Hahah no personally we have not tried it out yet! But one of our FIRE friends was a former dentist and she’s the one who told us about it. They do polish, fluoride, desensitizing, x-rays, sealants, scalings. So you still need to get the cleaning itself but can do that as a “basic no frills” option at your dentist office and do all the on-offs at one of the dental schools near by.

4 hours?! Wow. Have you had this half-day experience? haha

You’re welcome, I’ll take that as a good sign Bob! 🙂 The fun part of FI is that you really can start to hack life in a whole different level.

Glad you enjoyed it Cass! Yea, I personally am with you too with your thinking. If we are going to spend say $2k/year out of pocket for routine dental work here in a post-FIRE non-working world, should we instead use $1.5k of that towards travel somewhere and $500 on dental work there and get a trip out of it?

Another consideration is to look at local dental schools in the area to see if they offer student cleanings. I know of one in Calgary where you can get a cleaning for $10, but expect for it to take ~4 hours while the student learns.

Great points Wynona and thank you for sharing this story. I think medical tourism speaks more-so to Americans who can end up in crippling debt due to medical costs. For Canadians, the decision making process is trickier because like you mention, if there are off-shoots to the original diagnosis, any additional surgeries will be performed at no additional cost. This is definitely something to keep in mind and makes be thankful to be Canadian.

Erin, yes! Dental is where I see people save the most money day to day.

Most dental insurance is capped around a couple thousand USD. A lot of the people I work with are trying to get major dental work like implant supported dentures that would cost $50,000+ in the US. Most of our patients get that procedure for $14-18K.

Thankfully, I haven’t needed any implants but an exam, cleaning, and filling I got in Mexico last December cost <$100 USD

Hello, James! Yes, the idea here is that medical tourism is a solution for Canadians facing long wait times.

Court and Nic hit this perfectly.

Continuing the TKR example, imagine you can’t do what you love for 6 months- hiking, skiing, mountain biking. All out of the question. For Canadians who value doing what they love during that time more than the cost of care + travel, medical tourism makes sense.

I am also curious in which countries Erin had $100-$200 dental visits?