If you are coming to SteemFest, you really aught to consider this as well....

in #th5 years ago (edited)

There are a lot of "tips and tricks" going on in the feed right now to help the people that are attending Steemfest in November and I've read all of them (some of them are written by me) and they are all pretty solid (especially the ones written by me :P ) but there is one thing that I think that no one else is going to recommend and it is important and very unlikely to be suggested by anyone.


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Dentistry

Perhaps it sounds silly to say this but dental work in Thailand is actually extremely good and also very cheap. There are many people attending that come from countries that have "free" medical care but normally this does not extend to dentistry.

When I lived in the USA I didn't have a great salary when i worked for the U.S. Government but i did have pretty decent medical benefits. However, even this didn't extend to "elective" dentistry which by the way is pretty much all of it.

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So i can only speak from an American point-of-view because that is what I am but let me go ahead and tell you a little story (I promise it will be brief):

I lost the bottom half of both my front teeth in a soccer game when i was 16. The bottom half of my two front teeth are fake since then. This involves a process where they smear and mold some fake ceramic something or other on the bottom of your teeth and then use alien technology to make them solid like a tooth would be.

I have had to repeat this process dozens of times in the 20+ years that I have had these fake toofs, and when they would break in the states, it was always an expensive process to achieve (like $300 a time.)

I broke one of my USA made veneers (that's what they are called by the way) during a USA World Cup match many years ago and scheduled an appointment for the following day not knowing what to expect and to be honest, assuming that their work was going to be garbage.


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I don't know what that light does, but it is magic!

This was over a decade ago and i still have those veneers in my mouth right now.

I mentioned before that this sort of dental work costs $300+ back in the USA. When I had this emergency work done here over a decade ago it cost me around $30 for both teeth together. I was convinced (at the time) that this work was going to fall apart in a week or so but yet here I am more than 10 years later and the dental work they did that ill-fated day in Krabi is still holding strong as I type this.

It doesn't have to be major

Maybe you just need a cleaning or a filling or something minor that would otherwise involve an appointment and hundreds of dollars out of your pocket back home. It will not cost much here.

My last scheduled cleaning was about a month ago and it was the most pain-free cleaning I have had in my life at a dental clinic I had never been to before. The final bill was 600 Baht and this is around $18. I was extremely impressed and believe you will be as well.


tl;dr

Dentistry is really inexpensive in Thailand and from someone who has lived half his life in USA and half his life in Thailand I can say with absolute certainty that not only is it dramatically cheaper to have dental work done in Thailand, but I honestly believe it is superior in quality.

If you need dental work, or just a simple neglected "regular cleaning," this is a wonderful opportunity for you to have what very well could end up being the best dental care you ever get in your life.... for $20-30.

I know you didn't plan your trip to Thailand to go to the dentist, but honestly, it is a situation you will not regret. Just remember; dentists are not considered doctors in this country.

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consequently, Hangover 2 was filmed largely in Bangkok.... and i know a lot of the locations...

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That is pretty awesome. I know that one of the community colleges near where I life has a dentistry program and if you are brave enough you can go and have the students work on your teeth for a really decent price. I have been lucky enough to always have solid dental insurance (except when I was laid off) so I pretty much religiously visit every six months. It is pretty rare that I ever get a bill from them too. If I needed something a bit more major done I am sure it would cost something. Great advice for those travelling to Steemfest!

i had my doubts when i first moved here because it was "too cheap to be true" but after living here for a bit it kind of made me think that maybe the opposite was true: Perhaps we are charging too much for it in the west.

Nice ideas. I heard a lot of good revenues of dentist.

I wrote an other article about the tm30 maybe you are intrested: https://steemit.com/thailand/@livecam/the-head-of-the-foreign-trade-chambers-is-pushing-for-a-drastic-overhaul-of-the-tm30-rules-and-says-that-thailand-s-image-has

That's quite impressive that the dentistry is so affordable while maintaining the quality. I would consider it in my next trip to Thailand.

are you from India? I'm pretty sure the same sort of "medical tourism" exists there :)

Yes I am from India. No, Not really It is expensive than Thailand though.

a friend of mine went to India to have all of his teeth removed and replaced with implants. This was after 55 years of extreme neglect and there was no fixing what he had left in his mouth. He spent like $12,000 but now has absolutely perfect teeth. He said it was tough at first because he has no sensation in his new teeth... but they can never rot and he has the only perfect smile he has ever had in his life!

That is really nice that he have got oral condition now!

Very practical information!! Dentists will be inundated by Steemians! LoL

How about hair cut or hair salons?! Any suggestions?!