Our son needed expensive dental work while attending school in Phoenix.
Fortunately we had friends in Phoenix that we talked to for dental referrals. We were very surprised when they told us about Algodones, Mx. It is a small town, across the border, that is comprised of hundreds of dentist, ophthalmologists, optometrists, and pharmacies.
We were certainly skeptical. But my husband drove down from Utah and took our son to the dentist our friends use.
His office was very clean, everyone was very professional and the waiting room consisted of all US and Canadian citizens. Our son had his work done at a fraction of the cost here in the US and he has since had US dentists praise the work he had in Mx during his routine dental exams.
We were so surprised that every winter retirees fill the parking lots and campgrounds on the US side and walk over for care. It is easy to find reviews on the dentists there. The equipment was state of the art, and the dental work was excellent.
There are great dentists there as there are here. But there are also scary dentists everywhere. The thing we see the most of here in the US is price gouging. You can easily go to one dentist and get estimates for work costing $10,000 or more, then see another dentist who will examine you and find very minor, inexpensive work to be done.
As a consumer, it is difficult to know if you are being scammed by a dentist, unless you get a 2nd opinion. I am a RN and have great respect for our US trained dentists. But anyone in the dental field knows there is lots of price gouging going on.
It is unfortunate that it is less expensive to go abroad for medical or dental care or to purchase pharmaceuticals. But it is a fact that the same product or service here can cost a fraction abroad. We use an Indian Pharmacy for that very reason.
If you consider going abroad, you need to do your homework and with the internet, it is easy to find out who the good providers are. Some would have you believe it is back alley type providers. I am sure there are those, but there are also excellent providers who who are professionals and enjoy much lower costs to provide great care.
|