Getting to Cuenca for dental work

Cuenca sits in the southern highlands of Ecuador, in Azuay province, at around 2,560 metres above sea level. Getting there is straightforward once you know that almost nobody flies in directly from abroad.

The three airports.

Mariscal Lamar (CUE) is Cuenca's own airport, inside the city, handling domestic flights. It is where you will actually arrive, but usually on the second leg.

Guayaquil (GYE) and Quito (UIO) are the international gateways. Most patients land at one of these and then either take a short domestic flight to CUE or continue by road.

Guayaquil is roughly four hours from Cuenca by road, and the drive climbs from the coast into the mountains.

Give yourself the first day.

At 2,560 metres some visitors need a day or two to adjust, particularly arriving from sea level at Guayaquil. That is worth building into the plan rather than scheduling a long appointment for the morning after a red-eye.

If you have a heart or breathing condition, raise the altitude with your own doctor before you book, and tell the clinic. This is general travel sense rather than anything specific to dentistry.

How long to book for.

The treatment decides the trip, not the other way around.

• One visit. Whitening, composite veneers, a cleaning, most root canals.
• About a week. Anything with a laboratory stage: crowns, inlays and onlays.
• About two weeks. Dentures, which need a try-in and at least one adjustment after fitting.
• Two trips, months apart. Implants. The bone has to fuse to the implant before a crown goes on.
• Not really a trip at all. Invisalign and braces run for many months of regular reviews. They suit residents.

Flying after surgery.

Do not schedule a long flight for the day after a surgical extraction. Allow several days. Managing bleeding or a dry socket at 35,000 feet is a bad plan, and the risk is highest in the first few days.

What the trip adds to the bill.

Flights and accommodation are a real part of the total and they are not in any clinic's fee. For small treatments they can exceed the treatment itself, which is worth doing the arithmetic on honestly. The published fee list covers the dental side only.

Where these numbers come from.

Every figure on this page is the fee published by INNOVATIVE DENTAL, the one clinic we list in Cuenca. It is a featured partner, which describes a selection process and a commercial relationship, not a clinical endorsement.

We list one clinic in Ecuador, so this is not a market survey and nothing here ranks one clinic against another. Prices can change. Confirm your own case with the clinic before you book flights.