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According to the Medical Care journal nearly 1 million Californians, about 952,000 adults, if to be more precise, cross the Mexican border to get the necessary medical care and most of them for dental tourism. Considering that about 488,000 of these people were Mexican immigrants, it’s interesting to know what is really happening there and what the reason is.

The information is based on a nation’s largest state health survey, the analysis of 2001 data from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS). It states that people seek medical care in Mexico because of the rising health care costs at home.

Steven P. Wallace, the lead author, associate director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, which conducts CHIS, says that: “The research shows that many Californians, especially Mexican immigrants, look for dental care in Mexico. This activity, called dental tourism, is caused by two reasons.”

The first one is the lower Mexico dental care costs. The second one is the fact that most Californians are uninsured, they have no dental insurance and can’t afford high cost dental care. In both cases it seems reasonable to practice dental tourism – it saves money.

There are two categories of Mexican immigrants: long-stay immigrants (who live more than 15 years in the U.S.) and short-stay immigrants (who live less than 15 years in the U.S.). Both categories are highly uninsured.

However, the second category of immigrants is much more uninsured (from 51.5% to 77.6%) in comparison with the first one (uninsured from 29% to 51.6). Dates depend on sources.

It’s clear now why dental tourism is so widely used in these countries. Dental care in Mexico is a convenient way to treat your teeth and more than 15% of long stay immigrants practice it, even if some of them live more than 120 miles far from the border.

On the other hand, long-stay immigrants are more documented that makes dental tourism easier for them. Young and strong undocumented immigrants tend to be mentally ill. This fact is caused because of the high economic, cultural and linguistic stress they are undergone.

Other sources suggest that dental tourism is practiced by not necessarily poor immigrants. The reason is that dental care in Mexico can offset any financial savings for very poor people.

Steven P. Wallace considers that it could be relevant to create and expand binational health insurance plans. Several private insurance companies have already developed such plans. Now, their 150,000 California workers have access to Mexican dental care facilities near the border.

This program should provide more uninsured people with the possibility of having a better and easier access to oral care. The binational health insurance plans should be relevant for participants and more cost-effective for employers.

However, uninsured immigrants still exist, and, as a result, dental care in Mexico will be practiced. In fact, this dental tourism has its benefits, too. It’s much better to tend to be informed. Only this will definitely save you from failure.