UPDATE 2023-07-07 (about 3 weeks later): Unfortunately, this really didn't work out, and I can't recommend anyone visit SANI Dental. Please see this post for more information.
I was recently quoted $2200 to get my crown fixed (i.e. root canal) along with another crown done in Portland, Oregon about two weeks ago. That seemed like a lot of money (and was going to kill my savings) so I started looking into something I'd been hearing about for several years, going down to Mexico to get dental work done.
Inspired by this article I reposted on StP, I started asking around and doing some internet searches to see if getting cheap dental work in Mexico was actually possible. I got a few suggestions for dentists they had seen themselves, but ended up going with SANI Dental Group because they were the quickest/first to respond back to my inquires with specifics.
I was quoted about $400 for the root canal, and $210 for the crown. So even with the cost of my flight and a bus (explained below) my total cost seemed to be under $1000. Throw in five days at their local hotel for $60/night, and total cost appeared to be around $1300 for the entire trip.
That basically saved my about a thousand bucks, so I decided to go for it.
I flew Frontier airlines from Portland, Oregon to Phoenix, Arizona ($225 round trip, a very good deal), and took a flix bus from Phoenix to Yuma, Arizona for about $73 (round trip). I flew with only my bike messenger bag as a 'personal item' since Frontier (like most airlines nowadays) charges outrageous fees ($65+) for even a carry on, much less checked baggage. Fortunately, this was enough room to fit my tablet (Surface Pro 6), one set of clothes, toothbrush/toothpaste, and my Steam Deck.
The flight and flixbus ride were pretty uneventful. I walked from the bus stop to the Yuma Airport, where I would catch a free shuttle provided by SANI Dental to cross the border into Mexico (about an 18km trip). There were almost no checks done at the border going in (FYI, going back across a week later was similar, they just checked the meds I got from my dental work) and we were at the 'medi plaza' in pretty much no time at all.
I have not doubt SANI owns probably everything in this 'medical plaza' where the hotel is attached, just around the corner from the dentist offices. Everything you need from a little mini mart (which was suprisingly cheap) to a coffee shop and local restaurant. There's not much reason to leave this area if you don't want to, but I'd say it's worth taking a walk around the neighborhood just to see what's around and get away from the commercial stuff during the day. I took a tour around several blocks, but I arrived on a Sunday, so the entire town was basically dead, with barely a soul around. Almost nothing was open so it was a bit of a pain in the butt to find something to eat that day.
The rest of the week was easier as more businesses opened up. I went and ate at some local places but I kinda felt like I was getting a bit of a 'gringo tax' as the prices were pretty similar to what I'd be paying in the USA. It wasn't until I started going to the restaurant in the medical plaza (Mi Casa Si Casa) next to my hotel that I found the best deals. On average, it was about $5 for a meal at their mostly mexican-themed food restaurant, and sometimes as cheap as $3 for breakfast which felt like I was dining back in the early 2000s and the food was great and very filling, so I ended up eating here most of the time.
On to the dental work!
My first visit, they took an x-ray with one of those machines that spins around your head instead of the x-ray gun (where you put the plastic piece in your mouth). We then talked about my dental work, which ended up being a total of just over $1500.
The hall where everyone sat waiting to get their work done
Ack! I knew there was a possibility of it being more complicated (and therefore more expensive) than I had anticipated, but that was nearly double what I was expecting. Looking back on it now, I think this was partially my fault, since I was coming from the expectation that I was only going to need a root canal ($400) and a crown ($210). In reality, I'd need a root canal and TWO crowns, which would be around $800. There were some extra fees for X-rays and whatnot, so we'll say $900.
This makes sense to me because I had forgotten that it's not like they could just re-use the old crown after doing the root canal (the root canal was needed because my crown i'd gotten about 5 years previous was failing) they had to make a new crown. So that's one root canal and two crowns.
The other part is that I just didn't think to ask what my options were. I was handed a price and was just like, "Ah shit that sucks, at least I have the money to pay it, and I'm already here, so let's do this."
