71 PARTICULARITIES OF DENTAL MEDICAL SERVICES AND CONSUMERS IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALIZATION Petronela Iuliana GEANGU*, Lecturer Ph.D. student geangupetronela@yahoo.com Raluca CREŢOIU*, Assistant Ph.D. student raluca.cretoiu@yahoo.com Daniel Adrian GÂRDAN*, Lecturer Ph.D. student danielgardan@yahoo.com *Faculty of Marketing and International Affaires Spiru Haret University Abstract Globalization determines a growth of competition but as well a growth of the opportunity to attract new customers. The dental clinics will have to keep in mind the new characteristics and features of the modern consumer who is more educated, more informed, more active in searching for products and services, more communicative with the providers and the other consumers and more inclined to the cognitive side. At the same time, although they have to admit the traits of the new type of consumer – for whom there are no borders, the clinics must perform marketing researches and be permanently connected to each patient in order to be aware of the particularities of the local communities and even of the individual traits because the present consumer is more demanding and wants unique non-repetitive consumption experiences. For a dental clinic, the globalization supposes a global thinking and global action, not the homogenization of products and services they offer, as well as considering their hybridization, especially from the cultural point of view. Keywords: globalization, dental medical services, dental marketing JEL Classification: F00, I15, M31 1. Introduction Globalization is a phenomenon widely approached by many specialists from different angles corresponding not only to economic or social sciences but also from art, technological or biological domains. The present paper embraces the concept of globalization from a point of view concerning marketing theory and medical care services. The authors have been motivated by the results of various previous researches regarding consumers of