[sehutson]

I had a $12k quote in California, $9k in rural southern Illinois...and I ended up going to Costa Rica and getting it done at a fantastic office (clean, modern, upscale, English-speaking, and very friendly) for just a bit over $3k. I got in on Saturday, did a city tour on Sunday, dental work Monday/Tuesday, rainforest excursion Wednesday, final dental work and adjustments Thursday/Friday, flew home on Saturday. Hotel + airfare + food + tours came out to about $1200-1300, and the dental office drove me to and from the airport and all dental appointments.

Perhaps the best and most unexpected thing about it was that the dentist only worked on my teeth during each appointment - none of the patient-hopping my dentists here in the US always did.

Best decision I've made in a while.

[wordbank]

> patient-hopping my dentists here in the US always did

Wow, is it a regular thing?

[sehutson]

Every time I've ever had work done here in the US, they would do something on my teeth, then switch rooms and work on someone else for a bit, then come back, etc. Sometimes they'd have a hygienist doing something else, but other times I'd just be sitting there waiting. It seems fairly common.

[mrfusion]

How did you find it?

[sehutson]

I did research on WhatClinic, TripAdvisor, and a number of random blog posts people made about their experiences abroad. I found several that sounded good, talked to all of them, and went with the one that just felt right.

The dentists there had been trained at UCLA, and their coordinator was a Johns Hopkins alumni, so I felt really comfortable with both their level of education and their command of English (to minimize potential for misunderstandings, since my Spanish is barely enough to understand telenovelas).