Everyone quotes the crown.
Nobody quotes the trip.

For crowns, veneers, root canals or dentures, budget 5 to 10 days on the ground and expect three to five appointments inside that window. Implants and full-arch cases split into two trips because the bone has to integrate with the post before a final tooth goes on it — roughly four to six months between visits.

The planner on the home page gives you the day count for your specific case so you can request time off with a real number instead of a guess.

Usually not on cost alone. Flights, lodging and food add roughly $2,500 to $4,000 to any trip, which swallows the savings on a single tooth. The maths turns around at two or more implants, and it is decisively in Colombia's favour on full-arch work. The break-even chart on the cost page plots exactly where that line crosses.

Medellín is easier on a first trip: shorter flights from most U.S. hubs, a mild climate at 1,500 m, and a compact set of neighbourhoods where clinics, hotels and restaurants sit within a short ride of each other. Bogotá has more specialist depth and more direct flights, but sits at 2,640 m, and altitude on day one after oral surgery is not a small thing. Both are covered in more depth on Colombia Medical.

Colombia keeps a public registry of licensed health professionals called ReTHUS. Search the practitioner's name at rethus.gov.co and confirm the registration matches the person who will hold the drill — not the clinic's marketing manager. Ask for the specialist's full name in writing before you pay a deposit.

Note that JCI accreditation is awarded to hospitals, not to individual dental clinics or individual dentists. If a clinic implies otherwise, that is a flag.

Standard guidance after extractions or implant placement is to leave a buffer of at least 48 to 72 hours before a flight, and longer after sinus lifts or multiple extractions, because cabin pressure changes and dry cabin air are unkind to a fresh surgical site. Build the buffer into the trip rather than into your hopes. Your treating dentist sets the actual clearance — this site does not give medical advice.

Clinics quote in U.S. dollars or Colombian pesos and usually take a deposit up front with the balance on arrival. Card payments abroad often carry a 3% foreign transaction fee plus a poor exchange rate. A multi-currency transfer account moves money at the mid-market rate and is the cheaper route for a five-figure balance — Wise is what we use for this (affiliate link). Never wire a deposit to a personal account rather than a business one.