Tag Archives: Dental

A couple months into wearing partial dentures, does it really suck?

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Roughly a month into wearing my dentures I sort of got used to them. Even the tediousness of cleaning them. No matter how tired or drunk I am, if I’m still conscious I’d take ’em out and clean them. I know, I know I’m not supposed to sleep with them on but sometimes I just can’t help it, haha. However, I found myself biting harder, gone was the gentle, feeling out the dentures kinda of bite. This is when I started getting a sore spot on the roof of my mouth.

If you want to read about how I got up to this point HERE‘s the post. If you wanna read where I went previously to get the majority of my dental work done, HERE‘s that post.

My theory is that because I was biting things harder, especially foods that break up into hard, smaller bits, like chips, I developed a sore spot on the roof of my mouth where the back edge of the denture’s metal touched the roof of my mouth and the jagged bits sometimes get caught there. Why only there? I have no idea. Anyways, that sore spot soon turned out to be this pimple looking thing. I tried to pop it with a toothpick but it felt hard and didn’t puncture. Great! Luckily, I was heading back to Bangkok to spend Xmas and New Year. In the meantime, I stopped wearing the dentures for a few days to stop the discomfort. Once I couldn’t feel the irritation I put the denture back in and the irritation came back. Maybe I should stop eating Doritos so much, it’s always most irritating when eating those, haha.

I made my appointment (at Bangkok Dental Care) for the first Monday we were there, to coincide with when my dentist would be in and I explained my discomfort to her. She looked puzzled so I showed the her the picture and she said, “ok.” and took the dentures out of my mouth and started sanding/grinding something while telling me that the spot is gone and it doesn’t look injured. Just a bit “more red”, “everything is fine.” After she was finished with the grinding of the metal section of the dentures she assured me that everything would fine and that white spot was just an abscess and shouldn’t happen again. Huh…ok? I guess?! Well that would explain why I only got sore at that one spot.

Well, I have to say, almost a month after her adjustments, nothing weird or uncomfortable has yet to happen and I’ve continued to feast on Doritos! Oh, I almost forgot, I wasn’t charged for services this visit, bonus!

Now to answer the question…Does it suck? For me, wearing them and eating with them on, I’d have to say, “No”, they don’t. Taking care of them, however, I find it tedious and yeah it sucks, lol. I suppose I could use those dissolvable denture cleaner tablet things but that just costs more money, haha.

So the point of this post is to highlight the importance of planning enough time for adjustments after actually using the dentures under a variety of conditions. I guess I lucked out by living close enough to Thailand where dental vacations are still financially feasible even after factoring in airfare and accommodations.

As always, thanks for viewing and best wishes!

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What it’s like wearing my new metal partial dentures

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What a weird topic to post about, right? To coincide with Steemfest I decided to get my dentures done in Bangkok, since I already have accommodations in Bangkok it was cheaper to have my partial dentures done in Bangkok rather than in Chiang Mai where I had all my previous dental work done. Yup, it’s all about cost cutting. Anyways, if you’re interested in a dental holiday, consider coming to Thailand. HERE’s my post about my dental work done in Chiang Mai. My last dental appointment/checkup in Bangkok is next week so the post regarding the clinic will be forthcoming.

Now the point of this post is to try and help anyone who is thinking about or about to get partial dentures but even after reading loads of stuff on Google, is still unsure about what it’s going to be like . . . Here’s my experience, hope it helps!

I’ve never had dentures before and had to Google the pros and cons of partial dentures before deciding to get the metal one as opposed to a fully acrylic one. I know it looks kinda gross, but it’s hard to explain without seeing it.

After agreeing the consultation and my agreeing for service, the dentist started making grooves / attachment points on my existing teeth then makes molds of my upper and lower teeth. So those metal hook looking things are what’s going to ‘clip’ onto my teeth to hold the dentures in place. It doesn’t look very secure but it fits snugly and securely because on the other side the acrylic is molded so your gums sit snugly in the groove. I haven’t had my partial dentures fall out or become dislodged yet and I can’t dislodge them using my tongue.

