I don't understand why, given the exhorbitant fees, more (most?) Americans without Dental Insurance don't have their dental care needs attended to overseas? It seems like a no-brainer to do so. For HALF what you'd pay for costly, complex dental procedures here, you can get the same level of care by an equivalent foreign dentist—AND an overseas vacation, too!

A root canal & crown in New York might cost $1500. You could get the same in, say, Bangkok or Mexico City, however, for $400—then either spend the rest to make it a nice trip or just keep it in the bank and fly back home. Fly out of your home city after work on Friday, have the work done on Saturday, fly home Sunday night or Monday morning (if you have no vacation/sick days available for an extended stay.)

Just a thought :-)

That is assuming they already have a passport and the money for a ticket, lodging, and other travel expenses.

Obvious, you say?

What’s obvious is that the author spent the first half of his life under the care of a “foreign” dentist .

Oh boy, the British, government run, dental care is free! The only problem is that the Brits have crappy teeth – excellent system.

In any case, any dentist will tell you that you have to brush and floss. You can’t expect the dentist (or the government) to step in and fix your neglect. He wouldn’t be suffering with high dental bills if he had taken care of his teeth when young.

The Brits have been sold on the idea that braces are just cosmetic. Braces prevent many major problems down the road.

Also, Dental health affects your overall health – just ask a doctor about the link between bad teeth and diabetes.

Here’s an idea UK- brush and floss. Even if you can’t afford a dentist, you can afford a tooth brush and some paste.

Hooblublu:

Oh boy, the British, government run, dental care is free! The only problem is that the Brits have crappy teeth – excellent system.

What about privately run American healthcare system? We have the most expensive and least efficient, compared to other advanced nations.

<link>

In spite of this exhorbitant cost, we are WORSE than Canada in life expectancy. We are WORSE than the UK in life expectancy (incidentally, both have government-run healthcare). If outcomes were to determine effectiveness of service, and going by your logic, government run healthcare trounces privately run systems by a huge margin.

See link

Thanks for the link! Now when some bobo yatters on about how "great" US health care is, I can tell them definitively that Canada is #6 on the list while the "health care" they get in the US leaves them ranked at 35th!

I can hardly wait!

When blathering about Canada vs USA and all that – size matters.

Canada Population: 33,793,000

USA Population: 307,497,000 – Ooooo, just a tad bit bigger.

Do any of you think that having TEN TIMES the population ( and a lot more diverse) might just make offering total coverage a little bit more of a challenge?

Now, let’s look at how Canada, UK, France, etc. makes enough money to pay for its “free” health:

Trade deficits with the US. The United States has about a $50 Billion trade deficit with the World. The US is responsible for over 50% of the world economy’s consumer purchases.

Canada’s biggest employers are American companies.

Figure it out yet?

WE are paying for everyone’s health care and 30 days vacation and 4 day work weeks, etc.

Not to mention that we pay for everyone’s defense and we are the biggest funder of charities. And now, we are expected to pay millions for illegals – where’s the breaking point.

Want to hear something funny – many of our overpriced drugs are imported from the UK – thanks Brits!

That’s why we can’t afford to do it for ourselves – we have the world resting nicely on our backs.

Bring manufacturing back, shut down all of the unnecessary military bases and then let’s talk about affordable health care.

Thank you Dr. Hooblublu---or is it Mother Hooblublu?

Braces are cosmetic.

Forget Mexico and Bangkok.

My friend had one root canal done in Prague, Czech Republic, while there on a business stint.

They do a root canal over a 4-visit stretch.

Total cost? $175.00 No kidding. $175.

And Prague is a fabulous place to visit. I enjoyed it better than Germany, Austria, Belgium, Holland, etc.

Prague is amazing. Friendly, Ancient, and beautiful.

And still very inexpensive.

Your solution?

Bring manufacturing back.

Sounds great. But How? Force companies to return by raising rariffs and starting a trade war, a war we would lose?

Or should we open a few thousand factories and advertise for $3.00 per hour assembly line workers? How would that work out? Do you want to put your life savings into buinding the factory? Or do you want your children to work on the lines at those wages?

If it could be done, it would already have been done.

Those stats, just like birth survival rates, are skewed.

The thing is, even in Canada, people have to pay for their own dental care (or have it covered by a private health plan). There are programs for the very poor, but dental care is not covered for the average citizen.

Lemonista:

The thing is, even in Canada, people have to pay for their own dental care (or have it covered by a private health plan). There are programs for the very poor, but dental care is not covered for the average citizen.

That sounds basically how it is in the US. In the past 20 years, I've noticed that dental & vision plans are typically the first things cut when a company is trying to save money on medical plans. I've also never had a dental plan that was really worth anything; they always have so many restrictions, high deductables, and very low maximum payments. Many dentists also give pretty hefty discounts for paying cash because they don't want to deal with the insurance paperwork.

foobar:

Those stats, just like birth survival rates, are skewed.

Well, then, why don't you unscrew them for us?

I know some people who have gone to Mexico (West Coasters) and Hungary (East Coasters/Europeans) for dental treatment and have been very happy with the outcome.

My concern is with the multiple visits required--and with the impossibility of follow-up/recall.

That said, the cost difference is enough that I would definitely consider it.

The stats are PER CAPITA, which means that the deaths are expressed as the number of deaths per hundred (or thousand). So your whining is meaningless, you jingoistic nut bar.

If the US government had the balls to put in a proper health care system, the numbers would improve virtually overnight. I guess that would be because people like you wouldn't have to make the decision between chemotherapy and rent. Or do you like seeing otherwise healthy adults die for no good reason?

In addition....Y'all would be freezing in the dark if your largest trading partner (that would be Canada, moron) decided that China or Australia or Europe... would be a better market for all that oil, gas, hydroelectric power, timber, natural gas... that you can't produce yourselves. Never forget that Canada DOESN'T NEED YOU as much as you need Canada.





Sissy