Costa Rica Dentist - Dental Tourism in Costa Rica
Going to the dentist in Costa Rica, well not all that different from what you might experience in your home country. However, there are quite a few cultural differences with visiting a dentist in Costa Rica and if you're coming down here to live you're eventually going to have to see a dentist. I've seen a few and it's important that you can understand a little bit about your experience while you're here. Now, what about medical tourism and dental tourism is there such a thing why in the world would anybody spend thousands of dollars to come all the way to Costa Rica, stay for a week, get their teeth worked on dental implants and other things? Why? We'll find out all that and more but hey let's go to the dentist. The first time I went to visit a dentist in Costa Rica was a bit of a shocker and but that was because I had gone to see this dentist in this little bitty town and I imagine it's the same no matter where you are in the world. You go to a smaller town it's not nearly as nice
and you know I don't know how long this dentist was in business but it wasn't professional at all. Matter of fact it was a one-man show he was there by himself wasn't anybody there he was actually talking to a guy on a horse outside when I arrived. But I had a cavity and it was hurting and I needed it fixed. And we went in there he fixed it right then and there. It wasn't much I can't remember how much he charged but he fixed it. Now, I've traveled all
over since 2013 and I've seen several different dentists and my most favorite dentist is located in Perez Celedon or San Isidro. Now, Dr Patricia is an amazing dentist and like any dentist well once you find a dentist you're comfortable with then you kind of start the same procedure as you would in the United States. Right she asked me did I have any dental records you know what about x-rays and of course being here I didn't keep any of that stuff you know for her to do a good job she obviously needs to look into that so when I first came to see her to get my teeth cleaned you know she took care of it took care of a few minor cavities but then said hey if I'm gonna do this right I need to get some x-rays and she sent me just down the street just like any dentist would and got some x-rays and pictures everything that was needed and they sent them to her office. Those
x-rays surprisingly were not expensive at all and of course you know in my mind I figured it was going to be you know some astronomical price but it wasn't okay so it's nothing like what you might experience in the United States in that regard when we're talking about dollars and cents. I can't remember exactly how much that was but I do remember that when I went to go get a cleaning if I remember correctly it was about 25,000 colones now don't quote the prices obviously prices do change. I go and see Dr Patricia once a month now because she recommended I have braces. Now that's where you come into some of these cultural differences because I'm thinking well I'm going to have to go see this orthodontist in some other place that I don't know and in Costa Rica that's where things are different okay, it's a big cultural difference there's a lot of people in Costa Rica don't have vehicles and when they go to a dentist they want to be able to take get everything take care of in one place. For most dentists they have arrangements with other dental professionals and they come to that office and take care of everything. For instance, for braces that dentist comes and uses her office for a couple of days and sees all of her clients that have braces. Now let's talk about braces for just a moment but before I do let me kind of back up a little bit because I remember when I went to go see Dr Patricia the price for a cleaning I think was like 25 000 colones so a cavity field was about 25 000 colones and if you want to compare well what is that in United States dollars well the colones rate is always going up and down. In the last five years we can see how the colones value has dropped from 550 to the dollar
to 663 at the time of this recording. The more the colones is dropped the more affordable it is to live in Costa Rica for Xbox from the United States. If you'll go to google.com and you could just enter in the search bar Costa Rica colones to USD and you can see the conversion rate you can put in whatever country you're from and that way you'll know how much it cost for you and then when I go get my braces done every month hey I guess you can say the setup or whatever it was 75 000 colones for the first three months and then it's 26 000 colones for the life of my braces. So if I have braces for two years or three years I can expect to pay 26 to 27 000 colones until those braces come off okay. So it was very very professional, very very clean and you're going to notice that you know when you first come to Costa Rica it's like you see fences and barbed wire and constantino wire and gates all over the place and you immediately think the crime must be awful, well petty theft is pretty awful you can't leave anything out if you leave it out it's going to get picked up. You go into almost any business a furniture store or a dentist's office there's
