A Different Sort Of "Adventure"

While in Baja we’ve met many gringos who have all their routine medical and dental work done in Mexico rather than the U.S. or Canada. Most of them do this because of the significant cost savings, but also proclaim the quality of care they receive is quite high. You’ve undoubtedly read stories in the news in recent years regarding people who fly to Mexico, India, China – wherever – to get medical work done at significant savings. We finally decided to stick our toes into these waters, so today we both had appointments with a Mexican dentist for a routine exam and cleaning. We arrived at the dental clinic at 2:00 to find it closed. Fortunately we’d brought our books, anticipating having to wait while each other was having our appointments. Twenty minutes later the gringo woman who was at the reception desk when we made our appointments appeared. She asked if we’d gotten her email last Friday (we did not) telling us the dentist would not be here today after all, as he’d flown to Mazatlan to propose to his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day. She proceeded to explain that she’s a dental hygienist with over 30 years experience, so could clean our teeth and give us a partial exam in the dentist’s absence. We decided to go with that. So Mary cleaned our teeth, a completely pain-free experience, essentially the same as back home, and told us about the establishment of the dental clinic here only last October. They charge 600 pesos (about $50) for an adult cleaning and exam, and with the profits from this, they’re able to provide free dental care to all the children in Los Barriles. We thought this sounded like a great deal for all parties involved and were very happy to participate! And just like at home, we walked away with new toothbrushes, dental floss and toothpaste