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What is dental tourism?

It means you fly to another country for dental work — implants, veneers, All-on-4 — because the quote at home is too high. That is all it means. It is not a holiday package, and it is not automatically unsafe or safe.

The U.S. CDC’s Yellow Book says dental care is the most common form of medical tourism among U.S. residents, in part because many people have little or no dental insurance. Dentists in the destination country may not be overseen the same way as dentists at home.

People go to Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia, Turkey, Hungary, Thailand, and elsewhere. The savings can be real. The risk is not the flight. The risk is who sits at the chair, what goes in your jaw, and who helps you when you are already back in Toronto.

What a sensible trip looks like

  • You know which dentist — the person — will do the work.
  • You have a written quote before you buy flights.
  • You have spoken to that dentist on a video consultation.
  • You know the implant or ceramic brand by name.
  • You have a written plan if something fails after you go home.

The Ontario Dental Association tells patients to understand the plan at home first, compare it with the plan abroad, keep copies of X-rays and notes in English, and know that promises may be hard to enforce as a non-resident.

Why we verify the dentist, not the clinic brand.

Read the source, not our spin