May 8, 2017
Would you, Could you, Believe this happened in Mexico?!
Have you ever been in a chair with protective eye wear on and been able to mentally escape to a beach?
Have you ever visited an office for the first time and made to feel special and then continued to visit feeling special each time you walked through the door?
Have you ever had a procedure done and had it explained in such a way you even understood the whys?
If you were able to answer yes to any of these that is awesome!
Now, what if we told you we were able to answer yes to all three and all three happened at the same office?
Unbelievably this all took place at our newly discovered dentist office!! Yes, you read right….the Dentist!
Grace Dental Studio & Co. The most amazing dental studio we have ever seen! There are so many words we could use to describe Dr. Diego and Dr. Nestor Marquez. Professional, knowledgeable, ethical, personable, caring and great listeners are just a few!
We have visited many dentists over the years, with many different procedures being done, so this isn’t our first rodeo. We have saved, researched, and planned for this visit. We knew we were after implant dentures for Grant and implants, fillings, and whatever else it took for Kelly’s mouth to be restored.
Because this post could and will end up being very lengthy, we will break it down into two portions. One covering how we ended up choosing our dentist, the work we had done, and why we do not need to find another dentist until they retire. In the other we will cover crossing the border, getting to and from the dentist, and tips for Los Algodones.
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Fixing teeth
Like many Americans, we have struggled over the years with the upkeep of our teeth and the insane cost that is involved trying to accomplish this task. In the past, we were not successful in doing what should have been done.
There are several towns just across the southern border of the United States that offer dental solutions for unbelievable prices. We have a great friend, Corry, that lives just south of Phoenix that offered her house and puppysitting services for us to adventure across the border.
Just west of Yuma, Arizona and south of Baja, California is the border crossing that takes you into the town of Los Aldogones, Mexico. Known as the dental mecca of Mexico, it has over 400 dentists to choose from, as well as optical and pharmaceutical stores aplenty.
We have spent many hours researching dentistry in Mexico. Thank goodness for the internet and others sharing their experiences. After reading several reviews and tips from others we narrowed it down to four choices, three from the internet and one from a person referral by a friend. We composed an email explaining who we were, what we needed, questions, and a rough timeline of availability. We sent this to all four and waited for the responses. All four responded by email, with two of them also calling. After more questions and email correspondence, we narrowed it down again by half. At this point we decided it would be best to visit the two in person to get a feel of the office and give the dentist the ability to examine us to better answer our questions with more specific answers.
Our first visit was to Grace Dental Studio where we were greeted by smiling faces that seemed excited to meet us in person. Dr. Nestor and Dr. Diego had done a fantastic job at responding to our emails and seemed genuinely happy to see us. After the initial greetings they took time to ask us questions and answer the ones we had, even before we made it to the chair. Dr. Nestor personally escorted us to another office where we had our CT scan. We returned to Grace Dental and had only a short wait for the CT scans to be delivered. Both dentists reviewed them and then brought us in to explain our options.
Our second visit was to Bernal Dental Group. We stopped in after our appointment with Grace to see if they could get us in any earlier than the next afternoon. They had a cancellation for the next morning so they put us in there. Side note, whether an oversight or lack of understanding English, somehow they failed to understand we were requesting an appointment for each of us, not sure how because of the detail that was included in the email they responded line by line. Kelly was seen by Dr. Aldo at the appointment time. He did well going over the CT scans, analyzing, and making a plan of what was needed. He had another dentist that specialized in root canals pop in and take a look at a couple teeth that were in question. Both spoke English pretty good and were able to communicate with me without issue. He asked and answered all questions and gave me an estimate of what was needed and the cost. Grant had to wait longer because Dr. Bernal was running behind. Dr. Bernal quickly examined Grant and was very confident in what he could do and was willing to take more risks.
Discussion and decisions to be made between the two of us was not an easy task. We will not go into detail on every little thought. What we ended up deciding was Grant to take a few risks and go with Dr. Bernal and Kelly to go with who she had the most confidence in and go with Grace Dental. We sent emails to both to schedule the work to begin the next morning. We received a response right away from Grace Dental and nothing from Bernal Dental. The next morning a phone call was required to Dr. Bernal to get an answer. We went into Grace for the time scheduled and once again were greeted with warm friendly smiles. We explained what Dr. Bernal said and asked their opinion on taking risks. They both said it could be done but was risky due to us being anywhere in the country at any given moment without the ability of getting back should there be any complications. Dr. Nestor said he would consult with Dr. Ortega, the implant specialist that would be doing some of the work. After about 15 minutes he returned and said that the risk was something they were not willing to take, even though they knew the likelihood of Grant electing to have the competition do the work. That stance impressed us so much we chose to cancel with Dr. Bernal and have Grace Dental take care of Grant.
Grant will be getting implant dentures and Kelly had a gamut of typical dental work to be done.
