Narratives of a “Dental Oasis”: Examining Media Portrayals of Dental Tourism in the Border Town of Los Algodones, Mexico

ABSTRACT

The dental tourism industry situated along the northern Mexican border provides care primarily to American and Canadian tourists crossing the border to access dental treatments that cost less than domestically provided. This movement of patients across the Mexico–United States (US) border supports the practices of numerous dental clinics in northern Mexican border towns. The largest concentration of dentists per square kilometer in this region is situated in Los Algodones, Baja California. Media articles published in American and Canadian newspapers have described the services provided by the roughly 500 dentists working in this small border town. This paper outlines the overall narrative presented in media articles published in common dental tourists’ homes to identify how this industry site is portrayed to industry stakeholders. We argue in this paper that the common narrative presented by the media suggests that this particular industry site is necessarily improving access to dental care and economic development without discussing in detail for whom these health and economic benefits are provided and under what conditions or structures of control. We raise concerns regarding this overly simplified and unbalanced media portrayal of the industry as it fails to consider the perspectives of industry stakeholders on both sides of the Mexico–US border. In particular, this paper draws attention to the missing perspectives of individuals with continued poor access to dental care and/or economic resources despite involvement in dental tourism activities in industry sites like Los Algodones.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Dr Kathleen Millar for her feedback on an earlier version of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

KA holds a doctoral fellowship from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. VAC is funded by a Scholar Award from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research and holds the Canada Research Chair in Health Service Geographies.