Although it may seem as if Costa Rica has always been the leading nation for dental tourism in the Americas, many of us tend to forget that Venezuela once held the title as one of the best Latin American nations for medical and dental tourism, at least until the late 1980s.

 

There are good reasons to believe that Venezuela could still be the medical and dental tourism darling of the Americas; however, the reality of that oil-producing nation since the 1990s has been of utter political turmoil. Prior to the coup d’etat attempts by the late Hugo Chavez in 1992, the country had somehow managed to retain its prestige as a nation of top medical schools, where health professionals had plenty of opportunity in the public and private sectors, and where North American medical tourists enjoyed visiting.

 

Sadly, we all know what the situation has been like for the good people of Venezuela since the late 20^th century, and it has not really been conducive for dental tourism; in fact, it has probably been more conducive to filming a sequel to The Year of Living Dangerously.

 

Medical tourism industry analysts believe that political stability has been a major factor in attracting dental and medical tourists to Costa Rica. For example, Mexico should be the top choice of North American dental tourists, but unfortunate news headlines about the violence caused by the War on Drugs tend to make potential travelers very nervous.

 

A similar situation can be observed in Colombia, a nation that would probably see higher volumes of medical and dental tourists if not for the reports of guerrilla activity that sometimes spills over from the mountainous jungles to metropolitan areas in the form of politically-motivated assassinations or isolated attacks. There’s also the delicate matter of the Colombia-Venezuela border, a veritable powder keg of political tension.

 

Costa Rica has been enjoying political stability since the army was abolished nearly seven decades ago. For this reason, clinics such as the New Smile Dental Group in San Jose can confidently focus on dental tourists and dedicate their marketing and operational efforts to treating foreign patients.