should my boyfriend leave the country for dental care?

Thursday, November 4, 2010

My boyfriend needs major work done,here it would cost like $15,000,A friend told him in the Phillipines it would be only $1500 plus flight expense,and no way to get insurance here.Is it worth it and safe?
--------------------
I'm a dentist. You know, I hear comments like yours a lot and I really feel sorry for patients who end up pursuing dental work out of the country in order to save money. It's very telling about their perception of the dental profession and the importance of their oral health. To them, dentistry is nothing more than fancy high-priced carpentry, and the measures they'd take to ensure the best medical care for themselves are not applied to their dental care. While doctors (of any health profession) can vary in competence, they nonetheless all have to matriculate through a system with very stringent standards. Practicing dentistry in this country is not easy. Dental school is very difficult to get into (almost as difficult as getting into medical school). Students spend four years learning vast amounts of information and practicing on patients. Dental schools are well-funded, didactic and clinical courses are taught by experienced faculty, and students are exposed to many of the advances in the profession (although most of the clinical training is focused on core skills). Every school submits to inspections for accreditation. In order to be eligible for licensure, dental students (and graduates) must take the NBDE exams parts I and II, which are ruthlessly gruelling exams that cover enormous amounts of material. Fail one of these exams, and you are ineligible for licensure. To receive licensure in a specific state (or group of states), clinical licensing exams are taken where the practitioner's skills are evaluated on live patients. Again, the scrutiny is ruthless. Dentists in this country are better than they are anywhere else in the world, and they are more accessible--whether they're a general practitioner or a specialist--not only because of the fact that they happen to reside in the same country as you, but because dentistry in this country is also very "customer-service" oriented. What's particularly sad about patients who go elsewhere for dental care is how naive they are. Dentistry is not plastic surgery where a botched nose-job is instantly known. Very few poorly-done dental procedures fail in less than a year's time. You'll be thousands of miles away from you Phillipino doctor if/when you have problems with your work--whether it's one year of five years later. And I can assure you that when you see a dentist in America to fix the work you had done in the phillipines, he/she will not "cut you a deal" on the fees because you're having the work re-done.
Source

0 comments: