“You’re doing what?!”
This was the reaction I got from family and friends when I told them I was going to Mexico to get serious dental work done.
I may as well have told them that I was running off to join the circus. Actually, they may have found that to be a more reasonable life decision…
How did I end up in this predicament anyway?
For starters, I’m an American freelancer without dental insurance.
At the time, I had been living in Asia for several years, where I always just paid out of pocket for any dental work, and I had just returned to the States for an extended visit.
As luck would have it, I discovered an unsightly lump on my gum while visiting friends in Colorado.
A quick Google search told me it was an abscess and that I most likely needed a root canal—great news to get while on vacation.
Back in Detroit, I paid a visit to my childhood dentist to get her assessment. She confirmed what Google had told me and gave me the contact information for an endodontist in the area.
I called them up that afternoon and received a quote of about $2,500 for a root canal and a crown.
As a part-time online English teacher and freelance writer, this was a case of serious sticker shock.
Plus, I had gotten used to the much lower cost of living in Indonesia and China. I simply could not afford this.
My next step was calling up the fine folks at the University of Detroit Dental School. It’s possible to get dental work done by students for a discount, but the total price was still over a thousand bucks.
Plus, did I really want someone “practicing” a root canal on me?
Everyone I spoke to informed me of a special dental credit card I could apply for if I couldn’t afford to pay for it upfront. Hooray, more debt.
I had just paid off my student loan after several years and wasn’t in a hurry to get back into debt.
My wife and I were just starting our digital nomad journey, and we had our sights set on Mexico as our first international destination once we got our feet wet working online in the United States.
I started thinking about traveling down there sooner than planned to take care of my dental issue.
I sat down at my computer and typed into Google, “Dental work in Mexico.”
The result was a bit surprising, as tons of articles and forums popped up, most with glowing reviews.
This is how I learned about a little place called Los Algodones, also known as Molar City.
As it turns out, this little town on the Mexico-U.S. border near Yuma, Arizona, is a booming destination for medical tourism. As a 30-something backpacker turned digital nomad, this concept was new to me.
I learned that it’s quite common for people to travel to Yuma and pop over the border to get dental work done.
They also go there to visit optometrists and pharmacists, whose services and products also come at a massive discount compared to the good ole’ US of A.
We had already booked our Mexico trip to start a month or so later, starting with a bus ride from Austin to Monterrey.
Our plan was to spend a few nights there, a week in Mexico City, a week between San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato, and then a week in Guadalajara.
We wouldn’t have more than a week in any one destination until we arrived in Puerto Vallarta for a month.
I had no pain at the time, but my dentist warned me that as soon as it became painful, it would become urgent. Obviously, this concerned me.
As a result, I started looking into my travel options and costs for visiting the famed Molar City.
At the same time, I began researching my options in Puerto Vallarta.
Our Airbnb host recommended a Canadian dentist who had an office called DentoAmerica in the small town of Mezcales, a 20-minute drive up the highway.
She had dental work taken care of there before, and she had expat friends who had done the same with great results.
I contacted Kirk and received their price list. A dental exam would cost 700 pesos, or about $38. They would need to perform one even if I already knew the problem as a precautionary measure.
A cleaning would only run me 600 pesos, or $33. As for the root canal, that would be 5,000 pesos ($276) and the crown would be slightly more.
I found similar prices in Molar City, but there was the added travel cost of flying to Yuma and back, which was quite high coming from the small regional airport of Asheville.
Even with the added cost of travel, it still would have been substantially cheaper to travel to Los Algodones than take care of it at home.
To summarize, I could spend around $2,500 and go into debt at home, I could spend about a thousand less and add another spur-of-the-moment trip to Mexico; or I could wait until we got to Puerto Vallarta and spend around $600 including an exam and deep cleaning.
I decided to roll the dice and put it off until we got to PV, keeping my fingers crossed that it didn’t become painful. After all, it was just a few weeks away.
I managed to stave off the pain on that trip through Mexico.
When we finally got to Puerto Vallarta, I had a weekend to explore the town and rest up before heading to the dentist.
As you can imagine, I was a bit nervous. This was mostly because the fear-mongering from friends and family back home persisted.
After reading several reviews and communicating directly with the dentist, I trusted that I was making the right decision. I constantly asked people, “You do realize that Mexicans have teeth, too, don’t you?”
I took the bus up the highway to their office and was a bit surprised to find that it was in a shopping mall. “It’s fine,” I thought, as I took a few deep breaths before walking in.
Also to my surprise, what I found was one of the nicest, most modern-looking dental offices I’ve ever been in.
The receptionist was incredibly polite and spoke near-perfect English. They had me fill out a form and take a seat in the air-conditioned waiting room, where music videos played on a nice TV.
A few minutes later, Kirk greeted me, and we had a chat before he brought me in to see the dentist, who would perform my exam and cleaning. They did a great job of putting me at ease and explaining everything.
Not surprisingly, I did in fact need a root canal and a crown. We scheduled the handful of appointments that it would take, and I went on my way with plans to return a few days later.
There are few things in life less pleasant than getting a root canal, but I’m happy to say that this experience was about as pleasant as it could possibly be.
The endodontist did his best to calm my nerves, and I was never in any serious pain. Some slight discomfort from having my mouth wide open for two hours, sure, but the pain was minimal.
I went back in a few days later for them to check on the healing process and then again to take the mold for the crown.
A week later, I returned yet again to get the crown, and my dental dilemma was finally solved.
Best of all, they offer patients a 10% discount for paying in cash with Mexican pesos. I didn’t have enough on me to cover the entire bill, but they let me pay the remainder on my next visit for a check-up.
At the time, we were living in a very simple local apartment far from the beach. Our first month cost just over $300 on Airbnb.
When we inevitably fell in love with PV and decided to extend for another three months, the owner let us do so for only 4,000 pesos a month, or $220.
For those keeping score at home, I was going to be on the hook for $2,500 for the root canal and crown in the States. Instead, I paid around $550 for it—a savings of nearly two grand.
We ended up spending seven months in that apartment for a grand total of $1,500 in rent, with all utilities included except gas for cooking and drinking water.
Factoring in my dental bills, the total still came in well below what it would have cost to do the procedure in the States.
Instead of going into credit card debt while living with family in freezing Michigan as I paid off the bill, I got to spend seven months living by the beach in Mexico.
This experience was a few years ago. Prices have gone up slightly at this office, but they are still quite reasonable. We have yet to find another $220-a-month apartment in Puerto Vallarta, sadly, but these days we gladly pay more to be in a better location.
I’m sure glad I decided not to listen to everyone who thought getting dental work done in Mexico would be the end of the world.
Since then, my wife and I have both continued to take care of our dental work in Puerto Vallarta. Years later, that problem tooth has healed up nicely, and the crown is still going strong, as is our love for PV and Mexico in general.
Sincerely,
Sasha Savinov
Contributor, Overseas Living Letter
