My Visit To Los Algodones For Major Dental Work – Part 1

WARNING: Just a few days ago, my fellow blogging friend Croft wrote about his recent experiences going to a dental clinic in Los Algodones, Mexico. Wisely, I think, he issued a “warning” to readers saying that “You are about to hear more about my successful dental procedure than you may want to know. I am doing this because many people are interested in dental work in Mexico.”  I debated even mentioning my own visit to Algodones for dental work but came to agree with Croft that many people do want to know about affordable dental work done in Mexico.

I wasn’t sure where to start this story so maybe the beginning is as good a place as any.  In a May 30, 2013 blog titled My Appointment With The Grim Reaper – aka Dentist, I wrote about going to a dental specialist called a Prosthodontist to get an opinion on how to fix/replace my upper-front bridgework of 8 teeth:

Way back around 1978, I had some pretty unique and rather elaborate bridgework performed by a young dentist in Victoria.  He used 4 small gold retention pins to keep my bridge in place and safely anchored and cemented to what I heard described as 4 crown anchored abutments.

That bridgework remained intact for an incredible 35 years with no problems.  Dentists I visited over the years were always amazed at how long it had lasted.  Unfortunately, one day in May, 2013 one of the gold retention pins wore out and came loose – not a good feeling!  I went to my dentist thinking he could just put a new pin in and presto!  I was wrong. After taking the usual x-rays he gave me the bad news: not only had the pin come out but one of my anchor teeth was cracked causing the entire bridge to become unstable.

He referred me to specialist called a Prosthodontist. As usual, I procrastinated and waited until November before making an appointment. This specialist took multiple x-rays, poked and prodded then gave me my options – all of them bad as far as I was concerned.  Basically, my faithful bridgework was toast as the right-side anchor teeth were cracked and unstable. The Prosthodontist told me I had a few options that included a full denture, dental implants, implant/bridgework and other exotic, expensive treatments.  I wrote in my blog “I have to think some about this”.

And, think I did without ever coming to a decision.  I ruled out the idea of a full upper denture as I hated that idea even though it was affordable and 70% of the cost would be covered by my dental plan. The dental implant plus bridgework was estimated to cost in the range of $30K – that’s right $30,000!!  Wowza!  Most dental plans, including mine, frown on dental implants calling them ‘cosmetic’ and not essential.  I needed to think about this and since we were headed to Palm Springs in just a month it was too late to do any extensive dental work anyway.  Procrastinate more!

Our 2014 winter vacation down in Palm Springs went well with no new bridgework accidents so I began to think I was “out of the woods”.  But, over the summer, I could tell my bridge was continuing to deteriorate.  Still, no reason to panic – lets head to Palm Springs and I’ll deal with it when we get back home in April. Panic set in though about 3 weeks ago when I felt a crunch as I bit into something and it turned out to be another of the tiny gold retention screws – oh, oh!  Now, my bridgework was really loose on the left side and in danger of coming right off. 

Sensing disaster, I made an appointment with a dentist in Palm Springs who specialized in dental implants.  After taking the requisite x-rays and examining my bridge he told me the same thing my Victoria dentists did – my anchor teeth were cracked and the bridge needed to be replaced. His estimate for getting the work done in Palm Springs was $35,000 to $40,000. Or, $5K to 10K for a full upper denture which he told me I would absolutely hate.  He then surprised me by saying I should check out a good dental clinic in Los Algodones.

I was surprised because although I’d heard mostly good things from RVers and bloggers about dental work in Mexico, I was still a bit suspicious and very leery. However, not wanting a full denture and not wanting to pay upwards of $30,000 I thought I’d better quit procrastinating and get on with it.  So, over the next week, I began doing very extensive research on the web trying to find a good, reputable dental clinic in Los Algodones.  I looked everywhere (blogs, rv forums, web reviews, dental sites etc.) before coming to a decision. 

Based on my research, and a few personal recommendations, I chose Sani Dental Clinic in Los Algodones and booked an appointment for Feb. 17th. It turned out to be the same clinic that my friend Croft chose even though we had not talked about it prior to each of us choosing Sani Dental. Tomorrow, in the next episode of this saga, I’ll detail what happened when I visited Algodones, what I decided on and the cost.

Thanks for visiting!