Experience top-quality healthcare in Costa Rica
I'm in front of SEMA Hospital in Costa Rica, which is the main private hospital in the country. And I am here today to pay out of pocket for medical care. So, I thought I would walk you through the process of why I'm here, how I made an appointment, how much it cost for all of the procedures, and what the outcome is since we're here in Costa Rica.
I've spent eight years living in Costa Rica. And since then, I've been traveling around the world, helping people move to other countries through my relocation company.
So, why am I here? What is wrong with my health right now? Well, I've made two appointments, one for today and one for tomorrow, to get two opinions, as you do, with different specialists that I'm hoping can give me some answers as to what I've been experiencing.
Well, it all started about a year ago now after a period of really heavy travel, where I started experiencing some strange numbness in my left leg. You know, when you Google things, it usually looks a lot worse than it is. Just Google and ChatGPT doesn't always give you the right answer, but from what I could tell, it might be something with a disc in my back. It could be a lot of different things. I don't really want to speculate, but I guess we'll find out today, hopefully.
It wasn't happening frequently enough that I felt like I needed to go to the doctor. I thought, okay, maybe I've been sitting at my desk for too long. Maybe I've been sitting on planes too often. So, I thought with a combination of physical therapy, yoga, stretching, Pilates, I got a standing desk, I got a treadmill to go under my desk, I thought with all of those things that I could heal whatever the issue was.
But over time, it would kind of come and go. And then recently, in about the last few weeks or the last month, it's gotten a lot worse where it's even affecting my left foot. I'm feeling numbness on the pad of my foot, which is super scary.
I didn't have time in the US before this trip. So, I went to the SEMA Hospital website. I contacted all of the neurologists and spine surgeons, anyone like that. Some people were full or it didn't show any availability. So, I just sent them an email or oftentimes a text message on WhatsApp, and I was able to get in for two appointments back to back.
So, I'm going to go to the first one now and see what their opinion is and what kind of tests I'll have, how much it will cost, and then I'll go to the next one tomorrow.
And it's kind of interesting because my mom is also here getting dental work done. And I also went in and got a checkup yesterday. So, I'll also show you later in this video what that dental office looks like and how much it costs to get cleaning, x-rays, consultation. And they do incredible x-rays, these panoramic 3D x-rays that cost like $800 or $1,000 to get in the US. So, you've got to see that. It's super cool.
Founded more than 25 years ago, SEMA Hospital is the best private hospital in the region, offering comprehensive medical care with more than 60 specialties. They also have a lifestyle center, which is a preventative medicine area offering checkups, lab tests, imaging diagnostics, specialized exams, and more.
Okay, just finished in the doctor's office and it cost 70,000 colón, so about $140 for the appointment. He said I have meralgia paresthetica, which is one of the things that came up in my Google search. But he said that it's not serious. It's just uncomfortable and annoying, but it's not like a grave danger that I could be paralyzed or something like that.
So, he said it's from a compressed nerve in my hip, likely from airplane seats and having the seat belt on too tight or the position I was sitting in, and that it can just go away with time as long as I avoid compressing the nerve more.
So, in this case, I didn't have to get any kind of tests or other treatments, and I don't have to come back. He said there's medicines and things that you can take, but it's not recommended because those have side effects.
As far as the wait, I only had to wait 15 minutes because there was another patient ahead of me. And he was apologizing, but I felt like the appointment was really thorough. He took his time. It wasn't rushed like that feeling that you get often in the US.
And then he said I can always message them on WhatsApp or email if I have any other questions. So, now I'm going to go back to the hotel and think about if I want to come back tomorrow for another opinion or if I'm good with this one. So, we'll see.
The next day, I met up with my mom for breakfast, which comes included with your package stay when getting dental care here in Costa Rica.
Welcome back to Costa Rica. I'm standing in front of the Dr. Muñoz Cavallini dental office here in the center of San Jose. I've been here twice now with my mom, and I can say that there's a lot of happy customers around here saving tens of thousands of dollars on their dental procedures.
So, I don't have the exact price list, but I'll link to the website if you want to check it out if you've been looking to get dental care at a more affordable cost and also have a good time, hang out here at the Sky Café, stay in some of the nice hotels and apartments.
This is not sponsored, but it's a place that I've become very fond of, having come here with my mom and also having gotten my own dental consultation during this visit. I didn't want to be left out, so I paid $250 for a dental cleaning, these panoramic x-rays that are insane, like the level of detail that you can see, and also a consultation by one of the dentists here.
Perfectly A-OK on my report, but you never know, so I got a preventative checkup here.
Dr. Marco's International Dental Clinic was founded in 1968. And it's really a place that feels like family.
I'm here with Dr. Marco. He's going to show me x-rays of my teeth.
What I was talking about, this is a dental CT scan. And here you'll see different images of your oral cavity. So, as you see, I'm moving the inspection window around the 2D image. This is the panoramic we just saw.
Now, as I move my inspection window, I'm going to place it in tooth number 30, and I'm going to show you how the other images work. This is a longitudinal view. We're looking at a side view. And if I magnify it, then we can check the condition of the tooth and other important structures.
This is the cross-sectional view. If you see this diagram here, I'm looking at you from back to front. That's the back of your head. And when I see you from the back of your head, based on this location, if we magnify it, we can see the tooth from side to side.
So, we're able to see things on the back and on the sides that we wouldn't be able to see with other images.
Your teeth look fine. I'm very happy to report that to you. Your teeth are healthy, and we want them to stay healthy.
This is your opportunity to look at your own skeleton and be alive at the same time. It is a very weird feeling, to be honest. I feel like I'm looking at a museum, like a mummy of myself, but I'm alive.
This is the 3D image we were just mentioning. This is an image of your skull. It's not the complete skull, only the area that applies to us. We use this to look at important anatomical landmarks and to help plan treatments.
One of the advantages we have here is that all of this equipment, the digital panoramic and the CT, is here in our own office. You don't have to go anywhere else, and these are included in the cost.
People come here for dental implants, full mouth reconstructions, cosmetics, and general dental care. This type of imaging is critical and mandatory for implant placement.
And we also get to have fun because we host a patient dinner every Wednesday night. We're going to the country club with a group of patients, and we're going to have fun.
So, if you need dental work in Costa Rica, come to Dr. Marco. Not sponsored.
Hi guys. So, as it turns out, it looks like I'm going to miss my second doctor's appointment here in Costa Rica because it's rush hour. I've been in this bank too long, and the last three Ubers I chose cancelled on me. It also looks like there are three or four accidents on the way to the hospital.
So, it's probably going to take me like 30 or 45 minutes to get there instead of 15 minutes. So, I'm just going to go ahead and skip this appointment. But that's okay. I can just get another appointment in the US and then compare what the diagnosis is there to what they told me here.
My mom was really impressed with the neurologist that I went to see yesterday. So, I'm really curious about what the doctors in the US will say about my condition.
Either way, I hope that this news gave you a lot of good information about how much it costs to pay out of pocket for medical care in Costa Rica.
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