www.CostaRicaTicas.com

So what other dentist offices do you recommend?

I prefer a place where the staff can understand English.

http://dentalinstitutecr.com/services.html is a web site I found last year when I was contemplating work. I did NOT have any work done so this is no recommendation.....just data to use.

I will say this outfit was prompt in their communications and are using the most modern equipment available. I asked many questions via email and "Each crown is in zirkonia $450 USD". There is a 4.75% discount for cash payments. It was noted: "Yes it is all the crown prep temp and final crown. If you need a post and root canal it is extra Post are betwen $95 and $120 USD and root canal betwen $180 to $250 USD deppending on the tooth it is It is a full porcelain crown made with a sistem call Zirkon Zahn".
Google Zirkon Zahn to get an idea of what these guys are working with.

Again, no recommendation....it's just data....

_________________
"Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand."
- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Ch. 16

This is no recommendation either.....just even more data to use.

I'm not sure, but I believe I read somewhere that most dentists and other doctors in CR speak passable English themselves because many studied in the US and even for those that didn't there is still usually a foreign language requirement that is part of the curriculum at CR dental colleges. Their STAFF may be a different story, but there will be at least somebody who can answer your e-mails.

My second observation is about these dental weblinks. Naturally, having a fancy advertisement site on the web makes them much more convenient to study as a place to go and you can see that at least their site is in English. The possibly negative flipside to all that it that, being in English on the web, they're also obviously targetting themselves towards gringos (especially if they're promoting "dental vacations"). Perhaps that means they're the better, more professional, more modern, more successful places, but it might also just mean that they're just the more expensive places. They can charge a LOT more to unsuspecting gringos than what most locals will pay and thus make a lot more profit, which can be plowed back into fancier offices, more impressive websites and, sure, better equipment.

All that doesn't necessarily mean you'll get better service at the more expensive web advertised dentists or worse service at the cheaper lower profile local tico oriented dentists. For example, I don't know what the heck zirkonia crowns are, but I do know that the regular porcelen (sp?) crowns on a noble metal base (which is normally what is recommended for back molars) don't cost all that much more than the $450/ea in the US IF you have insurance. I have also read many reports that one of the most popular dental practices with gringos (Prisma Dental) has been accused of upselling their patients with extra services that it turned out they didn't really need (and what are you going to say when you're sitting in a chair with a tube sticking out of your mouth and your teeth filed down to little points and don't know for sure what they're talking about).

Again, I'm not necessarily saying you shouldn't go to any of these dentists that advertise on the web. All I'm saying is that they won't be the cheapest place to go in CR (and, lets face it, saving money is the main reason you're thinking of having the work down there to begin with). If you do a search on this site you'll find all sorts of recommendations for dentists from the many more expensive gringo targeted dentists that forum members have found on the web to the much more obscure but even cheaper dentists that mainly serve the local market. Dr Chen was one of the latter who turned out to be not so great as he first appeared but there are others who have gotten great reviews. For example, Dra. Yalie Sanchez is one (again I did NOT have any work done so this is no t a personal recommendation). However she HAS been recommended by several OTHER members, who say she does great work and only charges something like $150/crown.

My woman and I saw Dr. Chen two weeks ago.

I had pain that started a couple of days before the trip and I couldn't get in to see my dentist.

I have dental in the states and my wife went to our dentist for a check-up and was told that she "definitely needs one root canal, and possibly 2 others", but they wanted her to see another dentist. They quoted us $900 EACH (for the root canal, crown, and post). Grand total, about $3k for everything.

We went to Dr. Chen, he put in a deep filling in the one that definitely needed a root canal, and fixed (slightly chipped) one of the other two. The third was left as is, it doesn't even bother her. Total cost (including my filling) was 37,000¢. He charges 15,000¢ per filling now and 7,000¢ to fix the chipped tooth.

We wanted to pay in dollars, so the receptionist converted, but used a 554 exchange rate (the day it fell to 524). I tried to explain it to her that the exchange rate fell sharply that morning, but she didn't understand the concept. So we ended up paying $67. It should have been closer to $70.

Anyway $70 is a little better than the $3,000 that those a-holes at my US dentist wanted to charge us for unneeded services.

Like you, I went to Dr. Chen expecting to have more extensive work done. In my case, a large filling had cracked and because so much of the tooth had already been filled I fully expected to need to have a crown done. Like you, Dr. Chen told me all I needed was to have the filling replaced and he also charged me about $70 for it. And like you, I walked away feeling no pain, thinking everything had been taken care of and feeling quite pleased over all the money and procedures I had saved myself.

In my case, the filling fell out of the tooth during my plane flight home (about only 3 days later). When I went to see a dentist right after I got back, he showed me the x-rays that he took which clearly showed dental decay in the tooth right under where Chen's filling had been which he had failed to remove (no wonder his work is so "painless", he barely drills). As it turned out, I was actually LUCKY that the filling came out. If it hadn't, that cavity underneath it would probably have gone undetected and grown much worse and quite probably leading to a need for a much more expensive root canal.

I sincerely hope that your fillings remain intact and that you TRULY didn't need that root canal. Dr. Chen may be very inexpensive (as are most other Tico dentists) and he may minimize the work he tells you he needs to perform. You may even walk away thinking every thing is fine and feeling great over how much money you THINK you saved. But how do you put a price now on all the EXTRA work you might need in the future if it turns out what Dr. Chen was really inadequate. If all you want to do is save money on dental work, there are several other Tico dentists reported on this board and others, who are just as inexpensive and for whom there are not any negative reports by the likes of guys like me and Scubabum (who was also INITIALLY very pleased with Dr. Chen's work. Dental work or anything having to do with your health is not anything you want to be TOO frugal with. Saving money with Tico healthcare is one thing but don't just go with someone because they lowball you.

Pro,
That's possible. Point taken. Or it may be that our US dentist was trying to perform an unneeded root canal to make $3,000. We wanted a second opinion. We were prepared to do the root canal, but at a much better price. Chen said it wasn't necessary. And so far, so good. But we'll see.

In complete fairness, Dra Thelma Rubinstein of Prisma Dental is another tico dentist who has been highly recommended here and elsewhere by some quarters while at the same time being widely reported by others to often grossly upsell on her already high (by tico standards) prices for additional unneeded services.

It is always a good idea when confronted with an expensive/extreme diagnosis to get a second opinion. All I'm saying is that it is not ALWAYS a good idea to go with the least expensive alternative just because it is least expensive. OTOH, neither am I saying that Dr Chen ALWATS cuts corners or does substandard work. Since you've already made the decision to go with Dr. C AND have had the work done, there is not much you can do now except hope you aren't one of the unlucky ones like me and Scuba. My guess is that you're probably just fine. However, for my part, in the FUTURE I will never go back to him no matter how much money I think it might "save" me.