First of all, I decided to go to Tijuana when my Palm Springs dentist quoted nearly $6,200 for two implants. Then there was the additional cost of extractions, abutments and finally the bridge. All this brought the final cost to almost $10,000. The same procedure in Tijuana is about 60% of that. From where we live, Tijuana is 3 1/2 hours away, so it's not onerous to make the trip.
This was my first time leaving the country to have dental work done, but the pain I was feeling, combined with the cost savings, made it my best option at the time.
I looked at www.dentaldepartures.com to find a dentist. Basically, I read reviews and selected the dentists with the most positive ones. You can also throw darts at a board. Once you make your choice, Dental Departures makes your first appointment.
I chose Dr. Dalia, who I learned had retired and no longer practices, but she still owns the clinic and hires the dentists who work there. For special procedures like implants she contracts the work out. Most of the dental offices have addition benefits. For example, I got a 10% discount for being a veteran. If I didn't want to take that, I could have had them pay for putting me up in a hotel near the clinic.
The dentist's office was nice and clean, albeit smaller than its U.S. counterparts. The equipment was modern, and everyone was exceedingly pleasant and competent and spoke excellent English.
The first thing they did was to have a dentist clean my teeth and make a cursory examination. Then it was off to get a full-mouth xray, which cost $25. After lunch the contract dentist who does implant work came in and extracted four teeth from my left jaw. It was a noisy, crunching process, but not painful. Then, using a series of increasingly larger bits he drilled two holes in the jaw, and where there wasn't enough bone he put in a bone graft which would cause new bone to grow. Then he screwed in the implants. This can be done according to my research, however I would have preferred he do the grafts and then the implants a couple of months later, but this was his plan, so I went along with it.
There are several websites explaining the process of getting implants. Here's one.
So my first visit included the cleaning, full-mouth xray, extractions, bone graft and finally installing two implants. They also made me a "flipper," which is a temporary partial to cover the extracted teeth area. I've found it unwieldy to use, however, and choose to go bareback.
I waited the prescribed four months for the implants to set (i.e., for the bone to grow around them), and returned to get a mold made for manufacturing the bridge. This was last week, and the dentist found that while the back implant was secure, the front one wasn't. It had to be removed and collagen injected to encourage bone growth. My next appointment will be two months from now (Oct. 1), when the front implant will be reinstalled. There will be another four month wait and I'll go down to have the new implant examined, and if it's o.k. they'll make the mold. Two weeks later I'll return to have the bridge put in.
The implants are made in Austria and the bridge will be made in the U.S., so I don't have any questions regarding quality of materials.
So that's my experience so far. Put a reminder on your calendar to PM me at the end of next January and I'll tell you how it all turned out, what I thought of the process, and whether I think the experience was worth the savings. I'll also send you a copy of the itemized bill, if you like.
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