I can't seem to find my itemized receipt, and to be honest, I'm not sure if I got one. But my guess was that I was given a price for the Zirconium crowns, which are their hardest/best material, but also costs more at $450 per tooth. If that's the case, then that would explain the $1500 price tag ($450 x 2 = $900 + $400 for root canal plus additional fees).
I have to be fair in that most of this was clearly communicated with me in English, so that wasn't the issue, but looking back on it now, I wish they had said 'we have cheaper options if you need them', which was definitely not mentioned. $1500 is what I was presented with, and I just paid it without question, so that's partially on me.
So, this obviously screwed my estimates pretty hard. My total cost for this trip now was:
As for the dental treatment itself, it was pretty run-of-the-mill. If you've been to the dentist, you know what to expect here. The quality of the offices were fine, the equipment was fine, there's just one issue I had, which is with the dentist that was doing my crowns. As you might expect, he didn't speak much English.
SANI has advertising saying how the language barrier won't be an issue, and dealing with everyone up to this point was fine. My root canal was done by two women who spoke great English, so no issues there. But all I got from the dentist who did my two crowns was "open please" and "close please" and that was about it.
Coming from the USA, I guess I'm just used to dentists being overly communicative about every step in the process and what we're doing next, etc. With this guy, I was pretty clueless as to what was going on. Now, don't get me wrong, he was friendly, and seemed professional, but I'll explain why the communication was an issue next.
The first day, he did work on my teeth and set the two crowns, and after a few hours was told to come back tomorrow. Okay, no problem. Less than an hour after I left the office, both 'crowns' came out and I kind of freaked out and ran back to the office. After talking about it with the front desk (it was basically closing time at this point) everyone's best guess (no one knew for sure) was that I had been given temporary crowns to cover holes where the real crowns would go tomorrow.
Now keep in mind that nothing along those lines were told to me, just "okay you're done for today, come in at noon tomorrow" by my dentist and that was it. My best guess was that tomorrow was to finish things up and give them a polish or something like that.
So I had a very uncomfortable night trying to eat something (I hadn't eaten all day because I didn't want food in my teeth) with these weird small tree stumps where my two teeth used to be.
The next day I came in, and he took the temporary crowns and fitted me for the real thing, and after about 20 minutes was told to come back again tomorrow. Best I could figure is that they would need another day to carve/craft the two crowns before putting them in.
I came back, and he finished it up and that was it. The end result seems good so far, but it's only been two days as of this writing. I'll post an update here if things go south with the work I got done (they did, unfortunately).
Was it worth it? Would it be worth it for you to go?
Unfortunately, the trip and the cost and the hassle just made it not worth it for me in my situation. My work wasn't your average fill-a-cavity, so your mileage might vary. I'd say if you have something simple you need done, or just have one or two things that need addressing, AND if you're in reasonable distance, then yes, I'd say go for it, you'll likely save a lot of money. I'm sure that's why this is so popular with retirees and older folks with limited budgets.
If you're coming across the country like I did, you probably want to thoroughly research the clinic, and make sure you're clear on the type of work you need done. Also, make sure to get an itemized list of the work along with any cheaper possible options before paying for the work.
One of the things that really added a few hundred dollars to this trip was the fact that it's hard to book a flight and know when exactly to return. I was quoted 3-4 days for both crowns, but it ended up being much less time than that (basically 2 days) so I could have saved around $200 on my hotel stay, but I couldn't have known that coming in, so I'm stuck here for three days after my work is done just hanging out around town waiting for my flight back to Portland.
Communication really seemed to be the biggest issue. That should seem pretty obvious with this kind of trip, but I did see a lot of other dentists that spoke more fluent English than mine did, so I definitely wish I had gotten one of those, so I could know what was going on throughout the process. Of course, if you speak Spanish, I can't imagine you'll have any issues; if you have the time, try and learn some before coming out, even if it's just simple phrases, so you don't come off like an ignorant gringo like myself.
