The Motley Fool’s reason for existing is “to educate, amuse and enrich.” The website has been dispatch breezy and sometimes irreverent financial advice to millions since about 1996. (It looked pretty different back then, too.) Late last week, Fool came out with its take on medical tourism:

Medical Vacations: The Retiree Health-Care Solution?

Despite the question mark, the Fool’s verdict was pretty one-sided.

The debate over U.S. health-care reform rages on. But why wait for someone else to dictate your future? You have many options — if you’re willing to take a vacation. If recovering from a medical procedure while lying on a palm-swept beach, relaxing by the hotel pool, or shopping for terrific bargains sounds good, then medical vacations may be exactly the right solution for you.

In other words — go for it. At The Bridge — and at BridgeHealth International — most folks cringe a little when life-saving or enhancing medical care is discussed in terms of being part of a vacation, but we’ll forgive Fool’s lightheartedness as long as patients recognize it for what it is.

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For all that much of the news about medical travel and tourism has to do with uninsured or underinsured patients needing major surgery — much of medical tourism is about somewhat less lifesaving care.

And by that, I mean dental treatment. According to a recent report from CBS News, part of its “Other America” series, more than one hundred million Americans do not have dental insurance. The lack of coverage is leading to problems such as school absence, unemployment and even death.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans go abroad for dental work where they can save from 50 to 90 percent on major work including dental implants, crowns, veneers and full mouth reconstruction. BridgeHealth International works with dentists, oral surgeons and implantologists in several countries to get otherwise unaffordable care for clients.

(Video direct from CBS News; There’s a short advertising lead-in.)