Travel Tip #9: Dental Work is Now a Holiday Vacation!
With all the talk about poor health insurance or no health insurance this article is for you! Along my travels I have met many people from western countries traveling across the planet to get medical care, and especially dental work. I've even met those having complicated surgeries; all with great success and are relieved that it didn't ruin them financially.
This is about as easy and clear as I can explain it.
Option A: Have 10,000 dollars of dental work done in the United States, Australia, UK, Japan........
Option B: Fly to Cuenca Ecuador and have the same work done for $1,500.
With travel expenses it would be about $2,000-$2,500 total.
I know what I'd do.
The only question is: What are you going to do with that eight grand you just saved?
You can even get your children braces in these parts and it's well worth the trip.
Ecuador, specifically the city of Cuenca is a big time up and coming medical tourism destination. The same can be said about Bangkok Thailand. Medical tourism is not limited to these two countries. I've met Americans traveling to Cancun Mexico, and Australians visiting Kuala Lumpor Malaysia as well as many other destinations around the globe; all saving big on medical care.
For those concerned about the language barrier, in the medical field it's mandatory for them to learn English as part of their education across the planet. Sometimes I think the non-developed world is developed, and the developed world is over-developed and there for overly expensive. With great service and prices; save big and take a medical vacation when needed!
Have you been a medical tourist? Let us know in the comments section.
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Interesting subject, many are doing this, including a holiday into getting medical procedures done as the cost covers the holiday, the procedures with some left over. There was a tv program on it years ago about how many people from Western country's were going over to Thailand to get dental work done as it was too costly and the work getting done was a higher grade in alot of the cases and have a bonus holiday and leftover cash or less to borrow.
Have spoken to a couple that went over to Thailand to get a Tattoo done and have a holiday at the same time, the cost of it getting done in NZ was really high, that the husband was able to take his wife on a holiday giving him extra brownie points, and get the tattoo done and had money left over.
Great share. Now that is exactly what I'm talking about. Glad to hear this post is something my fellow steemians understand and can even relate to on a personal level. Too many of in the west especially the USA assume the borders outside of our home country are some sort of desert waste land, when that simply is just not the case. Every country is unique, every country does something well, and brings something the table. Thailand is one of those countries that has much to offer, and taking advantage often comes down to the individual's understanding of what we are talking about.
It's an interesting way to save on dental work!
I do the opposite - I travel around South East Asia about 9 month a year and then I come back to my hometown in Russia to visit dentist, that's much cheaper than in Bangkok :D
Wow. Russia and Eastern Europe, I do not know much about. I'm looking forward to traveling that part of the world next year. I know dental work in the US has gotten crazy expensive, especially for anything more than a cleaning.
Visit Saint Petersburg if you can, I heard it's very beautiful :)
I hope I can get there next year after crossing through the countries in Eastern Europe and Israel.
UPVOTED.
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Thanks.
Thank you. I'll take a look.
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In Belgium we have very strong health care programs so we dont need to care about this.
I would be a bit reluctant about the level of expertise of those countries. Not saying they lack the skills, just I have to trust them while I have no view of the expertise level in that country.
We should all be so fortunate to be from a country that takes care of their citizens rather than just talks about it.
I agree to some extent but our social security is that strong that people are abusing it and are too lazy to work.
But ok
That's the problem with socialism isn't it?
Indeed socialists always ruin their own structures
I'm not sure about the way health care is delivered in Belgium. I wasn't concerned about expertise levels; I went to a general dentist who then referred me to a specialised dental hospital that was multistorey. Each dentist deals with tens of patients per day. This felt really industrial scale - so I had no qualms about expertise level.
In Belgium its basically free...
If there are no quality issues indeed medical shopping all the way !
I've had dental work done in Asia on the side of other trips there. High quality, excellent tech, though it helps to know the local language. About the only complaint I had was: when they were drilling into my jaw, there was construction work going on down the corridor. Jack-hammers, power saws and the like. Not a good contrast hah!
Thanks for the contributing commentary. Glad to hear you were satisfied with the work. I recently had some minor dental work done in Vilcabamba Ecuador. Cost me 20 dollars where back in the states it would have cost me at least $200!
I agree with how your money could go a long way in other countries. However, I don't see the difference anymore with this developed and developing categorization. The people in the developed countries get high salaries to afford the high cost of living, while it is cheap to live in the developing countries for the low salaries of people.
The only difference I see is the mentality and attitude, thinking too much and living up to this developed category can create arrogance and portray over glorification of lives. There are more bad and crazy things going on in the developing nowadays lol.
Couldn't agree with you more. I'm not big on labeling and titling people, places, and things. But it's the language we use, so I do the best I can, regarding the devoloping this and developed that. So much of the expense I've come to understand in the developed world is to maintain that lawn, the lawyer, the red tape, the FDA regulators, the code inspectors, high property taxes, the politicians, the new electronic menu on the Ipad at your dinner table, the fancy neon signs, the high electric bills, the overly high standard of everything. All that cost, and makes running a business in places like the US so damn expensive, passing the costs onto the "consumer" Don't you like being called a consumer by the way?
I just had a great healthy plate of Pat-Si-Ew (stir fried flat noodles, with chicken and vegetables for a dollar sixty. The restaurant is a cement floor, an open air kitchen, and some bamboo strung together. Their probably in violation of 100 different codes back in the states. But I'd take this food over a Big Mac and fries any day of the week.
I think everyone's a consumer. Don't you think?
Wow, I'm getting hungry again!
As you know the food is great here. Yes we are all consumers. But I don't like the label. I prefer to go with a label like "spiritual being from planet earth!"
I just put another travel report, this time on Aruba. That's certainly no budget travel place but had the pleasure of going there twice compliments of my folks! Hope you find it interesting- Dan
I will check your posts soon, I have like 48 people to check haha. I hope you're monitoring your sp - https://steemnow.com/, it should only be 11 upvotes per day, which is kinda hard. With all those nice articles out there.
I hope you decide to become an insta-whale soon hahaha, so you can upvote me everyday! :P Or pls. ask your whales to check out my posts too, I'm living off steemit surprisingly lol. I need their 1% upvote.
Hey that's pretty good being able to live off steemit in your first couple month's. I'm impressed. I've run your name past several biggies on here and will continue to do so when it seems appropriate. Don't see myself moving money out of where I currently have it to become and insta-whale. But my earnings are quickly growing and I plan to leave most of it in the platform. So my up-votes should gain power over time. But it will be a while. You are a busy social butterfly on here. Good for you. What I like about steemit is that overtime you could really blow up on here with 2000 followers and 100 dollars every time you post. Great potential steemit offers. The thing that bugs me, is I could be at the beach, pool, bar, tour, walking around, having fun, meeting people. To see hours go by as I sit in my hotel room has been something I've had to decide if it's worth it, and I just have to go at my own pace or I'll get frustrated. It's obvious I write long responses and stuff. Takes time, I'm just genuine like that and enjoy speaking my mind. Thanks for the steemnow.com tip and keep up the good work you soul child consumer you!
Just balance it, find some time to write then go to the beach hehe.
Yeah, I think that's the good way to do it.
Have fun there. :)
So I go to the beachfront pool side restaurant to get steemit work done the other day. Only to get totally pulled away by friends I've made. I ended up having a beer and hang out in the pool all day then yesterday visited two beaches a waterfal a mountain top bar.......waaaaa lol :) I should be networking with the bigs on here and going through yesterdays photos.
Good advice you have though.
I'm enjoying myself. But wish I could focus better.