usually some sort of a security guard they have to actually buzz the button to allow you to come in so there's are those cultural differences that you know take a little getting used to it's not like the United States. Now, is it not safe no it's very very safe I can almost bet you the dentist's office in the in the furniture stores probably never been robbed but they have all of these extra security precautions in place. Now some people might be concerned that hey well if Costa Rica is such a small country and we've heard you say that you know Costa Rica is kind of like it feels like you're 40 years behind the times and while it's true that there are a lot of things you know maybe the infrastructure the roads the highways yeah there are some things that seem like they're 40 or 50 years behind. Now keep in mind Costa Rica has a social medical deal where you know everybody pays what's called Kaha that's their health insurance and you can go to the social health care where everybody practically gets free healthcare because they're all paying this tiny bit of Kaha. There's nothing wrong with that but it's not nearly going to be as nice as private medical care so I've been to both I've been to the social medical where I've gone and I wasn't paying Kaha, I just had to pay out of pocket because you don't pay Kaha until you are a resident but the same doctors that work in the social medicine are the same doctors that have private practices. It's a whole lot better just to go see a private doctor and when you compare the cost really paying for a private doctor to take care of you is nowhere near what it might cost you in the United States or in your home country. So they really have some talented doctors
and dentists and some state-of-the-art equipment in Costa Rica. So let's talk about dental tourism why is dental tourism such a humongous thing I mean it's so big that you can actually pay agencies and different people to set you up for a whole dental tourism or medical tourism package well why is that that's because depending on what you're having done depending on where you have your teeth fixed your medical procedure done it can be anywhere from a third to a half less than what you would normally pay in the United States. So that's why people are willing to spend you know a thousand dollars for a plane ticket come down here for a whole week and get lots of work done on their teeth maybe they're having you know four or five dental implants a crown cavities and things fixed up you're going to have to pay up front and they're not going to take insurance. I'll talk a little bit more about that later when we have an interview with Dr Patricia. So there are a lot of people who come to Costa Rica for a whole week and spend lots of money and when they come down here if they pay for a package then usually they'll set them up in a hotel that's nearby to where they can have their dental procedure go back and recover come back the next day for some more work go back and recover and all of that is in one big package. In my opinion, I think you don't need to pay for some sort of a package like that and you'll save thousands of dollars by make arrangements with that dentist prior to coming make all of your appointments and then make arrangements for an Airbnb stay in that Airbnb while you go back and forth to have everything taken care of and I'm sure you'll save thousands upon thousands of dollars instead of paying somebody to do all that for you. So at this point why don't we go to the dentist together but first let me tell you about a free vacation I'm giving away.
I am giving away a three-day Costa Rican adventure. Just for watching videos on my channel and learning about Costa Rica and the off-grid homestead. Subscribe now, hit that notification bell so you don't miss out and watch till the end and I'll explain how you can qualify to win. That is going to be one heck of a vacation. We're going to have a whole lot of fun
and hey who knows maybe you'll decide to book your dental tourism vacation take that three-day vacation first and then have your teeth fixed while you're here. We're going to interview Dr Patricia and see exactly what it's like to go to the dentist in Costa Rica. Hello Burt, hello Dr Patricia how are you? Great, are you? Very good.
