Robert is a Prisma Dental patient from Florida. I’d call him “typical” except that there is nothing typical or ordinary about the dental work Robert had in Costa Rica at the hands of Drs. Cordero and Rubinstein.
Robert had eight dental implants and 21 base metal frame crowns — a full mouth reconstruction. Here are sample before and after photos — “before” first, obviously. Click on the photo thumbnails for a larger view.
Below, more of Robert’s “Before and After” photos:
We’ve added the first of what we expect will be a number of videos to the Prisma Dental Blog. This one features clips excerpted from a demo medical tourism video featuring Drs. Cordero and Rubinstein. Please note that this isn’t a finished video — but it lets you hear and see the dentists and a dental implant patient, Jill from Washington D.C.
The video was shot at the Prisma Dental Clinic in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Contributed by Mike, a Prisma patient from New York and Florida:
Most fellow happy “Prismatics” are aware that the Prisma building is located on a street that contains some of the nicer residences and buildings in San Jose but few of us are aware that just a short walk up this street is the Costa Rican President’s home — the casa of Nobel Laureate President Oscar Arias.
Although a wide plethora of international news sources, including newspapers, and all of the cable channels, as well as the American and local networks, are available in both English and Spanish, it is rare that such international notice and reportage involves events taking place in tiny Costa Rica.
Yet for the last several weeks the world’s attention has been focused on the drama taking place in that residence just up the street from Prisma where President Arias has been serving as a mediator, attempting to resolve the conflict between Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, ousted after attempting to extra-constitutionally attempting to alter the constitution, reportedly as a step toward becoming “President for Life” in emulation of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, and the interim successor Honduran government.
If visitors to Prisma wish to view La Casa de Senior el Presidente Oscar Arias themselves the simply have to walk East a bit, and just past a vacant lot cleared for development they will come upon a corner white house with a flagpole sporting a large Costa Rican flag Bring your brand-new Prisma Smile, of course!
Below, the home of Costa Rican President Dr. Oscar Arias Sanchez, located in the same quiet area of San Jose as Prisma Dental. U.S. residents may be amused or astonished to know that Mrs. Arias often walks her dogs in the neighborhood. Costa Rica has no equivalent of the U.S. White House and, though the country provides offices for the president, he often prefers to work at home.
We heard the other day from a patient, Wayne Geddings, who runs a great tourist website at tamarindocosta-rica.com. Wayne writes to Dr. Telma Rubinstein:
Hello Telma, Not sure if I can every thank you and your husband enough. Here is a blog I did on TripAdvisor just to say thanks again. — Wayne Geddings
His review of Prisma Dental on TripAdvisor.com warmed our hearts, mirroring the experiences of so many patients over the years. Since blog posts inevitably scroll away over time, below is Wayne’s full review, for the convenience of readers.
Eight years ago I went to a dentist in San Jose for an exam. She sat me down and we talked for 30 minutes about my dental problems as she explained my X-ray. What dentists in the USA would take that much time to explain things with you?
In the USA, just before I moved to Costa Rica, the last words from my dentist, as he opened my mouth for a look, “I don’t do preventive dentistry.” He gave me a new toothbrush and said better to have the work done in Costa Rica. It did not sink in at the time what he was saying.What he meant is that because I had dental insurance which didn’t pay him his normal rate, so he pawned me off to his assistant. She did such poor work that it was going to have to be done all over again! And he didn’t want to be responsible.
In Costa Rica I spend 20 hours in a dental chair where they systematically fixed the problems caused by a lifetime of bad dentistry. (I had) problems that they consistently told me were my fault for not brushing right, etc. The real problems was that their work made my teeth crooked and, as a result, I developed gum problems around several teeth.
Over the past 18 months, we’ve printed many e-mails of patients who are incredibly pleased with their Prisma dental implants, crown and bridgework; Prisma has handled hundreds of major dental cases in that time among the many thousands they have done in the last two decades.
But it’s been a real treat for the staff and dentists to hear from a LOT of patients all at once, over the last two days since the launch of the Prisma Facebook Page.
Prospective patients perhaps should take note — if you’re interested in reading about the experiences that others have had at Prisma Dental; in the dental travels of U.S., Canadian and European dental travelers; and/or in what a trip to Costa Rica for dental work is really like, there’s nothing like firsthand accounts.
Here are just a few of the many on Facebook:
Hola! I love my new teeth. You did a fantastic job. Everyone comments about how beautiful my teeth look. Often at restaurants the waiter or waitress will comment on my beautiful teeth. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! — Mark (from Tyler, Texas)
It is a pleasure to recommend Prisma Dental as the best dental clinic I found in Central America. Prisma easily compares to the best in Germany and Switzerland — and most likely elsewhere. Wonderful professional team. Top notch technology. Caring. Very special friends. — Roland
... to Prisma Dental in San Jose, Costa Rica, where we have been privileged to deliver world-class dental care to literally thousands of patients from around the world for the past 18 years. We specialize in whole-mouth reconstruction, cosmetic and holistic general dentistry and oral surgery.