So it’s been 5 days since I’ve had my partial dentures fitted and frankly, it kinda sucks. The first day it was just a weird feeling and I found myself speaking a bit weird although everyone said they didn’t notice any speech impairment. It was neither painful nor uncomfortable putting in the partial dentures nor taking them out. The first thing I did after I left the dental clinic was find something to eat. My dentist (as well as everything I read on Google) recommends starting out with soft food so I figured rice with some thinly sliced beef should be ok. Just my luck, I was passing a Japanese restaurant so I ordered a beef don. My dentures wiggled a bit and see sawed if I only chewed on one side. Food seemed to be everywhere in my mouth. Even after swallowing the mouth full of food, it still feels like there’s food everywhere, much like sand in your swim suit. I think it’s because food catches on the ridges of the acrylic (top of the groove) as well as between the metal and the roof of your mouth. Having a glass of water on hand is helpful to rinse your mouth but for me nothing but a full on gargle gets the bits out.  Not something I’d recommend doing in a restaurant. I remember thinking, this feels so weird but at least it’s not painful. Later on, I decided to have McDonald’s for my “midnight snack,” I couldn’t even eat a fry, it was really painful to chew on both sides. So I waited until I got home to eat. After taking out the dentures, I ate my upsized meal without any issues, no soreness or pain anywhere. Weird, right?

Day two…putting on the dentures sucked. There was a slight pinch of pain when the clamps clamp on one particular tooth and I could feel the soreness around that tooth but it quickly went away. Chewing hurts and the pain is contingent on how much bite force I use. I’m pretty sure my denture is not sitting on my gums because with no food in my mouth I can bite down and there’s no pain at all but even biting a Pringles chip causes discomfort depending on how hard I bite. It’s been days now and still the same so I’ve pretty much resigned my self to eating noodles cuz those are the least painful (udon is the best, it’s thick but soft and there’s enough resistance so you can feel the bite and adjust). If I can’t find any noodles then it’s rice.

Having the dentures in my mouth doesn’t feel awkward or unnatural. For me, it’s only the metal bar across the roof of my mouth that I can feel and since the plate is narrow and slim it doesn’t feel like it taking up space. I suppose over time, I wouldn’t even notice it’s there. Does my partial denture make me feel like gagging? No. Although once, on the first day, right after I left the clinic and was waiting for my food, I was using my tongue to ‘fidget’ with the dentures and that brought on a gag reflex. Needless to say, I don’t do that anymore.

The wiggling around of the dentures while chewing can feel disconcerting which is probably why there’s denture glue? At the moment I’ve found that taking smaller bites than normal and trying to chew evenly, as in have food on both sides of my mouth to even out the pressure helps prevent my dentures from wiggling to the point where I wonder if they are going to get displaced. Smaller bites also helps me to remember not to bite so hard. I don’t notice any temperature difference of the metal (or acrylic) when I’m eating hot or cold foods either.

The care and cleaning of my partial dentures is what gives me the most problems, my dentist said, “just soak in water when you take out at night and brush them (regular toothpaste is fine) before you put them back in, in the morning. Also best to take them out and rinse them after each meal.” Yeah, I’m not taking them out after each meal when I’m out but honestly there has been times when I really felt like I needed to. A few discreet gargles solved that problem. There’s so many conflicting info on how to “properly” clean dentures, that I gave up reading and just did what I feel like. My routine is so far is, I take them out, rinse them off with water, (it’s really amazing how much “stuff” I can rinse off. It’s pretty gross, haha). I then brush them (as part of the 2 minute per quarter cycle of my electric toothbrush) then dip them mouthwash (Listerine) for a bit then rinse and store with plain water. In the morning I take them out, rinse with water, then mouthwash, then brush them. Oh I usually use alcohol free mouthwash but I bought the wrong one this time and I don’t really know how big a difference that makes.

