Dental Surgery Abroad

[nara]

My husband and myself are in need of some extensive dental surgery. We don't have dental insurance (and a lot of this is just cosmetic) so we are considering going abroad. Does anyone have any experience or recommendations for this that they could share?

[Socmonkey]

I live in Southern Arizona. Nearly everyone that pays out of pocket for dental heads over to Los Algodones, Mexico. I haven't been, but they tell me that it is even better than most places in the USA (clean and great service) for 1/10th the cost. Nearly every dental office there speaks English as dental work for Americans is the main job creator there.

Los Algodones is just over the Mexican boarder where Arizona and California meet.

[rementis]

1/10th the cost simply isn't true.  It's about half price though.

[Eric]

Here's a series of posts about it:

http://frugalvagabond.com/dental-tourism/

[Gimesalot]

I have heard that Buenos Aires Argentina is a common spot for dental procedures.

[Paul der Krake]

France.

I get my checkups done there, basically the amount they charge for routine procedures is capped by the government and hasn't been raised in 20 years. A cleaning is 28 EUR. Major operations are not capped but seem to run around 30-50% of US prices.

Must speak French, or find a dentist fluent in English.

[Kiwi Fuzz]

I can only provide hearsay. When I lived in NZ I knew someone who had their wisdom teeth removed in India. The flights for her whole family plus the surgery supposedly cost less than getting it done in NZ. I don't know how USA vs. NZ dental surgery pricing compares but I suspect that the US is higher from my experience with fillings and etc. (I didn't have insurance in NZ and the cost in the US with insurance seems similar.)

Personally, I'd be too anxious to have surgery overseas. Follow up would be difficult. I had a coworker who had his wisdom teeth out in his late twenties, last year, and more than 6 months later the gums still haven't healed over. He's been back several times. He had the surgery in the US but with a dental office I've had a personally bad experience with. Hopefully your requirements are less complicated/require less follow up.