American Dentistry is, like other
medical care, overpriced. Even though our dentist in the US was a
nice man, there were many times we had to make our own choices to not
have a procedure he recommended. We were not in pain, did not have
cavities or gum issues and he would invariably find something wrong
that, in his expert opinion needed an expensive procedure like a
crown or replacing an old filling. I always felt like we were
helping make the payments on his new yacht, summer home or sports
car.
Due to the advice to have our teeth
cleaned every 6 months along with partial x-rays and full x-rays every
couple years we were diligent about our appointments. We skipped our
checkup and cleaning when we moved to Chiang Mai and knew it was time
to figure out how to do this in an unfamiliar country.
There are many forums with advice on
where to go if you are an expat and I just became more confused and
conflicted each time I read someone else's opinion. So I asked a
friend from Hawaii who came to Chiang Mai for extensive medical
dentistry two years ago for her opinion. She recommended Chiang Mai
Dental Hospital. It was easy to make appointments in English for the
next week for Vince and I and they called the day before to remind us
of our appointment.
We arrived 30 minutes early in case we
needed to fill out paperwork. It only took a few minutes and they
took me right into the room. Just like every other dental office
around the world the items were the same. What was not the same was
the three assistants for the dentist! The dentist asked me what I
needed today and I told him, "Examination, Consultation, X-rays
and Cleaning." OK!
One of the assistants took me to a
small room for x-rays. She asked me to remove my necklace, and
earrings and placed a long heavy lead apron over my head and upper
arms which draped to my thighs. She adjusted the machine and asked
me to stand near it and place my chin on a rest and bite with my
front teeth on a piece attached to the chin rest. My forehead was
also resting against a support and she left the room to take the
picture. My eyes were closed , but Vince said the machine makes a
complete rotation around your head and takes a digital picture.
As soon as it was done they sat me in a
chair in front of a monitor and showed me the pictures. The doctor
pointed out places on the picture to show me what parts were what.
He was happy with how things looked with both Vince's and my teeth
and then I was taken into the exam room again.
The next thing that was completely
different from previous experiences in the US was the dentist cleaned
my teeth. He was examining at the same time and scraped a small bit
of tartar from a few places, polished my teeth and I was done. He
said, "I don't know what to do with you" which meant that
he was pleased at how everything looked and could do nothing more to
improve on how my teeth were.
I wonder if the 30 minutes of cleaning
in the US is also to make the dentists more money. I have had the
new and latest gadgets using sonic water pulse to clean and of course
the old fashioned stainless steel tools....I kind of like the old
fashioned way. I felt special as I was being completely taken care
of by the dentist and his 3 assistants and his expert opinion based
on what he sees daily in his practice was reassuring. There was no
high pressure sales pitch to come back in 6 months or to buy fluoride
gels or fancy mouthwash.
Full mouth x-rays, consultation, exam,
cleaning, polishing and tons of one on one patient care all for 1,100
Baht or $34.07 USD each.
They were even kind enough to take
pictures with Sun Wukong!
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