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The Dental Alternative
The Dental Alternative, Issue 3
December 14, 2005
Welcome to The Dental Alternative.
A much more personal issue of The Dental Alternative newsletter. Due to many people asking how and why Mexican Dental Vacation was started, I will give you my story, and explain our motivations and what drives us to do what we do.
How and why did you start Mexican Dental Vacation?
Lets start at the beginning. Most of my life, I was in the construction and forestry industry. I worked in the forests of Alberta in the winter when the ground was frozen, and in the summer, I worked in the construction industry. During my school years, I worked summers planting trees for the Alberta Forest Service, until I was 27, and construction was a better choice for my lifestyle. I enjoyed the physical work and the ability to be outdoors, but when I got married, the forestry part of it got more and more difficult to do, as I would be away from my family a week at a time. At one point, I was only home for 29 hours every weekend.
With 2 small children to raise and enjoy, I was looking for a different way of life. Somewhere on the beach, away from the fast paced lifestyle, and where we could spend more time together as a family. I had gone to Mazatlan for dental work several times over the years, and saw what was lacking in the dental industry there, and what I needed to do to build and operate a dental office on par with one in the US or Canada. I always thought that if I could do this as a business, I would make a lot of people happy, and live the life I always dreamed of.
The breaking point came when I was going to work Monday morning, January 21st 2002, and met up with a loaded log truck around an icy corner. The combination of fresh snow on top of pure ice made it impossible to make a panic stop. As I slid under the load of logs, I had the reflex to lay down on the seat to protect myself. The impact peeled the roof of the pickup truck away, right where my throat would be if I didn’t lie down. The majority of the impact was to my abdomen.
The wind was knocked out of me for about 20 seconds, but otherwise I felt unhurt. We cleared away the wreck, and I was about to continue on to work, when I began getting sharp pains in my abdomen. I caught a ride with a fellow worker who finished his shift and was heading into town. It was an hour drive to town and the hospital, and the closer we got, the more unbearable the pain became. I finally stumbled into the emergency entrance, and the nurses rushed me into the examination room. I was given medication for pain, and after a scan, it was determined that I had ruptured my spleen against the steering wheel.
Since that kind of surgery could not be done in that hospital, I was airlifted to a larger city, and had emergency surgery to remove my spleen. Through an error at the hospital, my wife was told that I did not make it through the surgery. A few hours later that it was straightened out, and she was told the full story of what happened, but those were very long and frantic hours for her. It took me 6 months to recover from this accident, and during this time I developed the business plan and did research on starting Mexican Dental Vacation, and taught myself HTML coding necessary to build websites.
I did return to work, but continued to research and teach myself about the business of dentistry, and spent over 500 hours on various forums for dentists, and reading textbooks. I was able to secure a lease on a building right on the beach in Mazatlan, and in April of 2004, we drove down to start our business. Why did I choose dentistry as a business? It is a long-lost secret that Mexico in general, and Mazatlan in particular, has great dental care at rock bottom prices. My family and relatives have been coming here for many years, before people really knew about Mexican dentistry, and had some good experiences, and some bad, but I knew that I could build a different kind of Mexican dental office, one where the customer is treated even better than is possible in the US or Canada.
Mazatlan has a large medical infrastructure, so it attracts better doctors, dentists, and specialists than other, smaller tourist resort towns. From this pool, we are able to pick the best of the best to take care of your dental needs. To this point, we have been able to help many people with their dental needs, and it has worked very well for all involved.
Of all the things that you have done in your life, which 3 are you most proud of?
Number one is my family. I was lucky enough to marry someone who is not only my perfect match, but a soul mate. We have been blessed by Marina and Christopher, our 2 children, and it has been a joy and a miracle to see them grow and develop. We spend most of our time together, and are home schooling until they pick up a little more Spanish, and we can enroll them into school here.
The second thing I am most proud of is my contribution to the Mexican economy, and the poor in our area. The very first time that I came into Mexico, I was heartbroken to see just how poorly some of the people live here. I saw children playing around broken down shacks, in dirty clothing, and not a toy in sight. It is not the children’s choice to be born into poverty, and my heart went out to them.
