Mexico Dental – A Guide to Dental Surgery in Los Algodones

Before We Get Started

If you are thinking about getting dental work done in Mexico then you’ve found a great resource to help you decide if Mexico Dental is the right choice for you. All of the information you will find in this article is based on personal experiences and our independent research. We were not paid by any dental office, and give our opinion freely and willingly as our own. Make sure to do your own research. This article is for informational use only. We are not doctors and cannot give medical or dental advice. If you have questions about our personal experience you can schedule a chat with us by messaging us on our Facebook page or by commenting below (we will be in touch!). Do your homework and make the right choice that is best for you and your situation.

Background On Our Situation

In 2014, Erik had a root canal and crown procedure performed by a reputable, U.S. based dentist in our home town of Stamford, CT. The tooth in question was in the upper jaw, behind the k9 tooth. If you want to get technical it was the left maxillary second bicuspid. Erik has always had fragile teeth, but the work done on this tooth was not done well and the tooth broke less than a year later. The break occurred below the gum line, destroying any future anchor points for the root. This began our journey into the world of understanding dental implants, their cost, quality and potential pitfalls if improperly installed.

A dental relationship is a very personal one. I personally can attest to loving my dentist and having a great experience here in The States. Love can only go so far however. When it comes to dental implants love is one thing… cost, experience and quality is quite another… We began our search for a reputable implant specialist in the U.S. Our new dentist who performed our cleanings and annual checkups (not the one who performed the bad crown) offered to the do the dental implant and gave us a free consultation. What we realized during this consultation was that implants were actually a specialty, much like oral surgery in general. Our dentist needed to bring in another partner dentist into his office and upon closer inspection, didn’t seem to have the experience we were looking for.  Nonetheless we proceeded with getting an estimate… a $5,500 estimate. When we pressed for additional information we got silence, incomplete information  or “we need to call you back” which didn’t leave us feeling good about our prospects. Some of the questions we asked our dentist that they were unable to quickly answer: Who manufactures the implant? Who manufactures the crown? How many procedures have you performed this year? Do you have any patient references?

Thus began our search for an implant specialist. In doing our research it became clear to us that the markup on dental work was not only enormous but very inconsistent. The actual material costs of the implant, crown and secondary material barely added up to $500 dollars in wholesale cost to the dentist. This was a high margin business with a huge spread in cost, quality and dentist experience.

Our Decision to Explore Mexico Dental

We won’t sugar coat it, cost was a huge factor in our decision to explore Mexico’s dental market, but it wasn’t the only factor.

We wanted to work with a dentist that came highly recommended and who had done hundreds if not thousands of dental implants. That isn’t to say that more is always better, but speaking as professionals in our own craft, we know that experience plays a tremendous role in how good we are at our jobs, and we wanted the same from our dentist. We also wanted to work with someone who wasn’t insulted by our questions. A dental practice that was comfortable being transparent about the materials, procedure, experience and costs from start to finish.

As we began to do our research we were genuinely surprised that we started getting more comfortable with some of the Mexico dental practices than we were with the US ones. It became clear that the Mexico dental offices had to work harder to earn your business. Potential customers were naturally suspect of poor quality, a lack of legitimate medical training, a lack of standards or governing body around conduct and even concerned about basic things like physical safety when traveling to Mexico. As a result we found that the offices we spoke to were more prepared. They had written materials ready explaining their approach, methodology, experience and value proposition for using their office. This was in contrast to offices in the US, who seemed mystified by our questions and generally unwilling to defend why they were the best choice. In the end it started to feel like we were going to pay more and get less by using a US dentist… interesting for sure!

A Summary Of Our Initial Experience

After doing our research and speaking to a number of dental offices in both the U.S. and in Mexico we were ready to make our decision on who would perform the procedure. We determined that Rubio Dental Group in Los Algodones, Mexico was the right fit for our needs. (see FAQ section below for details on our selection process and some other doctors you should also consider) Dr. Rubio and Dr. Cezar are the two primary owners and actively work in the practice on a daily basis.  They speak english fluently and are considered specialists in implant dentistry. Due to their credentials, the results of our research,  referrals from other friends and fellow bloggers (Marc & Julie from RVLove and Nina and Paul from Wheelinit), we decided to use them for Erik’s dental extraction and implant procedure.

For those of you who follow the blog more for entertainment than education, we will keep it brief and let the video above speak for itself. Lets just say that the procedure went off without a hitch, Erik had very little to no pain at all during the extraction, during the implant installation, or during the healing phase. Our second article and video are up and available here. Come check it out!

I’m Interested in Exploring Mexico Dental! Where Do I Start?

For those of you here for a detailed education on our experience, not to worry we have you covered as well. The procedure from start to finish took us 2 trips across a 3 month period. 3 months you say?? Yes, it takes time for the implant to heal before it can accept a crown so you need to come back after things have had a chance to heal. In total we paid approximately $2200 for the implant which included initial consultations, a cleaning, a CT Scan, tooth extraction and minor bone graphing, implant installation, crown and crown placement. We opted not to get a temporary tooth made during the healing phase, that would have added some minor cost to our total. We have put together a list of questions and answers that we believe you will find useful in beginning your search to explore if Mexico dentistry is right for you. If you have any additional questions or suggestions please let us know, we will add content and questions to the FAQ below as the article expands with feedback from our followers.

[ultimate-faqs include category='mexico dental']