Los Algodones, a small Mexican town of about 7,000 people, has the highest concentration of dentists per square mile in the world and is famously known as Molar City.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans visit Los Algodones every year, but they don’t come in search of sandy beaches, they come for veneers, root canals, and dental implants. Of the roughly 7,000 inhabitants of Los Algodones, about 600 are dentists and the four main streets of the town are full of dental clinics offering a variety of services at a fraction of the cost in the United States. Between November and April, the population of Los Algodones almost doubles, as the tiny town is overrun by US tourists, but also some from Canada and even as far as the UK. Despite the stiff competition between dental clinics in the small Mexican town, demand often exceeds supply when it comes to dental services.

Photo: Travisl/Wikimedia Commons

Los Algodones lies just over the border from Yuma, so close you can actually walk to it. The small town got its popular nickname, ‘Molar City’, long before the internet was a thing, and it stuck. Nowadays, there is even a Molar City official website that tries to pair local dental businesses with clients, and the town is widely regarded as the dental tourism capital of the world.

The main marketing pitch for Molar City is that you get dental services for a fraction of the cost in the US, but don’t let the low prices fool you, the quality of the services is reportedly top-notch. The best dentists in Mexico can be found in Los Algodones and because of the sheer number of dental clinics in town, there is a healthy competition to offer only the best treatments.

To get a leg up over the competition, dental clinics in Molar City constantly upgrade their equipment, so many of them are using cutting-edge solutions and techniques that aren’t used anywhere else. That’s why it’s not uncommon for foreign dentists to come to Los Algodones to learn new techniques and practice with the most modern equipment.

The affordable cost and high quality of dental procedures are one of the main reasons why Molar City has become a sort of Mecca of dental services, with procedures like implants and root canals around 50 to 70 percent less than what they cost in the US or Canada.