cavities!!
i’ve heard that dentists in thailand are very good and more importantly, very cheap! so i looked into getting my teeth cleaned while here in chiang mai, as i’ve been without insurance for quite awhile now and dental work back home is sooo expensive! my dentist had been telling me for months that i had a cavity forming between two of my upper molars, but without insurance it would have cost so much that i kept putting it off.
when we first got to chiang mai, i looked up dentists in jess’s lonely planet guide and came across dental 4 u, a clinic located close to where we were staying in chiang mai. then the other day, the guy that sold us our “burmese visa run” package had a mouthful of braces, so i asked what he’d heard of the place and he said it was one of the best. armed with this info, i headed over to book an appointment for this evening.
the clinic was super clean and modern-looking, just like any cosmetic dentist back home in the U.S. they do cleanings starting at 600 baht (about $20US) and things like laser whitening for about $250. i was told on the phone that cleanings can go up to 1000 baht, but luckily when my dentist took a look, he told me i would be 700 baht (i expected worse, cleanings for me are usually an agonizing hour-long affair!) so i sat back and got ready for all the scraping to begin. bleh!
i was pleasantly suprised by the lack of scraping necessary for my cleaning, as here they use an “ultrasonic” cleaner to do most of the dirty work, and just a little bit of scraping at the end which hardly even hurt! there was also a peaceful little garden view from my chair, so overall the feeling was as calm as you can possibly get for a dentist’s chair!
then, the bad news hit! as he was cleaning up and flossing my teeth, the floss caught on something on my back upper molar and he took a closer look and found the cavity my dentist back home had been warning me about! he asked me if i wanted to have it fixed too, and after the price quotes i decided it would be worth it to try to get it filled. after looking at my xray, he was worried that it was too close to the nerve and that i might need a root canal! just the words sent a shiver down my spine! not to mention it made me clutch tighter to my wallet – i could mentally see my travel budget dwindling as he told me that if it was too deep, i’d have to come back tuesday to see a specialist for the root canal. i closed my eyes, turned my ipod on full blast, and opened up my mouth.
luckily, it was fine and two hours after i’d walked in i walked out with my newly filled cavity, redone sealant on my lower teeth, and a shiny clean new smile. =) all for the grant total of about $90US. you really can’t beat that. i think even with insurance i’d have paid more back home. and they were so nice and always very professional, so i’d definitely recommend them to anyone stopping by chiang mai who wants to avoid the expense of dental services back home!
Tags: chiang mai (thailand), malia
malia
Keep smiling:)…love you. Mom
i’m glad it didn’t hurt! that price is something to smile about!
great story! cant wait to see pics of the pearly whites!
what a wonderful story! you are too cute! glad that you got the dental work out of the way and can’t wait to see your sparkling teeth in more pictures…