis sets in...)
So, under the conditions stated by the original poster (expatriate work), it's a reasonable requirement.
Michael
It's quite reasonable for employers who are hiring candidates for overseas (expatriate) positions to require that they be in good health, and that includes dentition. If an employee becomes ill (for example, gets an infected tooth root, etc.), it can be awfully expensive to have to pull them out, get them looked after, put a replacement person in (or face a downed aircraft, etc.).
I worked for the Red Cross for a number of years in overseas locations - at times for the Red Cross directly, at other times for the aviation contractor that supplied the planes - and I recall that when we did have to medevac out a co-worker, the typical cost of the whole excercise was about $25K, if you include salaries, airfare, medical attention both at the jobsite and once you got them back to 'civilization', etc. Some medevacs cost upwards of $100K just for the plane to get the employee out, although it is unlikely that kind of cost would arise from a dental problem (unless, perhaps, sepsis sets in...)
So, under the conditions stated by the original poster (expatriate work), it's a reasonable requirement.
Michael