I was recently quoted $2200 to get my crown fixed (i.e. root canal) along with another crown done in Portland, Oregon about two weeks ago. That seemed like a lot of money (and was going to kill my savings) so I started looking into something I'd been hearing about for several years, going down to Mexico to get dental work done.
Inspired by this article I reposted on StP, I started asking around and doing some internet searches to see if getting cheap dental work in Mexico was actually possible. I got a few suggestions for dentists they had seen themselves, but ended up going with SANI Dental Group because they were the quickest/first to respond back to my inquires with specifics.
I was quoted about $400 for the root canal, and $210 for the crown. So even with the cost of my flight and a bus (explained below) my total cost seemed to be under $1000. Throw in five days at their local hotel for $60/night, and total cost appeared to be around $1300 for the entire trip.
That basically saved my about a thousand bucks, so I decided to go for it.
I flew Frontier airlines from Portland, Oregon to Phoenix, Arizona ($225 round trip, a very good deal), and took a flix bus from Phoenix to Yuma, Arizona for about $73 (round trip). I flew with only my bike messenger bag as a 'personal item' since Frontier (like most airlines nowadays) charges outrageous fees ($65+) for even a carry on, much less checked baggage. Fortunately, this was enough room to fit my tablet (Surface Pro 6), one set of clothes, toothbrush/toothpaste, and my Steam Deck.
The flight and flixbus ride were pretty uneventful. I walked from the bus stop to the Yuma Airport, where I would catch a free shuttle provided by SANI Dental to cross the border into Mexico (about an 18km trip). There were almost no checks done at the border going in (FYI, going back across a week later was similar, they just checked the meds I got from my dental work) and we were at the 'medi plaza' in pretty much no time at all.
I have not doubt SANI owns probably everything in this 'medical plaza' where the hotel is attached, just around the corner from the dentist offices. Everything you need from a little mini mart (which was suprisingly cheap) to a coffee shop and local restaurant. There's not much reason to leave this area if you don't want to, but I'd say it's worth taking a walk around the neighborhood just to see what's around and get away from the commercial stuff during the day. I took a tour around several blocks, but I arrived on a Sunday, so the entire town was basically dead, with barely a soul around. Almost nothing was open so it was a bit of a pain in the butt to find something to eat that day.
The rest of the week was easier as more businesses opened up. I went and ate at some local places but I kinda felt like I was getting a bit of a 'gringo tax' as the prices were pretty similar to what I'd be paying in the USA. It wasn't until I started going to the restaurant in the medical plaza (Mi Casa Si Casa) next to my hotel that I found the best deals. On average, it was about $5 for a meal at their mostly mexican-themed food restaurant, and sometimes as cheap as $3 for breakfast which felt like I was dining back in the early 2000s and the food was great and very filling, so I ended up eating here most of the time.
On to the dental work!
My first visit, they took an x-ray with one of those machines that spins around your head instead of the x-ray gun (where you put the plastic piece in your mouth). We then talked about my dental work, which ended up being a total of just over $1500.
The hall where everyone sat waiting to get their work done
Ack! I knew there was a possibility of it being more complicated (and therefore more expensive) than I had anticipated, but that was nearly double what I was expecting. Looking back on it now, I think this was partially my fault, since I was coming from the expectation that I was only going to need a root canal ($400) and a crown ($210). In reality, I'd need a root canal and TWO crowns, which would be around $800. There were some extra fees for X-rays and whatnot, so we'll say $900.
This makes sense to me because I had forgotten that it's not like they could just re-use the old crown after doing the root canal (the root canal was needed because my crown i'd gotten about 5 years previous was failing) they had to make a new crown. So that's one root canal and two crowns.
The other part is that I just didn't think to ask what my options were. I was handed a price and was just like, "Ah shit that sucks, at least I have the money to pay it, and I'm already here, so let's do this."