Anyways, I figured I’d add my 2 cents in on this topic since I can relate to the apprehension, even though I read up on it and had gotten solid advice from my bro, who’s a dentist. He recommends that I just use the partial dentures but it’s such a pain, literally but it is nice to have a fuller set of teeth though. Anyways, I’m hoping I’ll get used to the pain soon or the the pain will go away, if not, I’m not entirely sure I won’t stop using them.

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Oral B Pro2 2000 electric toothbrush. Why this one?

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Oral B Pro 2 2000 electric toothbrus and brush heads

I don’t know about you but I found it so perplexing having to sort through all the different electric toothbrushes that are available, even from just one single brand! I opted for the Oral B brand who’s parent company is Proctor & Gamble. They are supposedly the “dentist most recommended brand.” Anyways, please keep in mind that I am not a dentist or expert in the matter of oral hygiene. I’m just recounting my experience and offering my thoughts in hopes to help anyone in a similar “dilemma.”

First off, if you want to know why I decided to get an electric toothbrush in the first place, it’s because of my recent dental issues as recounted in my post entitled Dental Holiday in Chiang Mai. Wait what? Seriously?!?! Have a look if you like, there’s before and after shots, lol. So after my dental treatments, my dentists (I had 4 different ones doing different things) recommended that I don’t brush so hard, that I use gauze to clean the teeth that don’t have adjacent teeth, that I floss regularly, I use non alcoholic mouthwash and that I massage my gums. Hmmm let me think about this…

Apparently brushing too hard wears out the enamel quicker and can push your gums up. Like how am I supposed to know how hard to brush? Using gauze to clean the sides of my exposed molars because the molar next to it is gone. Imagine shining your shoes…that’s how I’m supposed to clean those molars but using gauze instead of a cloth. Ya, I don’t see myself doing this, it’s so…tedious. I’m not even sure I spend the recommended two minutes it should take to brush my teeth and I don’t floss. Now I have to do all these extra things including massaging my gums by “pinching” the areas above the teeth that had gum surgery using my thumb and index finger. This is supposed to increase circulation and therefore help heal faster and promote gum growth. Yeah, I tried doing that, not a fan. I really do want to take better care of my teeth as I don’t want to go through what I just did and I’m not even done yet. Anyways, I did some thinking and research and came up with the electric toothbrush as the solution. An electric toothbrush would solve so many of my issues, I think, provided I get an appropriate one. So I need one that has a built in timer, a pressure gauge and a brush head small enough to get at my exposed molars so I don’t have to gauze buff them. I’m thinking also that the smaller brush head will make me go over each tooth and being able to oscillate/pulse much faster than I can manually brush should fix my “not brushing properly” issue too.

Oral B Pro 2 2000 electric toothbrush LEDs

Oral B Pro 2 2000 electric toothbrush warning light

So after much research, I chose the Oral B Pro 2 2000. Why? Mainly because it’s the model that offers a lithium Ion (Li-ON) rechargeable battery as opposed to the older less reliable Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) rechargeable battery and doesn’t offer the smart phone app connectivity. I know I would not take my phone with me to brush my teeth, nor would I make the effort to review my brushing on an app plus those “smart” toothbrushes are significantly higher in price and probably drains the battery faster. As far as I’m concerned as long as I get at each tooth with this electric toothbrush and floss I should be good. I hope that’s how it works, lol. The Oral B Pro 2 2000 also only has 2 modes, regular and sensitive. Since switching modes is all done via the power button, less is more in my opinion. One press of the power button turns on the brush in regular mode and a second press for sensitive gums mode. After watching Youtube videos and reading some reviews, I was so leery about how loud the brush would be and would it irritate me so much I’d stop using it. I decided that my oral health would/should outweigh any volume irritation. The first time I turned on the brush, my immediate thought was “HA! not so loud!” I don’t find it loud at all. The manual says it takes 15 hours to fully charge but mine fully charged in about 5 hours. After a week of using the the brush, the need to charge indicator still hasn’t come on (the manual says 2 weeks before needing to recharge) so I’m still on track but there’s no way to tell exactly since the battery led only indicates battery status when its charging, bummer. Grip wise the handle isn’t too small nor too large, ridged hard plastic on the back and softish, ridged rubber on the front. No feelings of it slipping out of your hands while brushing. It’s water resistant and supposedly you can brush your teeth in the shower but I haven’t tried. I do put it under the facet to rinse it off after every use and no issues thus far. If you’re like me and worried that you may be brushing too hard, there is a red light around the top of the handle that will light up when it senses too much pressure is being applied. The light is bright enough for you to see if you’re not looking in the mirror but not too bright to hurt your eyes. The built in timer starts as soon as you press the on button and will give you an alert via pulsed vibrations every 30 seconds and a longer pulsed vibration when the 2 minutes are up nothing too fancy but really cool feature, I think.

