Dentimundo offers citizens of the U.S., a wealthy country where 42 million people do not have health benefits, help in finding affordable dental care just across the Mexican border.

El Progresso, Ojinaga, Juarez, Nogales, Mexicali, Tijuana sit on the edge of the United States. Dentist clinics in these border towns are as prominent as three for a dollar tacos, margarita specials and Mexican panchos.

“According to a dentist in Ojinaga (40 miles south of Marfa, Texas), 90% of his clients are U.S. citizens. Dr. Ubaldo Eliaz Paez moved from Chihuahua, a metropolitan city in Mexico to establish a clinic in a tiny border town. This clinic prospers due to U.S. mouths and dollars. Tijuana alone houses approximately 3500 dentists and is popularly considered a dentist capital of the world. Dr. Felipe Alvarez Olloqui is from Mexicali, studied in Mexico City to then set up his practice in Tijuana where he and his wife treat patients from as far as Texas, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Los Angeles, 70-80% of his patients are U.S. citizens. Throughout the border there is a parallel flow of migrants seeking prosperty, some economic and life long in the United States, others for dental hygiene in Mexico.”

Dentimundo.com documents this micro-economy, investigates border dentistry and offers a directory of dentist clinics along the border.

A work by Ricardo Miranda Zuñiga (see also Public Broadcast Cart and Vagamundo).
Part of the Tijuana Calling project.