Medical Tourism: A $68 Dental Cleaning In Lima, Perú

My adventures in medical tourism continue! After enjoying my experiences with dentists in Italy, Argentina, and México, I finally explored Perú’s dental care.

If you’re curious about my previous experiences, reviews of those are below, but the TL;DR is that I’m having way better medical experiences abroad than I have had in the US and the cherry on top is that they’re way less expensive while being the same caliber of care if not better.

• Medical Tourism: Dental Cleaning And Cavity Fillings In Bologna, Italy
• Medical Tourism: A $22 Dental Exam & Cleaning in Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Medical Tourism: A $32 Dental Cleaning in Mérida, México
• Medical Tourism: A $38 Dental Cleaning In Puerto Vallarta, México

A Japan Tangent

Originally I wanted to get a dental cleaning while I was in Japan at the beginning of this year. However, none of my attempts were successful.

I found a dentist in Tokyo who spoke English and that other expats recommended, but when I contacted them I was told that they only accept customers who are residing in Japan and that they don’t take reservations from travelers. Hm 🙂 . That makes me curious how those expats who were travelers got an appointment – or maybe they changed their policy after realizing they don’t want to deal with us 😉 .

I started looking into other Tokyo dentists and couldn’t find the combo of my ideal features: transparent pricing (apparently a cleaning with no insurance cleaning is usually $85-109 USD), an English speaking dentist (since I sadly don’t speak Japanese) and online scheduling. So after trying for a few weeks I gave up and turned my eyes to my next possible dental tourism destination: PERÚ!

The Research

I was going to Perú in June so I started searching online for reviews and costs for dental cleanings in Lima, Perú. And I found one!

I learned about a clinic called Smiles Peru that had rave reviews on Google and great testimonials on their website (though obviously I trust those a little less). It also looked like a super fancy and very modern facility and claimed dental cleanings were $98 USD so I decided to contact them.

The Booking

So I filled out a form on Smile Peru’s website and 2 days later (on a weekend) I had a missed call from them on WhatsApp followed by a text and an email in perfect English. I was prepared to whip out my Spanish skills, but that wasn’t needed this time.

They explained what would happen during a cleaning and provided the cost ($68 USD), which was cheaper than I expected and cheaper than my Tokyo estimates. They also provided these videos, which I found interesting:

I responded and they got back to me a few hours later, despite it being after work hours on a Saturday, and confirmed my appointment, answered questions I had, such as what time I should arrive (at the time of my appointment) and the types of credit and debit cards they accept (all 🙂 ).

Then I got a confirmation email in Spanish asking me to confirm that I’ll be there or to edit the appointment, and I said I would be there. Sweet!

The Reminders

The day before my appointment Smiles Peru texted a reminder in Spanish from a different name: Healthatom Perú, which seems to be a dental management software. Curiously, I then saw an ad for that company after landing in Lima.

Then the day of my appointment I also got a reminder text from my original text thread with Smiles Peru in English. They were very on top of it 🙂 .

The Visit

When my appointment time came around, I set off on my next medical adventure!

Smiles Peru
Av. José Pardo 551, Miraflores 15074, Peru
+51 995 540 050

I arrived at the address above only to see: two entrances that said Smiles Peru. Uh oh 🙂 .

I first tried the entrance on the right, which looked like the above. However, when I went to the door it was locked and I could see a receptionist desk, but no one was there.

I tried to ring the Smiles Peru buzzer, but no one answered. It was time to try the other door! I headed to the entrance on the left, which looked like the below.

Luckily this was the correct entrance! The door was also locked, but there were employees at the reception area and one opened the door for me.

First impressions? Everything was so white 🙂 !

I checked in while speaking Spanish and saying I had a 10am appointment. They asked my name and if it was my first time visiting.

The Waiting Room

I was then directed up the stairs to the waiting room. I looked around and found a kitchenette with snacks and drinks along with a sign with the Wi-Fi password. Sweet!

I made myself some tea and settled on the couch. I was then joined by other people waiting, one of which was a gentleman who was playing random videos loudly (*sigh* I never understand people who refuse to use headphones). However, everyone else was respectful and I chilled until a few minutes later when an employee came up and asked me to fill out forms on an iPad in Spanish.

When that was done, another employee came over and hugged one of the other patients while speaking Spanish and then spoke perfect English to me. She took the iPad and asked me to follow her.

I followed her to the reception desk where she asked for my ID. She said a US ID was fine, but I had my passport so I gave that to her and she took it to make a scan of it. She then took a picture of me, which I found curious because (spoiler alert) no “after” photo of my smile was taken. I’m curious if this is for their cosmetic-focused clients who change their teeth and want to see a before/after.

