Got quoted $40,000 for dental work?
You can fix that for about $12,000.
Same Straumann implants. Same E.max crowns. Same lab certificates. The difference is the city the chair sits in.
We're the team that vets the clinic, sets up the records review, books the lodging, and stays on WhatsApp every day of your trip. The dentists do the dentistry. We make sure nothing else goes wrong.
quote, average
five years running
from our specialists
Yes, the work is real. So is the catch.
The savings aren't because Nicaraguan dentists cost less than US dentists — they cost the same per hour. The savings are because Nicaragua doesn't have a US insurance billing system inflating every line item by 4x. The catch is logistics — getting the right clinic, the right trip, the right recovery. That part is our job. Here's what the coordination fee covers.
We get your records reviewed first
You send your x-rays and the treatment plan you've already been quoted. A Nicaragua specialist reviews them inside a week — so the trip you book is for the work you actually need, not a sales pitch with a different number on it.
We match the procedure to the right clinic
An implant goes to a Managua periodontist with a CBCT scanner. A crown can be done in Granada or SJDS for half the trip length. Send the wrong case to the wrong clinic and you've wasted the flight — so we don't.
We plan the trip around the procedure
An implant is two visits four months apart, not one — most people don't know that until they're booking the wrong ticket. We map the whole calendar in writing, including the second trip, before you commit to anything.
We book lodging that matches the recovery
Sinus lift means three quiet nights near the clinic, then a beach. Crown means walk back to a Granada courtyard for an early dinner. We don't put you in a roadside hotel because it was cheaper — the recovery is the trip.
We drive you to and from everything
Sorting a taxi at MGA at 11pm with a fresh implant and zero Spanish is the wrong way to start. A named driver meets you, and the same number runs the clinic mornings. The hidden tax of a dental trip is the friction. We pay it.
We're on WhatsApp after you fly home
A stitch comes loose. The crown feels half a millimeter off. You message us, we get the clinic on the phone in Spanish, the fix gets scheduled. Most quality clinics include the touch-up in the original price — they want the next referral more than the $80.
Five stages, and what we do in each
Most dental trips fail in the same two places: the wrong clinic for the work, and a recovery that turns into a logistics crisis. Our job is to remove both. Yours is to show up and let the dentist do their job.
Records review
You send your latest x-rays and the treatment plan you've been quoted. We get a real specialist to look at them in 3-5 days. No charge. If the work isn't right for Nicaragua, we'll tell you.
Quote & plan
You get a written quote in USD, signed by the clinic, plus a trip itinerary and procedure timeline. Not "starting at" pricing. Not a brochure. The line items you'd see at any North American specialist — with smaller numbers.
Lock in the trip
You handle the flight. We handle the lodging, the drivers, the clinic appointments, and a buffer day at each end. Everything in one WhatsApp thread you can scroll on the plane.
Procedure days
Pickup at your door, clinic, ride back, soft food waiting at the lodging. Someone from our team checks in on WhatsApp every day. If anything feels off, we're at your door in under an hour.
Recovery & home
Two or three slow days near the beach or a colonial courtyard, a final check at the clinic, then a written aftercare plan you can hand to your home dentist. We stay on WhatsApp after you land.
Pull out your last dental quote.
Compare line by line.
Every number below is a real range from a real clinic we send patients to, in US dollars, all-inclusive of what's typically billed separately at home (anesthesia, follow-up visits, basic meds). The US/Canada column is from the 2024 ADA and CDA fee surveys for major metro areas.
A week of healing
that doesn't feel like one
The hard part of recovery isn't the dentistry — it's the three or four quiet days afterward. We've watched 200+ patients do those days. The ones who pick a Pacific beach house instead of a Holiday Inn don't talk about pain when they get home. They talk about the sunsets.
7 days · single implant + sinus lift in Managua
The rhythm of an implant trip, after running it more than fifty times: get the surgical work done early in the week while you're sharp, then move to the coast for the actual healing. By Friday the swelling is gone and you're walking on sand watching pelicans. You fly home on Saturday with a story, not a war wound.
Three clinics, three jobs.
Match the work to the right one.
Bad dental tourism happens when a Managua implant case goes to a Granada general dentist, or vice versa. We keep three different relationships open so we never send the wrong patient to the wrong chair. We don't name the clinics publicly — good ones get overrun the second they're listed online — but we tell you exactly which one and why on the records-review call.
For implants, surgery, and full reconstructions
The clinics with the CBCT scanners, the in-house labs, and the periodontists who trained in the US or Spain. This is where surgical risk and surgical reward both live.
- US or EU dental school credentials, verified
- 10+ years post-residency, real case volume
- English-fluent surgical staff
- On-site IV sedation when you want it
For crowns, veneers, and cosmetic work
Smaller clinics in a colonial city you can walk around afterward. Right scale of trip when the work is real but doesn't need a surgical team — and you'd rather heal next to a courtyard than a hotel pool.
- Strong cosmetic portfolios, before/after photos that hold up
- Same-day crowns where the case allows
- Walking distance to lodging — no driver mornings needed
- 3-5 day trip cadence, no big surgical aftermath
For residents and walk-in emergencies
The everyday dentists already-here expats settle on. Cleanings, fillings, the broken molar at 8pm on a Tuesday. Not the place for a sinus lift — and they'll tell you that themselves.