The coolest thing about these Oral B electric toothbrushes is that you can get different brush heads for different “needs” and each brush head has this collared color you can put on the base of the head to differentiate your brush head from someone else’s, in case you want to share the handle (cost effective). I’ve only seen 2 colors though, a light teal one and a pink one. The not so cool part is that these brush heads are pricey and that it’s recommended you change them every 3 months or sooner if anything is physically wrong with them.  When I bought the Pro 2 2000, I also bought some “floss action” brush heads thinking I could skip the manual flossing with this brush head. NOPE! Still need to manual floss and even in sensitive gum mode, I found this brush head uncomfortable on my gums but feels like it gives my teeth a stronger scrubbing. Maybe it’s because my gums are still sensitive and recovering but maybe not. So I bought some “sensitive gums” brush heads and boy oh boy do they feel better on the gums. So instead of using my fingers, I just use this brush head to massage my gums. Below is a pic with the different colore collars as well as the sensitive brush head and ultra thin brush head. I can’t tell the difference.

Oral B Pro 2 2000 electric toothbrus and brush heads

So, at the moment I’m always using sensitive mode and the sensitive gum brush head. I may switch to the “floss action” brush head after a couple months just to use up the brush heads I bought but maybe not, I’m quite happy with the current set up. I haven’t used any of the other brush heads yet and not sure if I will since I’m thinking that even though I don’t brush as hard, these electric toothbrushes brush way more than I can manually which may affect the rate of enamel loss? Before you go out and get an electric toothbrush, you may want to consult your dentist. There’s still a nagging question in the back of my mind as to why my dentists (including my bro) weren’t that supportive of the idea of me using any electric toothbrush but had no negative things to say about electric toothbrush use. As i rarely do what I’m told anyways, I just went and got mine and so far don’t regret it.

Overall I feel that I’ve made a good decision with switching to an electric toothbrush and that the initial costs are justified. I picked the cheapest Pro 2 2000 I could find. They come in different arrangements depending on the included brush head and if it comes with a travel case or not. A travel case would be important as it’s a hard plastic case that would prevent accidental powering on of your electric toothbrush, if you don’t plan on bringing your charger on trips. I just went and bought a $2 plastic pencil case from the dollar store for those trips that are longer than 10days for which I won’t bring the charger. So which one you pick will depend on your preferences. The only thing I would highly recommend to get is the one with a lithium ion battery because they get about twice the battery life as the NiMH batteries. The best way to make sure you get one with a lithium ion battery is check the box details as opposed to relying on the model name. Oral B has many similarly named models and I almost made bought the wrong one, lol.

Oral B Pro 2 2000 electric toothbrush Sensitive brush head

Oral B Pro 2 2000 electric toothbrush Floss Action brush head

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Dental Holiday in Chiang Mai. Wait what? SERIOUSLY?!?!

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Yes, Yes I am. I knew there was such a thing as medical tourism but I never thought it applied to dentistry too. Well it does. Before we get into it, I’m not a dentist nor expert on these things so my vocabulary/explanations won’t be “official sounding.” I’m just recounting what I’ve experienced in hopes that it will be useful to someone and so it’s only accurate for me because everyone will have different size fillings or difficulty level of extractions etc., which will affect pricing apparently (you’ll see later on). Here’s a little back story, if you’re interested. If not scroll until you see CHIANG MAI.