Okay, I am ready for my training, I know. So I have a couple of questions for you. Yes. Okay you know in Costa Rica it's a it's a beautiful country and it's well known more and more that a lot of people are coming to Costa Rica not just for vacation but something called medical tourism. Yes. Which is also dental tourism as well can you tell me about that? Well, now it's really normal because in Costa Rica we have a beautiful places but you have beautiful clinics and really great prices and but the work is still really awesome so it's normal to come to dentistry or just normal medical like I don't know hospitals or clinics or even even aesthetic is really normal. We work with a great kind of laboratories. Actually, some are in Costa Rican and other from Europe or United States but it's in Costa Rica so it's easy for us to work with all kind of materials and implants or something like that. And I have traveled all over Costa Rica and there's been a few times that I've needed to go to the dentist and one of the things that I really enjoy about here in San Isidro is that of course not every foreigner knows Spanish and this has been the first clinic for me that your english is very good it's easy to understand. Kind of. So
it's nice to be able to talk to my dentist ask questions and understand what's going on. Yes. Now you know it's very popular in Costa Rica. Everybody knows about Tico time. Yeah. But not your planning. I don't think I have ever had to wait your clinic is very punctual you make appointments and you're I don't think I've ever had to wait. Well we try, we try, because for me our time is important. Your time, my time so it's easy to have schedules and talk to you sometimes it's not work but most of the time is like that because it's better for example today we finish our clinic our appointment and then maybe you have lunch or me have another patient so we try. And y'all do a very good job because one thing you guys do is that you make my appointment and it might be a month out but always one or two days ahead of time you will send a message on WhatsApp. Yes. Asking me
to confirm my appointment. Yeah. And in that way if something changes we easily can make changes. Exactly we can reschedule or if you don't have WhatsApp we can send by email or another phone call for example. Fantastic, because you know for me even today we had to change our time frame you know something for school or something for work you got finished early and your secretary sent me a message saying hey if you're available Dr Patricia is ready for you. Exactly. Was able to come right over. Exactly. So that's very nice now there's something that is very different about dentistry here in Costa Rica. You checked me out and you recommended that I have braces. Well in
America if you have braces you have to go to the orthodontist's office but not in Costa Rica. Well because we are a tiny country, normally that is new like 10 years maybe I go we try every clinic but not every but we try to have a more integrity in our work so we have great specialist, dentistry or maybe why not physiotherapy or root canal treatments orthodontics to work together in one place because it's easy for the patient to come and if you need for example I don't know wisdom tooth surgery you can come in here that is your place. You have confidence in us you know the place you have parking so you come in here and you will find your specialist work for you. That's really nice I really like that and I have found that as far as the prices go it's not expensive and you know in the United States now here's a very interesting question I get a lot from our subscribers what about insurance. Does anywhere in Costa Rica actually take insurance? Yeah sometimes. Really? Yeah sometimes I have a patient from United States or
Europe like Germany for example or french to come and I just they sent me by email like a paper so I put everything on record like what I do, why, how much, how expensive will be or what do you need at the future and I sent and they have the insurance file. Okay so the important thing is the patient always pays first you may help out with the paperwork and then the patient "exactly" paperwork to their insurance company and then they can receive the money that they've already paid. Is that correct? Normally yes sometimes actually in Costa Rica from with some insurance Costa Rican insurance they have different kind of. They send us like like a build but will be like just in case so I make all the work and they pay for me but it's not so common. That's not so common. Yes. Usually, the patient pays first "yes" but in some cases if it's a Costa Rican insurance it's not common but sometimes "yeah" the insurance pays you.
Exactly. Okay great when you come to Costa Rica especially if you're in the San Isidro area you want to make sure to check out Dr Patricia. We're going to make sure to put all of her information in the description below but now it's time for me to get my teeth clean. Are you ready? Yes. Dr Patricia's office is always very clean and comfortable. What I really like is when I'm laying there I always have visual entertainment that I can watch above and there's always yes some beautiful pictures and scenes to keep me busy while she's working. Are you ready? I'm ready. She's
always talking to me and letting me know what she's doing while she's working so I'm not sitting there wondering what's going on. Dr Patricia english has always been very understandable, her staff has always been very friendly and very accommodating. Okay don't forget there are four things you need to do in order to qualify to win that Costa Rican vacation. First, subscribe and hit that notification bell this way you will not miss out on future videos. Second, click the like button literally, it only takes two seconds. Do it right now. These two simple tasks sends a
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2022-04-10 08:13
