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Claire: This was your first full day in Belize and you spent it all at the dentist. . . . How did you end up in a dental clinic in Belize?
Ken: I started searching the internet and found Offshore Medical Dental but it sounded almost too good to be true, I was afraid that maybe you were Belizean scammers and that once I got down here there would be some hidden fee, like maybe I’d get halfway through the dental treatment and you’d tell me I had to pay an additional thousand dollars to you before I could get my teeth finished and go home!
Claire: When you called we suggested that you get an exam and treatment plan from a local dentist, what happened there?
Ken: First he said I needed a periodontal cleaning, that cost $800, after that he said he would do an examination take impressions of my teeth for $200 more, then the dentist said he would check the tooth that was causing pain. So here I was $1,000 into this and he hadn’t even looked at the tooth that was causing the pain.
So I called you guys back and said I was ready to come to Belize”
I was at the dentist all day today and the office was clean and the staff was very friendly and professional. They have a very no nonsense approach to dental care which is great because I am here to save money.
Claire: What did you have done today?
Ken: He immediately went to work on the tooth that was bothering me; he did a root canal and took some impressions so that he could build a crown. Then he checked my other teeth and found a tooth that had a filling that needed to be replaced so he decided to take care of that right away.
He looked at my other teeth and although he had concerns about some of them, he didn’t feel that any of them required crowns at this time. He decided to build up my eye teeth to put veneers on them because I am a grinder. He did a cleaning and a whitening as well.
Claire: They are shining white, I’ll attest to that, they’re glinting from across the table!
Ken: At the end of the appointment the dentist went through all the procedures that were done today and what needs to be finished and gave me a list of everything it will cost $2,150. These services that would have cost at least $6,000 in the US; so between the airfare and the hotel which was about another $1,000 I figure I’m saving about $3,000 doing it this way.
I know that there are about 3 or 4 teeth that are gong to need crowns in the next couple of years and I will definitely come back and have it done here.
I’m a small business owner and I just recently was able to afford to buy health insurance for the first time in 3 years and we have a $6,000 a year deductible and no dental coverage. So we started looking around at different health insurance options and we decided to go with what’s known as a health savings account. If you have a health savings account one of the things that you can use those funds for is dental care. So that’s one of the reasons why we did that. The way that the health savings account works is that we can put money into this account like an IRA, so it’s going in tax free, the money comes of the account out tax free, so the money that I’m spending on this trip is all tax free money so even though it’s costing me $3,000 I’m actually saving $600-700 on taxes.
Claire: That’s very interesting, where did you find out about health savings accounts?
Ken: On the internet of course (laughing). It’s actually a fairly new thing, it came out about 2 yrs ago so it hasn’t really taken off yet but I think that a lot of people are going to be faced with that as their best option in the future, because health care costs are just spiraling out of control in the US and it’s the only way you can afford insurance anymore, it’s a pretty good option.
Claire: Tell us about the logistics of your trip.
Ken: They (Offshore Medical Dental) took care of all the transportation to and from the airport and to and from the dentist office everyday. They arranged for me to stay in a very nice European style B&B right in town, it’s actually walking distance form the dentists office if I wanted to walk. The bed and breakfast is just 2 blocks from the Caribbean Sea and it’s a beautiful facility, they have great breakfasts, the rooms are spacious and there lots of restaurants in the neighborhood. I feel comfortable, I feel safe.
Claire: You’re not actually on vacation here this time.
Ken: Since I run a small business, I’m an independent contract programmer, I needed to be able to work while I was here, and it just wasn’t the right time for me to be taking time off for a vacation. So I talked to Offshore Medical Dental Services about making sure that I had all the accommodations that I needed to be able to work, so I have an internet connection and I brought my laptop along and an extra big screen because I do web development and so I set that up in the hotel and continued to work and I was able to get online and work just like I’m at home. I’m right at the tail end of a big project and I have to get it done.
I had asked about renting office space by the day and they were able to arrange that for me as well, I ended up not doing that because I was able to work at the hotel but next time I come and do this I’m going to rent the office space and my clients will never even know that I’m in Belize.
One week later…
Claire: Ken now that you are finished with your treatment what did you get as your final touch yesterday?
Ken: I got a porcelain crown on a back molar, it’s perfect I can’t even tell... it feels just like the tooth he replaced, it feels good and I’m happy with what I got.
Claire: Did you get to do anything fun while you were in Belize?
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Ken: Yes I went on the Lamanai tour… it was the best tour I have ever been on anywhere. It starts out as a jungle cruise for about 40 miles up the river and you end up at Mayan ruins, it is a huge, huge site. The ruin was fabulous, it is amazing to me that there is something that old here; I mean its thousands of years old. Saw lots of wildlife and interesting plants we did see the monkeys, they were in the trees, I was standing on a pyramid when I heard them so I was eye level with them. So we spent the day there and they gave us lunch, for the whole day I spent $45… it was just fabulous. And on the way out there we stopped at the Mennonite community.
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Claire: How would you rate your whole Belize experience on a scale of 1 to 10?
Ken: Oh it was wonderful. The dental work is definitely a ten.
I’ll come back to Belize for a vacation and for more dental work; I have 3 other teeth that will need some care because they are cracked already. When that comes up I’ll come back but even before that my wife and I will come back for a vacation maybe as early as January or February.
Note: Ken’s final bill:
Ken ended up getting several procedures that included:
- Oral exam with 4 x-rays-$60
- Cleaning and scaling-$45
- 2 porcelain veneers-$950
- 2-step in-clinic whitening treatment-$350
- One porcelain crown-$260
- One ceramic filling-$45
- One root canal w/ 3 roots-$225
- Post and Core-$90
- Night guard and impression-$100
His total bill at the clinic was $2,125
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