Our experience with Medical Tourism for Dental Work

[nancyp]

My husband and I just returned from Costa Rica where we had a wonderful 10 day vacation and also some excellent dental work done. Neither of us have dental insurance. My husband had a bridge replaced and I had a tooth crowned. We paid less than half of what it would have cost at our dentist here. The dentist who did our work was trained in the US and is the Chief of Dentistry at the CIMA Hospital in Escazu, Costa Rica. Escazu is an upscale suburb of San Jose. If anyone is interested in obtaining dental work out of country, please feel free to email us for more information. Bill & Nancy Petri. You can email us at: bandnpetri@centurylink.net

[Trish Crocker]

My husband is a dentist and your post scared the heck out of me. I'm very glad you had good results but I would be hesitant to suggest others go outside of the US (I have assisted him while he corrected work done in other countries). One of the things that scares me is the fact you have no recourse...and, in spite of their credentials you have no way to verify. As far as 'dental insurance' I would not use that as a reason. Just please be careful, many countries do not have the same standards of care or the oversight with things such as suppli
es, medicines, cleanliness, or malpractice insurance that is required by dentists here in the US. Again, I am very, very happy that you had good results. Unfortunately I have seen the other side.

[nancyp]

Thanks for your opinion, however, my husband and I are extremely happy with our dental work. We thoroughly checked out our dentist and his credentials prior to our trip. Our dentist graduated from Loma Linda University in California and also attended Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. He spent 6 years living and practicing in California. He is the Chief of Dentistry at the American owned CIMA hospital, which by the way, is VA certified for treating American veterans. Costa Rica is the second most popular country, Mexico being #1, for out of country medical and dental procedures. Mostly Americans and Canadians travel there for various medical procedures. The cost of dental care in the United States is unconscionable as is the cost of drugs and many other medical procedures. We are very happy to have an alternative, using well trained professionals that we are very comfortable with.

[leftyf]

My wife had all of her teeth capped when we were camped near the Mexican border about 10 years ago. She has never regretted it. Her dentist was from Michigan, went to University of Michigan, lived in the US, close to the border, but had his office in Mexico for cheaper costs. Her teeth still look beautiful today. A retired dentist who was staying at the RV Park we were staying at asked to look at her teeth and was amazed at the work and the price. He said that he couldn't even order the caps at his office for what my wife paid. There were many RV'ers staying at that park that highly recommended this dentist. Also, because of the lower costs, this dentist had more modern equipment than our dentist in Michigan. Mexican dentists are very popular to the US citizens living along the border. There are also cheap dirty dentist offices where I don't think the dentist ever even went to school, so be very careful.

[manaboutown]

Some people of limited means I know in who live New Mexico patronize a dental clinic in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. They stay in a hotel in El Paso, Texas and a van operated by the clinic takes them across the border to the clinic and back. Prices are cheap. Work is done far more quickly than in the USA. They are happy with the results.

On the other hand I have known and used a gardener from Mexico (a naturalized US citizen) for over 20 years. He still has family down there and visits frequently. Nonetheless, he adamantly refuses to see a Mexican dentist. He does not trust them to use the right materials and probably otherwise.

As for me, I will only go to the very best dentist I can find right here in USA.

[wereback]

I only wonder why the dentist trained in America goes to work across the border at a small fraction of the price he could charge here. needn't say more.

[manaboutown]

I only wonder why the dentist trained in America goes to work across the border at a small fraction of the price he could charge here. needn't say more.

Me, too!:pray:

[TicoTexan]

I lived in Costa Rica for five years. I found the doctors and dentists there equal in skill to USA and better in that they did not seem as rushed as here. I had a few minor dental work done there without any problems. Several of my friends had serious medical procedures done there - heart surgery, plastic surgery, etc - and were highly complimentary about the care received. CIMA is a first class hospital better than many in USA. And many of the doctors and dentists are from Costa Rica and return home after training and make a comfortable living without the stress and hassle of practicing here.

[leftyf]

I only wonder why the dentist trained in America goes to work across the border at a small fraction of the price he could charge here. needn't say more.

I'm not sure the dentist actually makes less working in Mexico, but he does pay less for supplies and probably no insurance.

[dotti105]

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.

[nancyp]

Because he is a citizen of Costa Rica and so is his wife.

[golfing eagles]

I lived in Costa Rica for five years. I found the doctors and dentists there equal in skill to USA and better in that they did not seem as rushed as here. I had a few minor dental work done there without any problems. Several of my friends had serious medical procedures done there - heart surgery, plastic surgery, etc - and were highly complimentary about the care received. CIMA is a first class hospital better than many in USA. And many of the doctors and dentists are from Costa Rica and return home after training and make a comfortable living without the stress and hassle of practicing here.

:1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl::1 rotfl:

[ColdNoMore]

My husband and I just returned from Costa Rica where we had a wonderful 10 day vacation and also some excellent dental work done. Neither of us have dental insurance. My husband had a bridge replaced and I had a tooth crowned. We paid less than half of what it would have cost at our dentist here. The dentist who did our work was trained in the US and is the Chief of Dentistry at the CIMA Hospital in Escazu, Costa Rica. Escazu is an upscale suburb of San Jose. If anyone is interested in obtaining dental work out of country, please feel free to email us for more information. Bill & Nancy Petri. You can email us at: bandnpetri@centurylink.net

My wife had the opposite experience.

After having done a massive amount of research, she chose Prisma Dental in San Jose.

To make a long story short, they totally screwed up her large number of implants she needed and after having been assured on the phone before we left that they could do it all in the week we went, then told us that we would need to come back 3 more times to complete the work. :mad:

I'm glad you had a good experience where you went, but I can tell you from our experience to stay away from Prisma even though their website and advertising are very professional.

Dental Implants in Costa Rica - Prisma Dental (http://prismadental.com/)

In fairness though, their equipment and offices looked very clean. The young female assistants parading around in what amounted to low-cut, white mini-dresses...was pretty sexist and over the top however.

For those going there (and I would assume anywhere else out of the states for that matter) for major or long term work, I suggest you use one of the many facilities that cater to medical tourism. They will take care of you with meals, lodging and even transportation, so that when you're getting serious work done and need/want someone to take care of you after the procedures (including being able to write pain med scripts), you don't have to worry about it.

Another word of caution if you're going to Costa Rica, is to plan on hiring a driver to get you around. Costa Rica does not believe in street signs or addresses and your GPS will be of minimal help. Me being the type that likes to (and have) driven in places all over the world, didn't heed this advice. When you get instructions such as "go to the third green house, turn left at the brick wall with concertina wire and then turn right at the Banco America parking lot"...you know you're in for an adventure. :oops:

You will also need to get used to the number of guards carrying assault rifles and the bricked off homes with concertina wire at the top.

[tranceminder]

Thanks for sharing your dental experience! Last year, I posted a few of my personal experiences in Costa Rica as well; so I'm happy for the "company". I have major reconstruction; including implants, crowns and reshaping at Dr. Cavallini's Clinic and recommend them at every chance. So glad you had similar experience in Escazu.
Harry

[CFrance]

I just completed a dental implant. It took over a year. After procedures, healing was required, including one or two four-month stints. I wonder how you can have implants done in another country. Do you have to go back a few times?

[BAT777]

Sad when people have to go outside of the US to receive treatments because costs are so high here.

[doreedoc]

Tried to email you and it kept coming back to me. Please email me at doreedoc@gmail.com, thanks