I am here to report that I made the trek to Los Algodones, Mexico last week and have survived, with 3 shiney new crowns in my mouth and many more stories to share!! Sad to say, I’m still recovering from the pain resulting from the drilling of all three teeth simultaneously in one afternoon…that’s alot of high frequency drill time. Whirrrr, whirrrrr, whirrrr!! I still cringe just to think about it. That’s not to say that the dentists do not liberally use pain killers during the procedures. Au contraire! I had been given so much novacaine in my top jaw that my eyeballs were actually numbed out and felt like they were rolling back inside my head. Very freaky to say the least.
Let me just say that this adventure to save thousands of dollars on dental work is not for the weak of heart, nor for those who do not tolerate pain well. But for those thrill seekers motivated to keep their teeth at a fraction of the cost, I say go for it. Like any other profession, there were good and bad dentists and facilities. We went to a middle of the road clinic (at least we know that now, after the fact), and I had the misfortune of being assigned a young, arrogant dentist who was more interested in gossiping with his assistant (who, by the way, did little to no assisting), than to concentrate on my mouth. I was so upset by his poor bedside manner and rather heavy, bruising touch that I requested another dentist to finish the procedure, meaning put the permanent crowns in, the following day. The turnaround, BTW, is phenomenal, as each clinic owns its own labs, for both dental and vision needs. And I do not recommend the vision services. Stick with the teeth!
We stayed at the only decent hotel in town, which was sold out and overrun with Americans and Canadians. I do have a concensus on the best dental clinic to use, if anyone ever wants a referral, thanks to the cocktail hour back at the Hacienda after a long day’s dental work. Gallons of tequila were consumed nightly to while away the time and bolster the pain killers for many. We dined with a Canadian couple one night who were quite delightful, but beyond crazy about the amount of work they were having done. She was having 28 crowns put in her mouth all in the space of a week. Apparently she’d had some kind of disease as a child that made her teeth brown and flakey. So, she is going to leave Los Algodones with every single tooth crowned and a beautiful smile (we hope). Needless to say, I kept my wussie complaints about my piddling 3 crowns to myself around her! Bottom line, the cost for her work in Mexico? $10K. The cost in Canada? $50k. There you have it. They’d had such a “great” time that they are thinking of starting a tour business to guide their fellow Canadians down to Mexican dental wonderland.
So, as our concierge (I use that term loosely) told me when I checked in, Los Algodones is very safe for us tourists. No gangs, no gun cartels, no drug cartels. Just dental cartels. Ha ha. But in reality, that is NO JOKE. As we walked from our hotel to the border on the last day, we passed a huge yellow mansion sitting on top of the hill overlooking the rather drab and dirty town. Driving out of the gated estate was a distinguished gray-haired aristocrat in a shiney new Bentley. That kind of tells it all.
Love and light and a big, toothy grin!
May. 2, 2015
Judy Richter 