The Kremlin is now jubilant that the Russian economy has turned out to be more resilient than expected in the West. Yes, restrictions have negative consequences, but the government copes with them at its own macroeconomic level. For example, did the West impose sanctions on gold and diamonds mined in Russia? It doesn't matter – they will be sold at a discount to Latin American countries or Arab sheikhs.
However, despite the advances in macroeconomic reports, everyday life is getting harder for the population. The main surprise was that in Russia there were big problems with imported goods, which are in no way connected with the restrictive measures against the Putin regime in general and the war with Ukraine in particular. So, no one forced more than one thousand foreign companies to leave the Russian market, but they themselves decided to boycott Russia. In addition, a huge number of imported products disappeared not as a result of direct sanctions, but due to the disruption of logistics routes and supply chains.
No one in the West has banned the supply of products for dentistry to the Russian Federation – filling material, impression material, cement for fillings and fixing crowns, implants, suture materials, metal for crowns, antiseptics … However, all this disappeared from the market. Russian dental clinics hope to gain access to all of the abovementioned, either through parallel imports through friendly countries, or through illegal smuggling. In both cases, the prices for all materials increase many times over. Dentists do not have time to change and print new prices. After three months of “special operation Z”, the prices for the treatment of caries, pulpitis and other common services have already increased by 75%. So, a complete treatment of a tooth with one root will cost 12 thousand rubles, and the treatment of pulpitis now costs from 20 thousand rubbles. By the beginning of winter, prices are guaranteed to double (that is, by 100%). What will happen next – no one knows.
Theoretically, it is possible to work with domestic analogues, but doctors diligently avoid this. For example, there is no gutta-percha and dental silicone in the Russian Federation. And what is there – impression material, cements, filling materials, composite, anaesthetics – are of terrible quality. Naturally, certain hopes are pinned on China, but it is not known whether they will come true. In addition, even if stable supplies from China are established, prices will still increase. After all, in addition to more expensive materials, there is such an important factor as the salary of employees: doctors, technicians, assistants, administrators, accountants, cleaners. Given that literally everything has risen in price, clinics will be forced to raise staff salaries.
But that's not all: from 90% to 100% of the equipment in dental offices is imported. Mostly German, Italian, American and Japanese. The equipment that could be supplied by China is not yet certified. But even already purchased and successfully operating equipment requires maintenance, repair, replacement of components. It is not clear how to deal with all this tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.
Of course, no one conspired against Russian dentists. It's just that foreign producers don't want to have anything to do with the Russian state as a whole. Today Russia is dropping out of the world civilized community in the same way as a rotten tooth falls out of the mouth.
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