Nancy Nelson is afraid of the dentist.
She could get so nervous that she dislocated her own jaw.
But for 25 years, now over 60, she has been going to the dentist in Los Algodones, Mexico, and she no longer has that problem.
"They are very attentive, caring and understanding about my phobia," she says, as she waits in line to return to the United States.
Los Algodones is a small Mexican town of 10.000 people on the border with the US, where every tenth resident is a dentist.
This statistic was confirmed to me by Mayor Herminia Marin, a dentist herself.
They call it the 'dental capital of the world', or 'the city of molars'.
Every day, between 3.000 and 5.000 Americans visit it, coming not only to see the dentist, but also to drink a few margaritas, eat tacos, and dance to local music.
Nancy lives in a town in Wisconsin called Cleveland, which is 3.000 kilometers away.
It's February now and these days the temperature in the northern states is averaging zero degrees Celsius.
There are reports of storms and snow.
During this time, it is sunny in Los Algodones and the temperature does not drop below 15 degrees.
Her husband, Bruce, a big man with a cowboy mustache who wears a hat that says, "I quit farming to be here," adds, "We flew here (to Arizona), rented a car, stayed a few nights, went to the dentist, saved thousands of dollars, and enjoyed a little vacation along the way."
Like this retired couple, people from all over North America come to the southern states, especially during the winter months; they park in the huge parking lot and cross the border on foot to enter Los Algodones.
In colloquial slang, they are known as "snow angels" or "migratory birds".
They are tourists who then leave Mexico with a bright smile on their face, charmed by the hospitality of local waiters and dentists.
It is a migratory flow that reveals what kind of cultural and commercial interactions exist between Mexicans and Americans – or what they have been for decades – despite a ten-meter-high steel wall that can be seen from any point in the city.
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From cotton farmer to dentist
Los Algodones was, as its name suggests, the epicenter of the booming cotton industry that developed in northern Mexico during the 20th century.
It peaked during World War II – which increased demand for this fiber – and experienced a partial decline starting in the 1970s.
Although cotton crops can still occasionally be seen in the area, in recent decades the border economy has shifted to services that better meet demand from the north.
All cities in northern Mexico, without exception, are receiving a large number of Americans seeking medical services, which is sometimes promoted by pharmaceutical companies themselves, says Jose Zavala, an engineer and development expert at the Colegio de la Frontera in Tijuana.
"It's just more noticeable in Los Algodones because the town is small and because there are a lot of retirement homes north of the border here," he explains.
The interaction between northern Mexico and the southern United States is historical, deep-rooted, and almost structural.
Millions of families grew up on both sides of the border.
Until the 1970s, northerners could cross the border without a passport.
What you see in Los Algodones is a postcard of a trade and cultural relationship that carries great significance.
It's a relationship that has been challenged by Donald Trump's presidency, with the threat of tariffs on Mexican imports and his harsh approach to migrants.
But it is also a relationship that, precisely because of its historical roots, is difficult to break.
"Tariffs will be a hindrance, of course, but strong economic ties are hard to erase," says Zavala.
Carlos Rubio was one of the first dentists in Los Algodones in the 1980s.
Born in Sinaloa, he came to the border as a young man to try his luck and found a demand for dental services that led him to specialize and open a practice that is today a sophisticated dental clinic.
As we take the tour, I ask him what kind of smiles his clients like.
One of his associates laughs: "Gringos are obsessed with a bright white smile."
Rubio, who lives in Yuma, Arizona, and crosses the border every day to go to work, believes that "the American healthcare system is not social."
"Out of 300 million people, 60 percent have no dental insurance or are only partially insured. That's between 80 and 160 million people with poor insurance. That's between 80 and 160 million opportunities for us."
According to the American Dental Association, one-third of adults between the ages of 19 and 64 do not have dental insurance, despite having health insurance.
And the vast majority of dental insurance policies don't cover anything more than cleanings and checkups.
For everything else, Americans have no choice but to take tens of thousands of dollars out of their pockets or travel to Los Algodones.
The problem with American dental insurance
Roger Gaves is a military veteran from Florida who came to Los Algodones with his wife and daughter for his fourth dental treatment.
This time they stayed a few nights and are waiting in line to cross the border again with their suitcases, among street vendors selling handicrafts and Mexican food.
"I have health insurance because I'm a veteran, but it doesn't cover dental treatment, and since my income is from a pension, just like my wife's, this option is very good for us," he says.
According to his careful calculations, he saved between 66 and 75 percent of his costs by coming here.
"The American healthcare system needs to be fixed; it's too expensive," he adds, a complaint echoed by all of our interviewees.
"It's oversized, just a little bit," says wryly Jue Spinler, from Iowa, who spends her winters in the South.
And Juan Ramon Soto, a Mexican-born farmer who is a U.S. citizen, adds: "I can take all my teeth out here and replace them, and it's still cheaper than taking just one tooth out there."
The absence of price regulation, fragmentation of the system, the power of pharmaceutical companies, and administrative costs, among other things, make the American healthcare system the most expensive in the world.
The Mexican system also had major problems, but it developed a modern infrastructure in the north of the country with specialists trained to take advantage of the demand coming from the US.
And they do it with typical Mexican hospitality: they pick you up in a golf cart at the border, take you to the dental surgery, and then drop you off at one of the outdoor food areas, where you can eat enchiladas, sip margaritas, and listen to live music.
June Spinler sums it up like this: "It's like a shopping mall. You have everything in one place."
With all that said, it seems like it's easier to fight a phobia of the dentist.
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