Grant had all 27 teeth pulled. They gave him bone graphs and sewed him up. All this was done with just local anesthetics, which was challenge in itself due to his body’s resistance. All you redheads out there will understand. They had temporary dentures to wear for his gums to heal and not be walking around toothless. Kelly had a four unit bridge, a three unit bridge, a couple crowns, a couple of root canals, a few fillings and one extraction. Grant had his work done in one day, mind you it took twice as long as anticipated due to three stubborn teeth that didn’t want to leave his mouth. Kelly’s work was done over several days with the only issue being her tooth that didn’t want to come out smoothly. We will be visiting one more time before going back on the road. After our mouths completely heal we will return to have the implants placed and continue on the journey of restoring our mouths.
Why we chose Grace Dental.
When you research on the internet you will find very little reviews on either dentist. They are both savvy in regards to social media. On their facebook page you will find nothing but great reviews. Because of the lack of unbiased reviews we were a little skeptical, however they were referred to us by a friend of a friend. Their timely responses to all our correspondence and the answers they gave us is why we selected them as one to visit in person. In person they were even more impressive. We were excited with their command of the English language and impressed with their eye contact that wasn’t wavering. It spoke volumes to us on their character and integrity when they stood their ground and were more concerned with success than money. The more time we spent with them the more we knew we had made the right choice. Their prices were comparable to other quality dentist. There are cheaper ones out there, but cheaper isn’t always better. They are about 25% of what we were quoted in the U.S. Their office is open and extremely clean. We are impressed with their attention to sanitary issues and had no concerns with the equipment they were using being up to the same standards as found in the U.S. Bottled water was used for rinsing and cleaning. As they work on your mouth they are fantastic at explaining what they are doing. They also explain why you need to do what they ask of you instead of just telling you to do something. The concern they expressed over our understanding, how we were feeling throughout all procedures, and our well-being after hours was above any we have ever seen in all the dentists we have ever visited. Kelly spent several days in the chair with her mouth open. She truly was able to lay back with her protective eye wear and be relaxed. For obvious reasons, Grant not so much. Every time we walked through the door and the entire time we were there we felt like we were their favorite and most special patients. We will say after watching other patients that were there, we saw they treated them just as special. We both have had substantial amount of dental work done over the years. Dr. Nestor and Dr. Diego were so fantastic at explaining and showing that we felt as if we had a Dental 101 class. We have found our dentistry home. If you are needing any level of dental work done, we could not strongly enough encourage you to visit Grace Dental. If you have any questions, please message us and we will answer them to the best of our ability.
*******************************Part 3************************************
Los Aldogones
There are many choices for spending the night in the area. So we won’t go into those details. If you have any questions, just message us.
You can drive across the border if you choose, but for us we chose to park in the parking lot run by the Quechan Tribe. They have a very large, paved, well-lit lot where you pay to park for $6.00 a day. We asked them about parking semi-trucks. They said no problem and it would cost $12.00 a day with no overnight parking. However, there is a bridge that crosses the All American Canal that has a rating of only 20 tons. There is truck parking at the Quechan Casino & Resort which is a couple of miles before the border, however they do not offer shuttle service to the border. The casino parking would provide a place to drop the trailer and bobtail to the parking lot in order to be underweight for the canal crossing. Before going into Mexico make sure you have your passport on your person, you will need it to get back into the U.S. Once parked, it is a fairly short walk to get to the turnstile to cross the border into the town. This is all that is involved with walking from the U.S. to Mexico. Here is where it gets interesting and shows why it is so important to first do your research and homework in finding the right dentist. Once you step past the border crossing and onto the street you will be greeted by several people addressing you asking if you need dental or optical. They are known as hawkers, way more aggressive than any U.S. salesman. They are respectful, but not bashful. If you give them any glimmer of hope they will persist. Grace Dental was fairly easy to find. They are one block in, right turn, down one block (the gauntlet), another right, down the middle of the block on the left. We nicknamed that second block the gauntlet because it had the highest concentration of hawkers on our path. Not only were they trying to get us to visit their dental or optical offices, pharmacies and liquor stores, but they also have people selling all sorts of touristy goods and they are not shy. After the first couple of times some of them started to recognize us and it became enjoyable bantering back and forth and saying hello every day.
The shopping is an interesting experience. They do not have prices on the items and they fully expect bartering to happen once you inquire the cost of something. There are so many little shops for blocks that weave in and out in every nook and cranny. You will find most vendors carry the same items.
We were skeptical about eating anything, but were game for trying a margarita. So we asked for a recommendation and they did not do us wrong. El Paraiso Restaurant is tucked back in the middle of the block behind the storefronts. It is an outdoor space with plenty of shaded tables. There was live music and the margaritas hit the spot.
Heading back to the U.S. you will need to show your passport. They will also ask you what you are bringing back with you. We were not hassled at all and it went very smoothly. The only day we had to wait in line was Saturday, it was early afternoon and it was only about 15 minutes at that.
One last item to share, which is one question we had and one that we have been asked by many, how can they charge so little? Dentistry in Mexico is so inexpensive due to the lower cost for labor and real estate. Another factor is they do not graduate with a lot of student debt. Their government subsidizes much of their education and the dentists repay by giving one year of free service. They also are not subjected to the high-price mandatory malpractice insurance as we have in the U.S.