Hi everyone! For a few weeks I read a lot of articles and Reddit threads on dental tourism and decided to bite the bullet (figuratively) and make an appt. I used the Dental Departures website for Nuevo Progresso near Brownsville and selected a dentist called Border Dental Solutions based on reviews and was open both Saturday and Sunday in case crowns were needed. I didn’t have dental pain but I’ve noticed some persistent lymph node swelling on one side which led me to believe I may have a dental infection...not to mention it had been about nine years since I was at a dentist due to lack of funds but mostly laziness and really no symptoms of cavities.
We drove from Houston after work late Friday and stayed in a hotel the night before. Saturday we drove down to the Progresso International Bridge (the one by Brownsville not Laredo) and parked in the $2 lot on the right before the bridge. It was 50 cents each to cross the bridge through turnstiles and an attendant provided change. Crossed over the river, took a selfie and walked into the immigration office. Nobody was in the office at the time besides the German Shepherd who barked in Spanish at the kids in front of us. We walked out onto the street. There were dental office signs absolutely everywhere! At first we passed our turn which was probably only ten paces from the Border office and walked down a block or two and came back. There were a lot of hawkers on street asking if we needed dental work, offering wares and encouraging us to pick their shops. There are lots of shops, liquor stores, jewelry and a bakery and everyone was friendly. We walked back into the plaza and saw the Border Solutions dental office. We felt silly that we missed the turn but it was cool to see what was further along anyhow.
Doctor Ivan was very cordial and welcomed us as soon as we walked in and turned up the TV for us. We were 10 min late since we had passed it first so we waited in the lobby seats as they finished with patients. They called me back and I sat in a comfortable dentist chair with nice pop music playing. I explained I wanted 4 silver amalgams removed and a cleaning and whitening. I mentioned I had found them through the dental departures website. Dr. Laura took a look and counted out my cavities. 7. I was surprised and asked how much fillings would cost. The website had said fillings were $40-70. Dr. Ivan translated in English for me and wrote it out and showed me and it first I was taken aback because I thought it was going to cost a lot more than it did. They were asking $420 for removing the four large silver amalgams and filling the 7 cavities. So 11 total. Due to my concern about cost they said the cleaning and whitening would be free. I agreed and we got started. She took a few “before” pictures for their website. She did a detailed cleaning using a small high speed drill and then the Zoom! Type laser whitening process took about an hour. She used 4 paste applications, a UV light positioned in my mouth with a tray over my lips and the typical curved suction straw. Trendy UV sunglasses too. After that was complete she gave me 4 numbing shots and quickly drilled out all the 7 (!) cavities and carefully removed the 4 amalgams. We did two more shots since I’m typically somewhat resistant to anesthetic and could feel pressure. She checked everything over and then started on all the composite fillings. One of the amalgams was pretty large (amalgam profundo she said) so she explained if it started to hurt later on then I might want to come back and get a root canal. ($200 on the website) She wasn’t pushy for the root canal and just said only to get it if it was painful. She had placed medicine inside the cavity as well. She ended up drilling a few high points back down and had me bite on the colored paper and drilling until they felt all correct. She was very patient about my bite fitting properly. I got to rinse with my big numb horse-feeling lips. Lol.
She took “after” photos with her phone. She gave me a mirror to check out my teeth. I was completely in awe as I had never seen my teeth so white in my life. The two doctors and I laughed and joked around about it. A+ I did have one more high point redrilled a short time later as the pain medicine wore off it felt a bit tall. Dr Ivan got it in a minute in his chair and it was perfect.
Meantime my husband also got a cleaning and laser whitening in the other chair. They repaired four of his cavities, two of which were very deep and low on his top and bottom front gumline. She repaired a big chip on his front tooth and filled some grooves on his other front tooth. He was a little uncomfortable during the whitening because his gums were very sensitive so they stopped ten minutes early. His teeth are very white and he was happy with the results. We took a group selfie and paid our total bill which was only $690 for both of us. We tipped both of the dentists in cash and they were very thankful. We all hugged and said farewell. They had skipped lunch and worked an hour over to finish up with us.
We walked back across the bridge it cost $.25 each this time and showed our passports to the officials. They told us no more sugar and coffee and joked around with us. Got back to our car and started the drive back up to Houston. We used hotels.com’s app and ended up staying in Victoria overnight at the Marriott for $89 just because we were a little tired from the long day. It’s about 6 hours or so between the cities but we weren’t in a hurry to get home Sat night.
We keep looking in the mirror at our teeth and are amazed at how beautiful they look. They feel wonderful and look great and the composite fillings are so attractive compared to the silver ones I used to have. We calculated out how much our visit might have cost in the United States and came up with around 8-10k. I know a root canal would’ve been much costly and crowns etc. would probably have been pushed hard in the US. I really liked that the Doctors weren’t pushy or up selling us about anything. They were cool and down to earth and not just trying to get money out of us and didn’t rush the work.
I’m very happy. I am forever a fan of dental tourism and wanted to let everybody know.
Thanks all!
August 09, 2017 at 07:23PM
