Living in Bangkok or just here for a visit?

The biggest advantage of being based in Bangkok is that you probably have fewer constraints in regards to total treatment period. Most dental treatment plans extend over a number of visits with some time in between. At the beginning even the dentists are usually not sure how many visits you will need. Keep this in mind if you are a visitor or plan a visit. Take number-of-required-visit estimates on promotional websites with a grain of salt - they tend to be overly optimistic.

Location

In the beginning I tended to pretty much ignore the location of a dental clinic. Taxis are cheap in Bangkok. Having said that, I now believe that it is a real factor. If you have to visit your dental clinic as often as I do, the time you spend to get there and back adds up. Traffic in Bangkok can be horrific and especially on the way there you want to play it safe and assume that it will be bad. So, in case you need to choose between places that look otherwise equally good, check the map. You find links in the Bangkok's top dental clinics section.

Hospitals or dedicated dental clinics?

When you go to Bangkok's top clinics you will notice that some of the entries on the list are actually normal hospitals which offer services ranging from skin care to brain surgery. This holds particularly true for the two best know places, the Bumrungrad Hospital and the Bangkok International Hospital, both with 500+ beds. These hospitals have dental centers among their specialized clinics.

Independent dental centers are another option. They are fully focused on dental services and this has some advantages. Especially the bigger ones among them all have state-of-the-art equipment. Although dental treatment prices are much lower than in most Western countries, dental care is big business in Thailand and these places seem to have generous investment budgets.

If you go to a small dental office with one to three dentists only, equipment is more likely to be an issue. X-ray machines don't come cheap. On the other hand there is some great advantages with little private clinics: the atmosphere is more personal and you are less likely to be passed from specialist to specialist for minor interventions. Small private places are currently not covered here - simply because we have no experience with them. If you have, please send us your Thai dentist experience report and we will post it in the feedback section.