Dental Tourism in Latin America
The population of over one hundred and ten million is ethnically diverse and cosmopolitan. European and America expatriates create pockets of English, French and German speakers. English is common in international business, and at holiday resorts where tourists congregate.
Given the country's close proximity to the United States means that many American medical professionals are educated in Mexico and vice-versa. Health care is generally equivalent to the American standard, with local hospitals and dental clinics equipped to latest equipment and hygiene standards. Mexican healthcare may be 75% cheaper on the exchange rate and lower labor and regulatory overhead. However, it is arguably equally as good.
Costa Rica is on the land bridge between North and South America. For medical and dental tourism the universities train professionals that are regulated through the country's Department of Health. The United Nations World Health Organization ranks the health system in the top twenty in the world, and the best in South America.
Peru is a country in South America that's home to a section of Amazon rainforest and Machu Picchu, an ancient Incan city high in the Andes mountains. The region around Machu Picchu, including the Sacred Valley, Inca Trail and colonial city of Cusco, is rich in archaeological sites. On Peru’s arid Pacific coast is Lima, the capital, with a preserved colonial center and important collections of pre-Columbian art.
Colombia is a country at the northern tip of South America. It's landscape is marked by rainforests, Andes mountains and numerous coffee plantations. In the high-altitude capital, Bogotá, the Zona Rosa district is known for its restaurants and shops. Cartagena, on the Caribbean coast, has a walled colonial Old Town, a 16th-century castle and nearby coral reefs. Health standards in Colombia have improved very much since the 1980s, healthcare reforms have led to the massive improvements in the healthcare systems of the country.
Guatemala, a Central American country south of Mexico, is home to volcanoes, rainforests and ancient Mayan sites. The capital, Guatemala City, features the stately National Palace of Culture and the National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. Antigua, west of the capital, contains preserved Spanish colonial buildings. Lake Atitlán, formed in a massive volcanic crater, is surrounded by coffee fields and villages.
Argentina is a massive South American nation with terrain encompassing Andes mountains, glacial lakes and Pampas grassland, the traditional grazing ground of its famed beef cattle. The country is famous for tango dance and music. Its big, cosmopolitan capital, Buenos Aires, is centered on the Plaza de Mayo, lined with stately 19th-century buildings including Casa Rosada, the iconic, balconied presidential palace.
Health care is provided through a combination of employer and labor union-sponsored plans (Obras Sociales), government insurance plans, public hospitals and clinics and through private health insurance plans. Health care cooperatives number over 300 (of which 200 are related to labor unions) and provide health care for half the population; the national INSSJP (popularly known as PAMI) covers nearly all of the five million senior citizens.
Ecuador is one of the most environmentally diverse countries in the world, and it has contributed notably to the environmental sciences and its many destinations offer travelers a range of attractions to explore. Ecuador hosts warm sunny beaches of the Pacific to impressive mountain villages in the Andes to the Amazon rain forest, to the world’s ecological wonder - the Galapagos Islands.
Ecuador has a rich cultural heritage. Much of what is now Ecuador came to be included in the Inca empire, the largest political unit of pre-Columbian America. Ecuador is unusual among Latin American countries in having two major centres of population and commerce, the vibrant port city of Guayaquil acting as a counterbalance to the capital, Quito, located in the Andean highlands in the north-central part of the country.