Travel, Save Money And Treat Your Teeth

Share This Dental Story |

 Print This Post

Related Dental Articles

• Five Ways to Save Money on Dental Work
• Dental Travel: Save On Dental Treatment And Have A Great Vacation
• Dental Tourism Call To Travel For Healthy Smile

Search for Dental Articles about...

By Andrew Ostroski

Americans have been finding ways around high medical and dental costs by jet-setting around the globe to countries where doctor’s fees are lower and recovery is more than lying on a couch at home watching soap operas – it’s lying on a beach in the sun, relaxing the day away.

According to the American Dental Association, the concept of “dental tourism,” as it has been dubbed, is a growing trend in the United States. In a 2006 release, James Berry of the ADA said dentistry conducted abroad is not for simple procedures.

“Americans obviously are not trekking to India or Eastern Europe for single routine dental restorations,” he said. “Most who go the extra miles need extensive dental care that, as they see it, justifies the added expense, particularly when a dental visit is combined with an exotic vacation.”

But one Bethany Beach couple doesn’t agree. Last year, Bill and Rosemary Carroll found their smiles again in Tijuana, Mexico.

In 2005, Bill and Rosemary Carroll were in need of some serious dental care. They were told by an area dentist that they needed thousands of dollars of work done – just $100,000 for Rosemary alone.

“(The dentist) went on to say that my husband’s mouth would set us back even further – about $50,000,” she said. “I got up shakily from the chair, paid the bill for the day’s dental visit and made my way home to break the news to my husband.”

The Carrolls’ dentist recommended extraction of teeth and dentures for Rosemary. However, dentures were not an option for her due to a history of oral cancer in her family, several cases of which were caused by ill-fitting dentures.

With the inability to pay the high prices of dental care looming in front of them, the Carrolls began to search for another solution by sending out for proposals from dentists across the country. The best proposal they found in the United States was for $85,000 from a dentist in Brooklyn, N.Y., which was still, Rosemary said, “well beyond our means.”

While opposed to dental tourism, Mark Brown, of Bethany Dental Associates in Bethany Beach, acknowledged the rising cost of oral procedures.

“Costs in dental care are going up as far as general costs are going up for everything else,” he said. “I think there’s a great value in the kind of help (patients) can get these days and there are a lot of great things available, but they’re expensive. We’ve been able to offer patients things that weren’t available five, 10 or 20 years ago.”

Elliott Flick, a retired dentist living in Bethany Beach, agrees.

“The cost of equipment to us is very excessive,” he said. “The quality of the care, unless you’re going to a country like Canada, you’re not going to get it as high quality as you would here. You’ll get it cheaper, but you won’t get the quality.”

The best solution for the Carrolls came from abroad. The couple researched dental tourism where Americans take advantage of lower dental fees in places like Latin America, southeast Asia and eastern Europe. For more than two years, the Carrolls considered dentists in places such as Brazil, Thailand, India and Costa Rica, Rosemary said.

“We checked the credentials of all the dentists in a variety of ways,” she said. “One way included checking with implant manufacturers to find out who used their products and who they trained. We checked to see how many years the dentists had been practicing and how many implants they placed.”

The couple eventually settled on a maxio-facial surgeon in Tijuana, Mexico. When they arrived at the facility where the surgery was to take place, Bill said they found they were not alone in their quest for cheaper care.

“Once we got there, we saw how many Americans were there,” he said. “Most of the people who went to the maxio-facial surgeon were associated with the medical field. We met people who were chiropractors, one person who was a neurosurgeon, and they were all from nearby states that bordered Mexico.”

One word, Bill said, described the feeling he and his wife felt approaching the surgical date – anxiety.

“Going to the dentist is not actually something that people look forward to,” he said. “Not knowing what the outcome was going to be, or even if there was a communication problem, I didn’t know where all of the minefields that we hadn’t thought about might exist. I kept wondering whether or not we had thought of everything.”

Bill said some of the procedures the couple endured were bone grafts, sinus lifts, tooth extractions, root canals and titanium implants. The couple both came through the surgery fine, although they are not done yet. The two have an appointment to return to Mexico in August to have their procedures finished.

“The (dentists) in Mexico that we went to are fairly conservative,” Bill said. “There are some guys (in the U.S.) who will finish up after just a few months. These guys want nine. They want the bone grafting that we had done to integrate with bone that was already there.”

The cost of the dental work south of the border was $16,500, or about 11 percent of the quoted Delaware price.

Since the initial procedures, the Carrolls said their lives have changed dramatically. Rosemary’s dental work has not only improve her smile, but her breathing ability.

“We just didn’t realize that her trouble breathing was because of her sinuses,” he said. “The Maxio-facial surgeons actually cured that. She had a periodontal disease that was caused by her breathing in and out through her mouth. That’s all gone now.”

Bill has also seen his own improvements.

“For me, I have a better bite and better chewing surfaces,” he said. “Even though I’m using temporary bridges, I feel a lot healthier. I didn’t realize how big a difference it would make in ordinary health having better dental (care).”

For those who can’t afford the trip abroad for dental care, Flick said there is an option available in Sussex County called Sussex Smiles – a volunteer organization manned by former dental workers.

“We have a clinic at the Stockley Center over in Millsboro,” he said. “We have a long waiting list. It’s just $20 for a visit and the dentists we have will do as much work as we can in that visit.”

If opting to have dental work done in another country, Brown said patients should do thorough research before sitting in the chair.

“Dentistry is not the same everywhere you go,” he said. “It depends on things like the training of the practitioners and the state of the labs. If it’s all about the money, you get what you pay for.”