About 10 years ago, Kirsten Edwards ended up $3500 out of pocket for major dental work in Australia.

The busy mother of one, who is the founder of My Adventure Kids Travel Diary, had top-level health cover — but it was not enough.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: How to save thousands on your dental care.

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And she wondered how her family would continue to pay for such treatment.

Some months later, the self-employed Victorian woman got chatting with an elderly couple while on holiday in Thailand in 2014, who explained they had just had dental work done in the country and suggested she look overseas.

Ahead of a planned Bali holiday in 2016, Edwards leapt into action, researching prospective Bali dentists and coming across one with good reviews. Further checks revealed they had undergone training in Singapore, which reassured her.

Her confidence was not misplaced.

“I was absolutely nervous, and I am sure my husband was as well. I think it can be daunting going overseas for any kind of treatment, but once I had spoken to our dentist (my nerves settled),” Edwards said.

“The clinic was incredibly clean, I felt super safe there and there was a heap of other Aussies in the waiting room going through the same thing, so my nerves quickly dissipated.”

Edwards said she and her husband and son now get all their dental work done in Bali during her family’s annual trips to the country — which includes check-ups, scaling, cleaning, and X-rays.

The busy mother also undergoes Botox, to help fix her TMJ problem (pain in the temporomandibular joint in the jaw).

“A check-up, scale, and clean is about $15,” Edwards said.

“A friend had a root canal here as well. She had private health and was still $3000 out of pocket (if she had the work in Australia). It is $250 for a root canal in Bali. As you can see, the pricing difference is quite stark. We get to have a holiday at the same time.”

The Victorian mother explained she would have saved about $15,000 from her various Balinese dental work trips, based on her cost estimates.

The savings included getting rid of her private health insurance.

And she said visiting regularly was now paying off for her dental care.

“I think because with go quite regularly now, we don’t avoid the dentist, due to being worried about bill shock,” Edwards said.

“We have got quite a good dental care plan in place, so when we need more extensive work, we can plan accordingly for that, if, for some reason, we couldn’t travel or required follow-up or there was an emergency, and we needed to see a dentist here.”

Edwards said her extended family was now getting involved in dental tourism.

“My in laws are also now strongly considering going back for further work, as they were so impressed, after we took them – they were apprehensive at first, but after visiting, and seeing it was great, they had a check-up, scale, and clean,” she said.

“They (like us) avoid the dentist here due to the cost.

“I would recommend it to anyone.”