Posted on 07/02/2007 2:58:13 PM PDT by Kid Shelleen
---snip--- Americans travel to Mexico for stomach surgery, eye exams and routine checkups. But it is the dentistas - thousands strung along the border - who are in the vanguard in attracting U.S. health consumers.
Mexican dentists often charge one-fifth to one-fourth of those north of the border. Their operating costs are substantially lower, and because the Mexican legal system makes it almost impossible to sue them, they don't have to worry about high malpractice premiums.
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
>> they don’t have to worry about high malpractice premiums
...or doing quality dental work. Nope, none of those inconveniences that make it tough to practice bargain-basement dentistry here in Mejico! Venga!
I watched a television program showing patients who were “butchered” in Mexico by plastic surgeons. Those that survive are screwed up and scared for life. Only idiots would go to Mexico for medical and/or dental treatment. I hate to say it, but one has to be careful here as well, but at least our physicians, hospitals, and dentists are regulated (to some extent). I have a second cousin who lives in Mexico (family immigrated there from Europe around 1915) who went to medical school in Mexico and then came to the US and attended school here as well. He’s the exception; not the rule. Buyer beware, you only get one body and one life.
I lived in San Diego for 8 years and I am moving back this month.
I had 3 friends who went to Mexico for dental work. These people were all worth between 5 and 10 million dollars each.
Mexican dentists are excellent and well trained.
John
Beware of the socks drying in the autoclave. :-)
Whadda bunch of bull.
They all owned second homes in Rosarito and knew who to go too.
John
Well a friend of my mothers did go to greece to get dental work done, the doctor was competent and the price was about a fifth of what she’d get charged here.
I’d probably (if I could afford it) go out of the country myself to get extensive medical treatment. While I’d give mexico or any other south american country the skip I’d probably go to India. From what I understand the private hospitals there are excellent, you get treated like a king and the prices are reasonable by american standards.
Although that is the private sector which normal indians can’t afford, and they flock the overcrowded, filthy, and largely incompetent government clinics. Probably why people get the misperception that the socalized medical systems are so great. You’d never get a suite and a small staff waiting on your for a few thousand dollrs in this country.
But if a bunch of rich spoiled hippies go to a third world country theyget the absolute best and assume the whole system is like that.
I am sure you are right on some but I would not paint it with a broad brush.
My wife was diagnosed with cataracts when we were visiting the United States about 10 years ago. They wanted to do the surgery immediately at about $10,000 per eye. Since we were going home to Japan where our insurance was good, I said no. We located an excellent eye surgeon about 90 minutes away and had an appointment the week after we got back.
He did surgery on the eyes about 18 months apart, allowing the better eye ample time to heal and the poorer eye to "exercise" during the recovery stage. The actual eyesite improvement was better than what had been promised by the California surgeon.
Our bill came to about $400 per eye, including an overnight hospital stay on the second eye.
Bottom line is that you take you chances with any doctor or dentist. Ask for their credentials and check them out before major surgery. Expensive does not necessarily equal better.
Our eye doctor in Japan was not only a great doctor, he was a great person. He turned his clinic over to his associates for one month out of every year to travel to India and train their local doctors in his techniques. His charge for the training was that any doctor who benefited would pay back 10% by performing eye surgery on those who couldn't otherwise afford it.
.....and because the dentists have no regulation they may not sterilize their equipment or reuse needles and so you may get AIDS or hepatitis or just a botched job.....and you cannot sue them! Go south at your own risk!
Are you sure they have autoclaves.
Yeah, all those Americans with meth mouth, maybe. You know the ones whose teeth are all discolored and so loose that they are vitually floating in their sockets, the ones that US dentists refuse to treat.
I wonder if dental work could be treated as emergency case.
I can believe that that is the kind of person who might go to Mexico for a dentist, but I find it hard to believe that there is "Mexican dental empire" as referred to earlier in the story.
I doubt if you have ever been to Mexico and seen a Doctor. You are just relying on your bigoted leanings.
There are plenty of quacks here in America. My Uncle in Law was the worst dentist I have ever been too. If I hadn’t been related to him I would have turned him in to the state board. He practiced here in the Atlanta area. Old time country doctor who shouldn’t even been allow to practice.
John
bump
You’d be amazed at all of the people that I know that have had stomach banding done in Mexico. I work in a small community hospital in AZ. All the employees that have had it done go to Mexico. There is even a nurse practitioner that takes her patients there. When there are enough, she makes a trip of it and stays to watch the surgery. Amazing. No way would I ever do this.
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