- Walk-in availability for resident regulars
- Honest pricing — half what visitors pay
- Will refer you onward when a case is beyond them
- Trusted by long-time SJDS expats for years
The questions people email us first
In order of how often we hear them. If yours isn't here, message us — we'd rather answer it well once than ship a generic FAQ that doesn't.
Is the quality actually comparable to a US or Canadian dentist?
For the specialists we work with, yes — for routine work, often as good; for surgical cases, sometimes better than what's available outside a major US city. The reason is mundane: Nicaragua's top dentists trained in the US, Spain, or Mexico, then came home to open clinics here because the cost of living lets them practice without the US insurance grind eating their day.
The real risk isn't Nicaragua vs the US — it's a good clinic vs a bad one, in either country. The cheap "all-on-4 for $4,000!" outfits exist here too. We never send anyone to those. That's what the vetting is for.
Do you take a kickback from the clinics?
No. The clinics charge you their normal price. We charge a flat coordination fee separately — $200 for routine work, $500-800 for full reconstructions or multi-trip cases — disclosed in writing before you commit to anything.
We do it this way on purpose. If we made more money sending you to a more expensive clinic, our incentives wouldn't be aligned with yours, and the recommendation wouldn't be worth anything. Same model as our insurance referral — independent partner, no captive bias. The model has to be clean or nothing else matters.
What about materials? Are the implants and crowns the same brand?
With the specialists we send people to: yes. Straumann, Nobel Biocare, and BioHorizons implants — the same systems your US periodontist would use. Porcelain (E.max, zirconia) from the same European suppliers. Materials cost the same wholesale anywhere on Earth; it's the labor and overhead that differ.
You can — and should — ask for the implant lot number and the lab certificate. Real clinics hand them over without blinking. We do too.
What if something goes wrong after I'm home?
Two layers. First: the clinic warranty. Quality clinics here back implants for 5 years and crowns for 2-3, with the work redone at their cost inside that window. The catch is you fly back for the redo — they won't reimburse a US dentist's fee.
Second: for minor things (loose stitch, ill-fitting temporary, sensitivity check), we coordinate with a partner dentist in your home city if you can't fly back. Most touch-ups are inexpensive. For serious complications, the honest answer is one more flight — which the savings on the original work covers many times over.
Can my US insurance reimburse any of this?
Sometimes more than you'd think. PPO plans occasionally reimburse out-of-network dentistry at US-rate percentages — meaning if your plan covers 50% of a $1,800 crown at home, they'll reimburse $900 even though you paid $400 here. You make money on the claim. Always worth submitting.
HSA and FSA funds are usable for dental work performed abroad — get itemized receipts and keep them. Medicare does not cover dental work anywhere, which is half of why dental tourism exists in the first place.
How long does a full implant trip actually take, start to finish?
For a single implant: two trips, 4-5 months apart. First trip 5-7 days (exam, surgery, recovery). Second trip 3 days (place the final crown). Total time off work, around 10 days across both.
For a full-arch (all-on-4): same two-visit pattern, longer trips — 7-10 days first visit, 4-5 days second. Some specialists offer "immediate-load" all-on-4 where you fly home with a fixed temporary the same week — that's a single 10-12 day trip. We'll tell you whether you're a candidate.
I'm scared of dentists. Is sedation available?
Yes. The surgical clinics we use offer IV conscious sedation — the same midazolam/fentanyl protocol US oral surgeons use — for an extra $200-400. Nitrous oxide is also available for milder anxiety at lower cost. You'll need someone with you for the ride home, which we already provide.
For phobic patients, we sometimes arrange a $40 cleaning at the same clinic the day before. Just to meet the team, see the room, lower the unknown. It costs almost nothing. It helps a lot.
I already live in Nicaragua. Does this work for me too?
Yes — and cheaper, because there's no trip to coordinate. Message us, tell us what you need, we route you to the right clinic and bill a small flat finder fee (often waived if you're already a client on property, residency, or another service).
Most long-term residents settle on one of the SJDS or Granada dentists for routine work and never use us again — which is the right outcome. We're here for the once-every-few-years bigger procedures and the emergencies.
What it looks like on the other side
Phoenix had quoted me $52,000 for full-mouth work. I'd been putting it off for three years because I just couldn't get there. Destination Nica got me a real treatment plan from a Managua specialist, a clinic that was nicer than my dentist's office at home, and the whole thing — implants, crowns, everything — came in at $14,800. My wife and I had a week in Granada and four days in Tola on top. I cried a little when the final crown went in. First time I've smiled in photos in years.
Two implants in Vancouver was an $11,000 quote and a six-month wait. I sent my records on a Tuesday, had a written quote by Friday, was on a flight three weeks later. The implant surgeon spoke better English than half my Canadian dentists. The team had a driver waiting at MGA, the beach house in Tola was beautiful, and someone checked on me on WhatsApp every single day. Total trip — flights, lodging, food, the procedures — under $4,000.
Send the records.
Find out if this works for your mouth.
A real specialist reviews them, we get back to you in 3-5 days with a written quote in dollars and a trip plan in days. No charge to find out. The only thing you don't get from the review is to keep wondering whether the $40,000 quote at home was the real number.