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My mind went blank. I was dumbstruck. Speechless. And it wasn't because of the dental tools and latex-gloved fingers in my mouth. I had traveled more than 2,000 miles to Merida in southern Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula to have eight teeth capped with porcelain crowns and my new dentist there, having concluded his initial visual examination had just asked me, “Why are you here? You don't seem to have any urgent needs for dental work.”
This story actually began a year ago when I was eating a cookie and suddenly I bit into something hard. I thought maybe a small stone had gotten into the cookie dough during the baking process. But on closer examination, it turned out that a piece of one of my teeth had broken off while chewing.
A trip to the dentist — my first in many years I'm afraid — revealed the problem. I had eight teeth with hairline cracks caused by minute expansion and contraction of the metal amalgam fillings and by a common behavior called “jaw clenching.” I was told that the solution was to cap all these teeth with porcelain crowns at a cost of $1,200.00 each.
I don't have dental insurance and couldn't afford the $10K expense to fix my teeth. So I explored alternatives. Using the Internet, I Googled “dental tourism” and learned that each year hundreds of thousands of Americans, and millions of people worldwide travel to foreign countries for affordable medical and dental care. Americans and Canadians primarily visit three countries for dental care: Costa Rica, Mexico and Panama.
I decided to focus on Mexico. Merida seemed like an interesting destination. It is a 500-year old colonial city and the center of population in southern Mexico. There are nearby Mayan archeological ruins, such as Chichen Itza and Uzmal, which make for good day trips between dental appointments. Costs for a lodging, airfare and food are all low relative to the United States and especially to the cost of the dental work being proposed by my Grass Valley dentist.
Finally, I focused on finding a good dentist in Merida. A friend referred me to Dr. Javier Camara who earned all his college degrees in the United States, partnered at a dental clinic in Houston for seven years and relocated his practice to Merida twenty-five years ago. I visited his web site (www.yucatan-dentist.com) and called and spoke with him on the phone. I made my decision to go with Dr. Camara and scheduled my appointments, feeling rather good about the fact that I'd be paying less than $200 per crown in Mexico verses $1,200 in Grass Valley.
One of the nice things about dental tourism is you can make a little vacation out of it. We arrived just before the Day of the Dead festivities began on Oct 31. It was fascinating to observe festivities and ceremonies in which the local people celebrate with the spirits of their deceased ancestors.
After a few days of fun, I had my first appointment and received the unexpected assessment from Dr. Camara that I didn't need eight new crowns after all. I was still trying to make sense out of this revelation. He explained to me that what he had learned during his years as a dentist is that United States dentists tend to prescribe unnecessary treatment in order to reduce the risk of malpractice lawsuits.
He went on to say that his philosophy is that he only recommends dental work that he would do for himself — in his own mouth. In my case, he said, “Your teeth are fine. They are going to last a long time. If I was in your circumstance, I wouldn't do anything.” He added, “In the future if another tooth fails, then you can fix it at that time. But there is no sense in capping all eight teeth now.”
In the end we compromised and I had the two teeth with the worst cracks capped and two small amalgam fillings replaced with resin filings.
Medical tourism is an interesting phenomenon. There is a global market for health care these days. The Internet makes it easy and inexpensive to find the information you need. Of course there are risks involved. For instance, what happens if you need a follow up visit? My advice is to work out a treatment plan and schedule with your foreign dentist before you visit and be sure to leave some extra free days afterward in case a follow up is necessary.
My dental vacation in Mexico was a good experience. But it leaves me a little unsettled wondering why so many Americans — citizens of the richest country in the world — find it necessary to go abroad for affordable medical care.
This story actually began a year ago when I was eating a cookie and suddenly I bit into something hard. I thought maybe a small stone had gotten into the cookie dough during the baking process. But on closer examination, it turned out that a piece of one of my teeth had broken off while chewing.
A trip to the dentist — my first in many years I'm afraid — revealed the problem. I had eight teeth with hairline cracks caused by minute expansion and contraction of the metal amalgam fillings and by a common behavior called “jaw clenching.” I was told that the solution was to cap all these teeth with porcelain crowns at a cost of $1,200.00 each.
I don't have dental insurance and couldn't afford the $10K expense to fix my teeth. So I explored alternatives. Using the Internet, I Googled “dental tourism” and learned that each year hundreds of thousands of Americans, and millions of people worldwide travel to foreign countries for affordable medical and dental care. Americans and Canadians primarily visit three countries for dental care: Costa Rica, Mexico and Panama.
I decided to focus on Mexico. Merida seemed like an interesting destination. It is a 500-year old colonial city and the center of population in southern Mexico. There are nearby Mayan archeological ruins, such as Chichen Itza and Uzmal, which make for good day trips between dental appointments. Costs for a lodging, airfare and food are all low relative to the United States and especially to the cost of the dental work being proposed by my Grass Valley dentist.
Finally, I focused on finding a good dentist in Merida. A friend referred me to Dr. Javier Camara who earned all his college degrees in the United States, partnered at a dental clinic in Houston for seven years and relocated his practice to Merida twenty-five years ago. I visited his web site (www.yucatan-dentist.com) and called and spoke with him on the phone. I made my decision to go with Dr. Camara and scheduled my appointments, feeling rather good about the fact that I'd be paying less than $200 per crown in Mexico verses $1,200 in Grass Valley.
One of the nice things about dental tourism is you can make a little vacation out of it. We arrived just before the Day of the Dead festivities began on Oct 31. It was fascinating to observe festivities and ceremonies in which the local people celebrate with the spirits of their deceased ancestors.
After a few days of fun, I had my first appointment and received the unexpected assessment from Dr. Camara that I didn't need eight new crowns after all. I was still trying to make sense out of this revelation. He explained to me that what he had learned during his years as a dentist is that United States dentists tend to prescribe unnecessary treatment in order to reduce the risk of malpractice lawsuits.
He went on to say that his philosophy is that he only recommends dental work that he would do for himself — in his own mouth. In my case, he said, “Your teeth are fine. They are going to last a long time. If I was in your circumstance, I wouldn't do anything.” He added, “In the future if another tooth fails, then you can fix it at that time. But there is no sense in capping all eight teeth now.”
In the end we compromised and I had the two teeth with the worst cracks capped and two small amalgam fillings replaced with resin filings.
Medical tourism is an interesting phenomenon. There is a global market for health care these days. The Internet makes it easy and inexpensive to find the information you need. Of course there are risks involved. For instance, what happens if you need a follow up visit? My advice is to work out a treatment plan and schedule with your foreign dentist before you visit and be sure to leave some extra free days afterward in case a follow up is necessary.
My dental vacation in Mexico was a good experience. But it leaves me a little unsettled wondering why so many Americans — citizens of the richest country in the world — find it necessary to go abroad for affordable medical care.
