Dental tour set up like a junket

If you're planning to fly to Mexico for dental work, the trick is to fly to Phoenix rather than Mexico.
"You can fly Calgary to Phoenix return for $400 and then rent a car to drive back and forth to Mexico," said Neil Giesbrecht who had a dental plan and still couldn't afford the cost of dental work in Canada.

"Even after my dental plan had paid a percentage I was still going to have to pay $9,800," said Giesbrecht. "In Mexico, for the whole thing, I paid $2,060." He bristles with indignation at the
price Hatters are paying.  "There is nobody worth $700 an hour," said Giesbrecht calculating what a local dentist was charging. "The quality of the work is the same as here and I am not going to pay the cut-throat rates demanded here."

When he told the Mexican dentist that he was stretched for time she immediately offered to come in on a Saturday He says the dental office wasn't pretentious, but it was spotless.

He had two extractions, eight root canals, eight crowns and two bridges. He was also impressed by the sensible plan the dentist proposed in finding a solution to his dental needs.

The supply of antibiotics and pain killers was supplied as part of the cost of the treatment. He was not given a prescription to pay for.

That was all 18 months ago and he says that he's had no problems. "My wife and I are both going again this fall," said Giesbrecht. "I'm considering implants now."

The Giesbiechts said there are a number of options of where to stay while down there. There is a casino at Nevada and the hotel courtesy vehicle was willing to drive them to the border each day
They stayed in a nice five-star hotel at $72 per night for eight days, their flights from Calgary return were $400 each and rented a car for a litde bit of touring each day after the dental work was over.

"The total cost including the dental work was not even $4,000," said Giesbrecht. He thinks local dentists are only just starting to realize the real competition is in Mexico. Giesbrecht says he's thinking of running a bus load of people down there once a month to give Hatters a choice for
dental work, prescriptions and eye glasses.

"This could be the wave of the future," said Giesbrecht. "I might seriously consider this." This is the third in a three part series of personal experiences with dental tourism.