I can't seem to find my itemized receipt, and to be honest, I'm not sure if I got one. But my guess was that I was given a price for the Zirconium crowns, which are their hardest/best material, but also costs more at $450 per tooth. If that's the case, then that would explain the $1500 price tag ($450 x 2 = $900 + $400 for root canal plus additional fees).
I have to be fair in that most of this was clearly communicated with me in English, so that wasn't the issue, but looking back on it now, I wish they had said 'we have cheaper options if you need them', which was definitely not mentioned. $1500 is what I was presented with, and I just paid it without question, so that's partially on me.
So, this obviously screwed my estimates pretty hard. My total cost for this trip now was:
- Dental work $1500
- Flight $225
- Bus $75
- Hotel (7 nights) $400
- Food $200
As for the dental treatment itself, it was pretty run-of-the-mill. If you've been to the dentist, you know what to expect here. The quality of the offices were fine, the equipment was fine, there's just one issue I had, which is with the dentist that was doing my crowns. As you might expect, he didn't speak much English.
SANI has advertising saying how the language barrier won't be an issue, and dealing with everyone up to this point was fine. My root canal was done by two women who spoke great English, so no issues there. But all I got from the dentist who did my two crowns was "open please" and "close please" and that was about it.
Coming from the USA, I guess I'm just used to dentists being overly communicative about every step in the process and what we're doing next, etc. With this guy, I was pretty clueless as to what was going on. Now, don't get me wrong, he was friendly, and seemed professional, but I'll explain why the communication was an issue next.
The first day, he did work on my teeth and set the two crowns, and after a few hours was told to come back tomorrow. Okay, no problem. Less than an hour after I left the office, both 'crowns' came out and I kind of freaked out and ran back to the office. After talking about it with the front desk (it was basically closing time at this point) everyone's best guess (no one knew for sure) was that I had been given temporary crowns to cover holes where the real crowns would go tomorrow.
Now keep in mind that nothing along those lines were told to me, just "okay you're done for today, come in at noon tomorrow" by my dentist and that was it. My best guess was that tomorrow was to finish things up and give them a polish or something like that.
So I had a very uncomfortable night trying to eat something (I hadn't eaten all day because I didn't want food in my teeth) with these weird small tree stumps where my two teeth used to be.
The next day I came in, and he took the temporary crowns and fitted me for the real thing, and after about 20 minutes was told to come back again tomorrow. Best I could figure is that they would need another day to carve/craft the two crowns before putting them in.
I came back, and he finished it up and that was it. The end result seems good so far, but it's only been two days as of this writing. I'll post an update here if things go south with the work I got done (they did, unfortunately).
Was it worth it? Would it be worth it for you to go?
Unfortunately, the trip and the cost and the hassle just made it not worth it for me in my situation. My work wasn't your average fill-a-cavity, so your mileage might vary. I'd say if you have something simple you need done, or just have one or two things that need addressing, AND if you're in reasonable distance, then yes, I'd say go for it, you'll likely save a lot of money. I'm sure that's why this is so popular with retirees and older folks with limited budgets.
If you're coming across the country like I did, you probably want to thoroughly research the clinic, and make sure you're clear on the type of work you need done. Also, make sure to get an itemized list of the work along with any cheaper possible options before paying for the work.
One of the things that really added a few hundred dollars to this trip was the fact that it's hard to book a flight and know when exactly to return. I was quoted 3-4 days for both crowns, but it ended up being much less time than that (basically 2 days) so I could have saved around $200 on my hotel stay, but I couldn't have known that coming in, so I'm stuck here for three days after my work is done just hanging out around town waiting for my flight back to Portland.
Communication really seemed to be the biggest issue. That should seem pretty obvious with this kind of trip, but I did see a lot of other dentists that spoke more fluent English than mine did, so I definitely wish I had gotten one of those, so I could know what was going on throughout the process. Of course, if you speak Spanish, I can't imagine you'll have any issues; if you have the time, try and learn some before coming out, even if it's just simple phrases, so you don't come off like an ignorant gringo like myself.
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