In the first several months here, I gave a lot of money to those in need, and it was not like giving to a charity, where only a few cents out of a dollar actually get to the poor, but 100% of it went to feed and clothe these families. I soon realized that I couldn’t help everyone, and that the best thing to do would be to grow my business and contribute to the local economy.
When you come to our office for dental work, the money you spend does not stay in our office, it gets spent in the dental lab, the dental supply store, and various places that help our business run. This money circulates through the local economy, and helps everyone, including the poor on the streets. You can be assured that your money here does a lot of good.
The third is my contribution to this planet. Since the age of 12, I had been working summers in Alberta, planting trees for the Alberta Forest Service. From the time between 12 and 27, when I stopped, I personally planted more than 3 million trees. Yes, 3 million. I know people who have planted more. My personal best was 5,100 seedlings in a day. It was a difficult and physical job, but it was an experience in self sufficiency and survival that shaped my work ethic and taught me the importance of teamwork and leadership.
Of course, this was not a selfless act, I did get paid for it, but it was such a rewarding thing to do, that I still wish I could do it a few weeks a year. To think that these trees would be growing for generations, providing clean air to our planet, and jobs for the future was a reward in itself.
What are your plans for the future for Mexican Dental Vacation?
Our plans are to expand into other resort cities in Mexico. Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, Cancun, Puerto Penasco, and Tijuana are the first 5, which we plan to complete in 5 years. We plan to keep upgrading our equipment, and to use the latest technologies to get your dental work done quicker and with more accuracy. We plan to continue providing excellent care and huge savings to our customers, and to contribute more to the people of Mexico, both in employment and donations.
So there you have it. Some of your questions answered. In the next newsletter, I will address more questions, and keep you up to date with new announcements. I hope that you will consider coming into our office for dental work, experience everything that Mexican Dental Vacation and Mazatlan has to offer, and tell people about it. And now for a special announcement…
Mexican Dental Vacation can now do your dental implants in less than a week!
We have streamlined our operation to the point that we can do your dental implants in less than a week. We have had many requests from people who would like to come to our clinic to get their dental implants done as quickly as possible. We can get them done in 6 days. The first day, you would get a blood analysis done in the morning on an empty stomach, and the surgery can be done that afternoon. The surgery can take 1 to 2 hours, you heal for a few days, and then our dentist will do a final follow-up, and take out your stitches.
For people who can not come for a week, we can do the implants in as little as 3 days, although this is riskier, as we can not fully assess how well you have healed. You can fly in the first day, and get your blood analysis done the next morning. We would then do your surgery the same morning, and rest overnight. You would then fly out the next day, after a final check-up from the doctor. In this situation, we recommend you have your local dentist or doctor do the final check-up on you a week from the day of the surgery, to remove the stitches. Although we do not recommend it, we have had people tell us that they took out the stitches themselves.
Dental implants may seem like a very painful and involved procedure to many people, but in reality it is quite quick and painless. If you have been considering implants, come in for a free consultation, and get a vacation on the beach. It is important to note that in the US, Canada, and other parts of the world, there is currently no requirement to prevent a general dentist from placing implants. There are many 3 day-weekend courses provided by dentists and implant companies that will teach a general dentist how to place implants, but in no way compares to the training our dentist receives.
Our dentist’s implant training took more than a year, and cost us well over $11,000US. He trained under one of the top implant dentists in Mexico, and is available to consult and help our dentist whenever he requests it. In his class, there were 30 students, who each had to bring a live patient and place an implant under the guidance of the instructor. In essence, our dentist observed 29 live operations, and placed an implant himself to pass the course. Now, he places implants with precision, competence, and swiftness that can only be possible with a thorough understanding and passion for this type of work. It has always been a dream of his to learn how to place implants, and we are very glad that we were able to make this a reality for him. You will be in very capable hands!
Please visit our website today at http://www.mexicandentalvacation.com or pick up that phone and call 1-780-701-2507 to finally get that million dollar smile you've only dreamed about!