Hot Times In Molar City

Say “aahhhhh”

Tucked away in the corner where California, Arizona, and Baja California meet, along the banks of the Colorado River as it meanders its way down to the Gulf of California, sits Mexico’s northernmost town - the little pueblo of Los Algodones, Baja California.

Being Mexico’s northernmost town is, however, not the only distinctive thing about Los Algodones. No, what sets this town of about 5,000 people apart from any other similar sized town in Mexico (or the U.S., for that matter) is the number of dental offices located there: about 350 offices accommodating some 600 dentists. That’s a dentist-to-resident ratio of about 8.3-to-1. Why on earth do the residents of Los Algodones need so many dentists? Is Coca-Cola to blame?

Well, maybe. But the more likely explanation is that this tiny town on the U.S. border has over the last few decades re-invented itself as the dental practitioner to the millions of people in the U.S. and Canada who lack dental insurance yet have teeth. In the U.S., about 70 million people (one-fifth of the population) don’t have dental insurance - many of them elderly, as regular Medicare doesn’t cover dental work. Even with dental insurance, many surgical procedures are not covered by insurance, because why would they be? And Canada’s nationalized health care system does not cover dental care (Canadians, please check my math here). Teeth - in the eyes of the insurance industry - are superfluous. This is why we have blenders, people.

In Mexico, dental procedures are a fraction of the cost that they are in the U.S. and Canada, where people can go broke maintaining their teeth. The cost of care, the quality of care, and the proximity to the U.S. explain why Mexico is the world’s leading destination for “dental tourism”; Los Algodones’ location 5 miles from Yuma, Arizona explains why 3,000 visitors from the U.S. and Canada cross the border each day into this tiny tooth tuning town. This also explains Los Algodones’ more familiar nickname - “Molar City”.

The image below partially illustrates the density of dental offices in Los Algodones; if you look closely, you’ll see tiny red dots on the map as well (I mean, look really closely; actually, don’t even bother - just trust me, there are tiny red dots):

Most of these tiny red dots are also dental offices. I’m not sure how each office distinguishes itself from the others. Maybe it doesn’t matter - maybe it is enough that they are relatively affordable and accessible. And accessibility is key, and not just in a geographic sense: many visitors in need of dental care arrive in Los Algodones without any kind of appointment. This is unheard of in the U.S., where wait times for a new dental appointment are often measured in months.

Lest you worry that a visit to a border town dental office in Mexico means mercury fillings and laughing gas, keep in mind that many of the dentists you’re likely to encounter in Molar City were trained in the U.S. And they are using the same materials and equipment and sanitation procedures that your local U.S. strip mall dentist is using. They’re just not trying to pay off their yacht with the proceeds from your root canal.

Finally, I would be terribly remiss writing about dental care in Mexico without riffing off of the famous scene with Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier from 1976’s Marathon Man: is it safe? Well yes, of course it’s safe. It’s not like Los Algodones is the diamond district in New York City.