Save Big Money on Dental Care in Los Algodones, Mexico, AKA "Molar City"

I recently visited Los Algodones, Mexico, also known as Molar City, where there are literally HUNDREDS of dental clinics congested within just a few city blocks. The morning air was fresh and it was already warm when I arrived at seven in the morning and I began taking as many photos as possible. There were NO other people entering Mexico during the time period when I was there, around 6:45 AM, and the inspector looked through my satchel, noting I only had a Canon digital camera and a GoPro video camera. I walked through the "scanner", which appeared to be nonfunctional and I could see the wires were not connected at the ground level, so I assume no scanning took place.

I walked through an exit area and into the Mexican air, where I was immediately greeted by a man on the right side of the street, who asked me what I was looking for. I went over to tell him that I was just going to get as many photographs as I could before my 8 AM dental appointment. He told me about his job as a sales director for several dental clinics, but I told him I was only there to get a couple of crowns put on at a place where I had already had work done. It was very nice walking through the small town and I took as many photos of the fronts of the dental clinics as I could, while walking down the main street, and then circling around on several side streets.

I believe I may have saved thousands of dollars compared with the pricing I have been quoted for the same procedures by San Diego area dentists. Of course everyone has different dental needs, and the drive from Spring Valley, California took two and a half hours one-way, but it was a beautiful, albeit intense journey. Traveling on Interstate-8, I went through the mountainous region of the Cleveland National Forest, and one of the main reasons I arrived at Los Algodones so early was that I wanted to avoid as much traffic as possible. I left Spring Valley at around 4:00 AM and I arrived at the Andrade parking lot at about 6:20 AM. I was one of the first vehicles in the parking lot, but there were several vehicles that came in right after I parked. There was a $6 parking fee, which is paid at a terminal located just before the booth where someone told me to back up a few feet to use the terminal (the first time), so the first time I used cash and it accepted my crumpled $1 dollar bill and a $5 dollar bill, but on the second trip a few days later I used a credit card. There really wasn't any other parking option that I could see on the way there - it was just a long, winding, two-lane road all the way to the parking lot from the freeway.

There was a 2% foreign-use credit card fee for my dental treatment after I paid in full on the first visit. I needed a root canal, a couple of crowns, an impacted wisdom extraction and a simple molar extraction. A US dentist would have charged me about $4500 to $5000 for that work, and I probably would have needed to see a dental surgeon for the impacted wisdom tooth. The dentist that worked on me offered a "cash discount", but he didn't specifically state 10%, which was what I had seen on the internet that other people mentioned that they received from their various dentists when they paid with cash. I have a feeling I overpaid by a few hundred dollars, especially considering I was there during the off-season. I didn't care though because I am still suffering from PTSD due to the gouging prices I'd been paying to US dentists. If only I had thought of going to Mexico for dental care ten years ago, I could have saved many, many thousands of dollars.

One cautionary note: These are dental CLINICS for the most part, even when they call themselves by a specific dentist's name with "DDS" attached. The workers are almost never the actual dentist who fronts the businesses, but they are trained clinicians/technicians. There are some places where the actual dentist who is advertised as the expert at whatever type of care they offer does the actual work, but I believe these dentists generally own several clinics and they go wherever the most money is to be made, based on the season and the popularity of the different locations of their clinics located around Mexico. I went in the off-season for Los Algodones, which is the hot season that starts in May and ends in October or November. I believe most of the actual, highly-experienced and credentialed dentist-owners travel to other locations like Acapulco and Cabo San Lucas, to match themselves with the majority of the dental tourists who take Medical Vacations.

THAT is the main thing I will change if I decide to get dental care in Mexico again. I will make sure that the dentist who is shown on the website and Yelp reviews is the actual dentist who will be doing the work. On the other hand, I hate crowds and several of the popular clinics in Los Algodones had complaints about how long the patients had to wait and that they were getting jacked around on pricing. Those factors played a huge part in my decision to go to the place with the most legitimate-looking Yelp and Google reviews. I don't believe I chose as wisely as I could have though. It's still very confusing because NONE of the dentists I had considered had ANY credentials that appeared online. Not a single one. They say you should check out the credibility of the medical professional you're considering, but there was literally no way to do that with any of the dentists in Los Algodones. I would estimate I spent about 100 hours searching through videos and looking for various dentists' credentials online, but it became apparent that I was never going to find solid evidence that one or another dentist actually was qualified to do the work they claimed they were credentialed to do. So I simply went knowing that I would probably have someone who'd received adequate training to do the basic work I needed. I hope I made the right decision.

These photos were taken before many of the businesses were open.

