Safety will always be the main concern when someone travels, and all the more when one travels to avail healthcare services or procedures in a foreign country.
There are two points of concern every medical tourist asks when it comes to availing dental services in Mexico. The first safety issue many are skeptical about is Mexico’s safety status due to its issue on drug trafficking and drug-related violence particularly on the border. And the second question is on patient safety. How safe is dental care in Mexico?
There are a lot of safety issues at the US-Mexico border or within Mexico itself. The issue of street crime, violence and drug cartels still question the welfare of residents and tourists alike. But according to Adam Isacson, a regional security expert to the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), an independent information and monitoring body that observes the latest security situation on the border, states in a blog post by the organization that, “The U.S. side of the U.S.-Mexico border is significantly more secure today than it was in the mid-2000s.” Further, he explains though a number of Mexican border cities have suffered increases (in violent crime) during the last decade, most jurisdictions on the side of the US have witnessed a drop in violence. According to the FBI’s Crime Reporting data, 5,410 violent crimes in 2004 along the Mexico border have been reported. And in 2012, the same report found out that 4,582 crimes were committed in these border counties.
Like any other destination in the world, certainly there are cities or towns that are unsafe and are safe. But since most border cities in Mexico thrive on dental and medical tourism, people from all over the world wouldn’t travel there if the dental work would not be good, affordable and if it was not safe for them as well. One to consider of course are the simple border laws like bringing your passport and declaring truthfully items you purchased from Mexico (if you have).
The other question any patient would ask will be regarding his/her own safety during the procedure or when dental care is performed.
Most people have a notion that in Mexico, or any other developing country, healthcare or dental care is low tech. But most tourists are discovering for themselves the high quality of dental care in Mexico, where dentists are educated and board certified in either Mexico or the US, or even both. The clinics are clean and spacious; the equipment is used often the latest technology. Most people fail to realize that because of the number of patients and procedures done, Mexican border dentists (especially in Tijuana and Los Algodones) are very good in the dental care they provide.
Most of their patients come from all over the world, and most procedures performed are major dental work, like dental implants, crowns and multiple bridges. Because the dental care they provide is equivalent to the quality care in the US and is much cheaper (due to the competitiveness and the number of dentists in that area), dentists in Tijuana and Los Algodones have become really good in what they do.
Therefore, a patient’s safety is not much of a concern. However, we cannot negate the fact that, like in all other places in the world, there will always be good and bad dentists everywhere. And there will be patients that will be dissatisfied or satisfied with dentists they’ve consulted either in Mexico or anywhere else in the world.
If you need more information about dental care in Mexico, please do not hesitate to contact us!
