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Dental Savings with Mexican Dentist
The lower cost of Dentistry in Mexico is creating Dental Tourism in Baja
California
By David Mandich
Dental Tourists can vacation virtually free in Cabo San Lucas, San Jose del Cabo or Los Barriles, Baja California Sur, Mexico (map of Baja Sur) with the savings they get by having their dental treatments at Dra. Peña’s Angels Touch Dental Clinics.
Dra. Rosa Elena Pena of San Jose del Cabo
(near Cabo San Lucas) has been pioneering Dental Vacations to Baja Sur
for almost twenty years. The cost of dentistry in Mexico is very low compared
to costs in the USA.
“Sometimes
entire families come and visit me each year for their cleanings, fillings,
crowns and dentures …” she notes. “Over 80% of my patients are foreigners…
many Americans and Canadians recommend Angels Touch Dental to their friends
and then they become longtime patients too.”
Dianne Patton a recent internet patient from Yakima Washington recently
rented a house for a month on the Sea of Cortez in Los Barriles
for her spouse and six teenagers to vacation in while she had twenty-seven
crowns made saving the family over $15,000 dollars vs. the cost of having
the work done back home.
The ABC Good Morning America TV show will be featuring the Patton family’s dental adventure on the morning news later this year. What an exciting vacation they had! – Snorkeling, sailing, ATVing, riding desert dune buggies on a racetrack, dining, dancing, partying in Cabo and just relaxing at their beach house in tranquil Los Barriles.
Dra.
Peña has two clinics with five doctors including endodontists, general
dentists, a periodontist and an orthodontist. One clinic is in San Jose
del Cabo (convenient to Cabo San Lucas) the other dental clinic is in
Los Barriles on the East Cape. She hires top English speaking dentists
from all over Mexico who are tops in their field with some ranked at the
head of their graduating classes, (Rosa won a national medal in dentistry)
and other honors.
Angels Touch clinics are recommended or under contract with the best hotels in Los Cabos including the Presidente, Hilton, The One and Only Palmilla, local banks and government consulates as the dental provider for their employees and customers.
Mexican dentists train for as long as their counterparts elsewhere in the West (even longer when the required one year of social service in a government clinic is added in) and they use the same materials, equipment ordered from the same international suppliers everyone else on the planet does.
Porcelain crowns run $800 to $2,200 USD each in American big cities but only $350 – 500USD in San Jose del Cabo. The difference in cost is many faceted. Lab costs are less in Mexico, dental assistants make $500 a month - not $3-4,000 USD per month as in the USA. Office rents are less. Most materials and equipment are the same though. But a nice ocean view house in Los Cabos might cost the doctor $300,000 vs. $1.5 million USD (or more) a dentist in San Diego county might pay. And a Baja dentist will likely drive a VW Jetta or Chrysler rather than a Mercedes.
The average patient comes for a five day stay and gets a crown or their mercury amalgams replaced with color matched resin fillings. They save enough on these minor treatments to pay for all or a good part of their hotel and airfare from the USA. Patients who come for large treatments have saved enough money to buy a compact car or to make a down payment on a condo.
Safety and sanitation are equal in better medical facilities and worse in rural ones whether in the USA or in Mexico. Mexican medical professionals use latex gloves, digital sterilizing ovens for their instruments, face shields, masks, anti-bacterial soaps and scrubs etc. etc. A quality hospital should have bacteria
scrubbing
air ventilation systems in the operating rooms. Unfortunately this is
not always the case in many small town American hospitals, or in older
Mexican hospitals and rural clinics. But many Mexican health care facilities
are brand spanking new.
Besides professional care, medical and dental tourists to Mexico can expect warm, friendly care by people happy to host foreign tourists visiting their country.
People often say that medical treatment is superior in the West, but, not anymore. The long held myth that American medical care is somehow superior to everywhere else has been shattered. In reality, the only thing superior about American medical care is the high cost.
In America one gets high prices and less service. Long lines and long waits for appointments with doctors (and dentists) that see dozens of patients a day and are paid bonuses by the insurance companies and HMO’s to deny serious treatments. Then they prescribe medications that cost a hundred dollars a week but cost only fifteen dollars a week for the same item in Mexico.
Some American dentists even charge patients
$25 or $50 if they miss or are late to an appointment! Whatever
happened to caring and sensitive doctors in America? Has it really
become just all about money?
Mexico has universal health care for all its citizens along with extremely
low generic and name brand label drug costs. A consultation and minor
treatment by a doctor in a government or first class private hospital
can cost you five to fifty dollars - irregardless of whether you are a
Mexican or an American. The hard but true fact is – that a
poor hotel worker or construction laborer in Mexico has better access
to affordable medical and dental care than many folks do in the richest
nation in the world – 40% of whom haven’t any health care coverage at
all.
Patients who wish to eliminate the uncertainties of visiting a dentist in Mexico can receive free consultations over the internet at Dra. Peña’s Angels Touch clinics. Folks can email or fax photos or x-rays of their teeth, their dentist’s treatment plan or just ask questions such as: How much for a root canal? Where is a good place to stay by the beach? etc. Packages featuring hotel, ground transportation, diving, snorkeling trips, spa treatments, city tours, big game fishing, golf and more are available.
For a Free Online consultation, or an appointment to visit the original Angel’s Touch Dental Clinic or the new Angel’s Touch Cosmetic Dental Spa – For a Free Online Dental Consultation click here
Contact Information for Angel's Touch Dental Care in Los Cabos
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here for phone contact information
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here to contact Angels Touch by email reply form
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here to visit the Angels Touch website
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