The first business is visible just after you exit the border inspection station. It's a building that contains a couple of dental clinics and a pharmacy. There is ongoing construction at the top of the building, or they're preparing it for some type of facade or signage - you can see the exposed framework.

I was very impressed by the way the various buildings are used for multiple businesses. I was greeted right away by several men who were near the dental clinic on the right of the exit from the inspection building, and I explained that I was going around the town to take photos. They seemed to be mocking me a little bit, but it didn't seem to be negative, just that the guy repeated what I said and told me to go around. I think it was his use of the word "around" that made me wonder if he was mocking me. He said, "Yeah, you go around." This was during the off-season, in mid-May, and so I think they're used to larger numbers of people and more income from the dental tourists. I feel bad that I'm not able to spend more money to help them. I did donate a few dollars to a couple of older women who were asking for money near this area after I bought my medication at the Arizona pharmacy.

So obviously Los Algodones is a kind of small town that is filled with dental offices. I can't really say how good the dentists are or what type of education or training they get. I noticed that a lot of the clinics advertise dentists that never actually participate in the care of the patients of those clinics, from reading many reviews and blogs. That was also my case. If you're thinking of getting dental care here, make sure you call whatever clinic you're considering and confirm what you think you'll be getting when you arrive. Don't take the word of their advertisements or of the first person you speak with. The first place I called made it sound like they would could do everything I asked for during the first phone call, but I called back to clarify everything, and they told me they would need to make a special arrangement outside of their office for my request to get a crown, which is really a basic offering of any general dentist, and so I called another place which assured me that they could do that work.

One of the people I talked with who was doing some hawking for the dentists he worked for (there are literally hundreds of these people walking outside near the front of the clinics they're trying to hook people for) told me that many of the dentists and dental workers move from one clinic to another, based on arrangements that are made - as though there are some organizations that move these people around for one reason or another. You can see that there are several dentists who have locations throughout Mexico. I believe many dentists move to Los Algodones during the busy season, which is the cooler season, which is November to May (this is not including May, which gets hot out here). I believe that these dentists maximize their profits by going where the majority of foreign patients are likely to go, based on weather and other tourism offerings.

The place I went to was fairly close to the exit from the border control building. I was able to avoid the main, crowded areas, but both times I arrived, there was a man near the right side of the exit who began speaking English to me, asking me what I was looking for. This is the most common approach that is made, "Hey, what are you looking for?" I believe there are several dentists, out of the 600 or so, who do stay in Los Algodones throughout the year, but you have to do a lot of searching online, including every little bit of information you can possibly get (my dentist had two different names on the internet, the second one being a variation of the first, but it showed him doing another type of medical care not related to dentistry) and these dentists might be located in less convenient locations. The location was a big part of the reason I chose the dental clinic that I went to. They did a good job as far as I can tell. One of the assistants had a persistent chest-cough and she didn't always turn away from me. She wore a facemask, but I'm sure I was getting some small bits of moisture directly into my open mouth from her coughing. So I'm not sure I chose well at all. We'll see. I'm hoping I heal nicely and that the small bit of pain from the root canal I received at this place goes away within the next week or so. Otherwise, ... I don't know. I hate the idea of driving so far any time soon. And I have no idea what to expect - they might tell me one thing over the phone, then tell me something completely different after I arrive. They know they have me over the "inconvenient travel" barrel, so who knows?

This Valenzuela dentist has a lot of advertising on the internet and the website looked really well-done, but I tried to call them and got an answering system, but I never received a call back from them. I have a feeling that Dr. Valenzuela does not stay in Los Algodones after the busy season.

This Rubio Dental seems nice.

Mexico is very beautiful.

I think there are several "spotters", people who ride these small motorcycles around the town, keeping tabs on specific people. I noticed them as I was walking through the town, and when I was on my way out, both of the motorcycles were parked back at the border entrance. Some of the people who were asking if I needed help didn't seem accustomed to the idea that anyone would be walking around taking photos like what I was doing for about an hour before my appointment. And since I was there during the off-season, I suppose they were just used to keeping tabs on a lot more people. I left in the afternoon, right after I bought my medication and it was already close to 99 degrees, though it was a dry heat. There was no line in the pedestrian lanes, and I went on my way after my passport was quickly scanned by the person behind the shielded desk on the inside of the border crossing building. I can't imagine coming here during the busy season and dealing with the thick crowds of tourists within this tiny town. Apparently, there are long lines waiting to get through the border check station back into the US during the busy season. I get so paranoid about being forced to wait in a long line.

I hope I never have to come back here. It was such a long drive through the mountains and the desert ... but the views were spectacular!