Canadian patients travel further and generally cannot return easily, which changes the planning in ways worth setting out before you book anything.
The journey
Montreal to Bogota generally involves a connection, most often through a US or Panamanian hub, with total travel time typically eight to eleven hours. There is no significant time difference.
Check whether your routing transits the United States, because that carries its own documentation requirements even in transit.
Why the distance changes the plan
From New York a return trip for one adjustment is an inconvenience. From Montreal it is a serious undertaking, so the planning has to assume you are not coming back casually.
In practice that means longer trips rather than more of them, more buffer days at the end, and a firm arrangement with a dentist at home before you leave.
What Canadian patients should establish first
Whether your provincial coverage or private plan reimburses anything for treatment received abroad. Most reimburse little or nothing, but the answer should be known rather than assumed.
Keep itemised receipts regardless, as they may be relevant for medical expense tax credits. Confirm with your accountant rather than with us.
A word on the risk coverage you have read about
Canadian dental associations have written extensively about complications from treatment abroad, and their concerns are legitimate. They apply overwhelmingly to treatment chosen on price, compressed into too few days, without imaging and without follow-up arranged.
Every one of those factors is under your control before you travel.
For Canadian patients the saving on complex work is substantial, and so is the cost of having to return unexpectedly. Plan for the second and the first takes care of itself.
Questions about your own case? Send us your photos and we will walk you through the options.
