I got a quote at the dentist that my mouth would cost like 20k to fix (it's really bad, every generation of my family before me has no teeth). I really just want to not look like the way I do when I smile, as I'm missing a front tooth. I also have a recurring infection that I keep delaying at the ER because Medicaid covers the antibiotics but I can't actually afford the dentist. I've tried looking for dental schools but in my area there isn't a program that offers the free thing if you're a test dummy for a student. I'm not sure what to do and my worry is that if the infection gets bad enough I'll just have to accept early death due to lack of care. In the USA if it's not obvious enough already.
I don't know shit about it but medical tourism, or in your case dental tourism.
If you're in the US I know that people often go to Mexico for it but that's the extent of my knowledge.
What a wonderful country America is when you have people travelling to developing countries to be able to afford access healthcare!
I'd be looking at messageboards that are US "expat" ones (ick!), especially for Mexico/South America or for the westoids living in Mexico. Just hold your nose before you go into one of them. I wouldn't be particularly trusting of Reddit for this tbh because it's too astroturfed however tightly moderated communities I would put some degree of trust it (although it can be difficult to determine if the mod team is captive to particular business interests without digging into its backstory and doing extensive research so if I was going to use any subreddit I'd be using it as a springing off point rather than a primary source of reputable info). Also try to find more recent posts that are less than 2 years old, less if possible - practices can change hands or they can become very renowned and prestigious amongst medical tourists and so the might have jacked up the price immensely by the time you are looking at visiting them, so outdated info is less than ideal. Not entirely untrustworthy but the older the info is, the more you want to do your research.
Also try to get a specific dentist's name where possible instead of just the name of a practice. Sometimes a practice is good and it brings in the tourist bucks so it expands and they take on new staff to deal with the demand and the quality starts to slip as they decline from the "cheap but really good quality of service" to the "starting to chase tourist bucks and becoming a franchise that is trading on their brand because they got noticed by the dreaded expat".
The whole arrangement sucks but you need your teeth and there's no ethical consumption under capitalism etc.