Anyway, I was then directed into another room to pay. It was $68 USD like they’d previously mentioned and I was able to tap my credit card. I was then asked if I was here for an evaluation and a cleaning or just a cleaning and I said just a cleaning (since I had an evaluation and x-rays in November).

The Surprise X-Ray

I went back to the waiting room and a few minutes later another employee came up and asked me in Spanish, to follow her. So I did, but she led me into the x-ray room, which I was confused by.

This was the first employee I encountered who didn’t speak any English, which isn’t usually a big deal given my own language fluency, but I guess my dental vocabulary isn’t up to snuff because my questions about why I was getting an x-ray when I didn’t ask for one didn’t get an answer I understood.

So I went along with it and they took a 360 degree x-ray of my teeth. I was curious if this meant I would be asked to pay extra later or if this was somehow included in a cleaning and I waited to find out.

One funny thing that happened is that they asked if I could take my facial piercings out – I said no and this wasn’t a problem for them, but that made me smile because I always know my x-rays by seeing those piercings 🙂 .

The Cleaning

After all that and arriving at 10am, I was led back to the cleaning room at 10:30am. It was super white like all the other rooms 🙂 .

I grabbed my headphones to listen to a finance podcast like I usually do during dental cleanings and noticed that they had calming music playing in the room as well, which was nice.

I was then given a cloth cover for my clothes with their name embroidered on it – that’s a fancy first for me. I was also given plastic glasses to wear.

My cleaning started and it took about 30 minutes. It was very thorough, but also the gentlest cleaning of my life. It didn’t hurt at all and the small touches like the embroidered bib and then putting vaseline on my lips before having me hold my mouth open for a half hour (another first) made this a very nice experience. Those facts combined with the chill atmosphere made me feel more like I was in a spa than a dentist’s office, which is wild!

The Upsell & Aftermath

After my cleaning something interesting happened 🙂 . Besides the unexpected x-ray, this was the only surprise of the visit. I was told by my dental technician that they wanted to take pictures of a few individual teeth and I said ok.

They did that while I was still in the cleaning chair. I was then told that they wanted to give me 3 fillings and they showed me the pictures they took, but not the x-rays which I found strange.

I was also skeptical because I had an x-ray done in November and had no concerns about the teeth they were talking about. My diet also hasn’t changed and I rarely eat carbs or sugar so this made me raise an eyebrow. Unless these cavities came out of nowhere this seemed to be an unnecessary upsell.

Interestingly they also never said I had a cavity – just that they wanted to give me fillings, so I’m curious if this was a cosmetic suggestion and that fact was lost in translation. They gave me a fancy branded folder with a print out of what they had done (a dental cleaning and evaluation for $68) and what they wanted to do (fillings for $90.41 per tooth).

I said no thank you and they didn’t really push back, which I appreciate. I then left the office and was greeted warmly on my way out. A few days later I asked for the x-rays they took (which I assumed was included in the evaluation) and learned that they had no record of me asking for x-rays (that’s correct 🙂 ) or of them taking them. Oh my lol. So I guess those x-rays were lost to time.

This was the first time I’ve been abroad and ever been upsold like that and I’m hoping it was a language barrier issue. My visits to dentists in other countries have been wonderfully transactional – I say what I want (a cleaning) and they give it to me for an agreed upon price.

In Argentina my dentist did tell me to watch a specific tooth and it did turn into a cavity two years later so I appreciated that heads up, but no one has tried to have me do work without even showing me x-rays as proof of an issue.

So I’ll keep y’all posted if I confirm these teeth have an issue after a second opinion, but I’m currently skeptical and that last interaction dropped my view of this clinic from out of this world amazing to ‘just’ great, which isn’t bad at all. Though my skeptical brain wondered if they have such a nice office because of upselling cosmetic, but medically unnecessary procedures 🙂 .

Conclusion

And that was my first experience getting dental care in Perú! For the service I booked and paid for, they were absolutely amazing. Everyone was friendly and shockingly quiet – they were like ninjas walking around that office. I could never tell when people came in or left the cleaning room.

The x-ray situation was confusing, but I’m glad I didn’t have to pay for something I didn’t ask for. The possibly unnecessary upsell was also a bit strange, but I’m happy they didn’t push back a lot when I said no.

So despite those hiccups I was very impressed with this dentist’s office and it was absolutely worth the $68 USD I paid. The staff were lovely, the atmosphere was phenomenal, it was easy to book and their communication was top notch. If I return to Perú I’ll definitely stop in again – this time with a bigger arsenal of dental vocab words 🙂 .