Two short visits, months apart.
All-on-5 is not a single holiday. It is two compact trips with a healing period at home in between. Knowing the shape of it in advance makes the whole thing calmer to plan.
Surgery & provisional
Around 3–5 days. Exam, imaging, extractions, five implants placed, and a fixed provisional bridge when stability allows.
Healing at home
Around 3–6 months. You live normally on the provisional teeth while the implants integrate with the bone.
The final bridge
Around 3–5 days. The definitive bridge is made, fitted, checked against your bite, and torqued into place.
The surgery visit, day by day.
An illustration of how a surgery trip is commonly paced. Your clinic sets the real schedule around your case.
Examination & imaging
You cross over, meet the surgical team, and have a clinical exam plus a CBCT scan. The plan from your remote review is confirmed — or adjusted — against what the scan shows.
Extractions & implant placement
The main surgical day: any failing teeth removed, the bone prepared, and five implants placed. It is done under anaesthetic, with sedation available. You rest afterward.
Fitting the provisional bridge
If the implants reached safe stability, the fixed provisional bridge is fitted and your bite is adjusted. If stability is borderline, loading is delayed — a safety decision.
Check, brief, and travel home
A review of healing and bite, written aftercare and soft-diet instructions, and a clear point of contact. Then you travel home on your provisional teeth.
The longest stage happens at home.
For three to six months, the implants quietly fuse with your bone. There is nothing to do in Mexico during this time — you simply live your life, carefully.
You eat a sensible, gradually normalising diet, keep the provisional and gums clean, avoid using the new teeth as tools, and stay in contact with the clinic if anything feels wrong. The wait is not wasted time — it is the treatment working.
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Protect the provisionalIt is built to be temporary — a soft, sensible diet protects the healing implants under it.
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Keep it cleanDaily hygiene around the bridge and gums, as the clinic shows you.
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Stay in contactReport a loose feeling, a change in bite, swelling or pain that worsens.
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Book trip two aheadSchedule the second visit early — Los Algodones is busiest through the winter.
The final-bridge visit, day by day.
Shorter and calmer than the first — no major surgery, but the precision work that decides the result.
Integration & tissue check
The team confirms the implants have integrated and the gum has settled. Final records, impressions or scans for the definitive bridge are taken.
Try-in & verification
The bridge is tried in. Fit, bite, speech, the look of the teeth and the gum line are all checked and refined before the bridge is finished.
Final bridge delivered
The definitive bridge is torqued onto the implants, the access channels are sealed, and the bite is balanced. It is documented for future maintenance.
Maintenance brief & home
You leave with cleaning instructions for the final bridge, a maintenance schedule, and guidance on reviews with a dentist back home.
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Passport & documentsFor re-entry to the U.S., plus your treatment plan and any medical history.
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A companion if you canHelpful on the surgery trip — for the journey back after sedation.
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Soft foods sortedPlan easy meals for the days right after surgery.
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Margin in the scheduleSpare days so a follow-up check or border wait never clashes with a flight.
Where patients base themselves.
Most patients stay on the U.S. side, in Yuma, Arizona — a short drive from the Andrade crossing — and travel in for appointments.
Yuma has the range of hotels, pharmacies and amenities you would expect of a U.S. city, which many find reassuring during recovery. Some clinics also help arrange accommodation or a shuttle as part of the treatment package — worth asking about when you compare quotes.
More on the crossing & the townPlan the trip around a real plan.
Travel dates are easier to choose once you have a treatment plan and timeline. Start with a remote review of your case — the trip falls into place around it.