I haven’t been to the dentist in about 20 years. The last time I went I had 4 wisdom teeth pulled out, even with insurance I remember it was very expensive but can’t recall the exact amount, just that it was so, in my opinion, exorbitant that I never wanted to see another dentist again plus the guy was, well condescending and brutish. So as the years go by, my molars start breaking little by little until only little pointy shards were left, I can feel them when I run my tongue over those areas. I can still eat, so I’m good or so I thought. Now up until the beginning of the year there wasn’t any pain, then my jaw started hurting on the top and bottom just above where my tooth started turning black. Took some Tylenol whenever it really hurt and I’d be ok, everything was near the back, can’t really see so out of sight out of mind. Until the top corners of some of my front teeth started turning black and the previous pain areas were more frequent. Please for your sake, don’t be like me! Here’s the before and after shots of my teeth.

BEFORE AFTER

Last month (April 2019), my brother from a different mother, came to visit me (I was in Singapore and he was on vacation from Seattle in Thailand) and advised that I should go see the dentist for some x-rays and check up, then send him the info and x-rays and he’ll advise (he’s a dentist with his own practice in Seattle). I was somewhat reluctant but the discomfort was getting to be daily so off I went. The dentist I saw at a general clinic looked inside my mouth, poked here, tapped there and did a panoramic x-ray. I was in and out of there in about 20 minutes (not including the waiting). His diagnosis was that I needed 2 root canals, 3 fillings and 5 extractions (all those leftover bits of teeth I mentioned). The two teeth that needed root canals also needed crowns. The price tag on that was, on the low side, a tentative $5,000 SGD because further evaluation and quote from the root canal specialist was needed. Well then! I’m not happy, especially since my bro came back and confirmed I needed at least all that was quoted and that it’s way cheaper than what a dentist in the U.S. would charge. He also doesn’t do root canals and told me the US has high crown prices so it probably won’t be cost effective to fly over to have him fix me up. An example of the cost difference between Singapore and the US, the quote for my 5 extractions would be what ONE extraction would cost in Washington. In addition to the cost, the Singapore treatment plan would span over 6 months!!! Don’t ask me why but apparently the rule is I can only do one procedure per appointment and it takes about a month to make an appointment (this is for partial gov’t subsidized treatments). Had I chose to do my dental work in Singapore under a partial subsidy, my first appointment would be in July. The two other estimated quotes I got in Singapore had slightly higher price tags, avg about $1000 SGD, but treatment duration was an estimated 2 months. This is a nightmare! Ya, my fault, I know.

My bro suggested I look into Dentists in Thailand and he can check them out via his in-laws/friends etc. Since he’s familiar with the standards there, I remember him looking into dentist stuff both in Thailand and Singapore previously. Although he told me to look in the Bangkok area because that’s where his network is, I looked into Chiang Mai as well since it’s the second largest city in Thailand. After much emails and estimates to various places I picked the one that I could afford and that the facilities/building/office looked good to me also taking into account any reviews that I could find. Since my bro couldn’t assist, I had to wing it from here on in. Within a week I was on a flight to….

CHIANG MAI, Thailand has a dental clinic named Dental4U. Why did I chose this clinic amongst the many, many dental clinics in this city? Well, I hadn’t come across any negative reviews (up until that point) other than it was more expensive than some of the “local” dentists and even my bro confirmed that the clinic looked like it catered to foreigners, meaning more expensive. Ok, fine, but it’s still cheaper than Singapore and Bangkok. The good reviews were pretty darn convincing. I even found 2 YouTube videos, one was a lady getting something done and the next was her bringing her friend to get something done, you get to see them doing stuff to him too. I think that says it all. You just don’t recommend your friend to something crappy, right? For me, seeing the venue in a video blog post validates the marketing/advertisement imagery I’ve been seeing. The quote they gave me for the Singaporean treatment plan, with notations that they will perform their own diagnosis as well, was less than $3,000 SGD on the highest quotation values! That’s about 1/2 price of what I would have to pay in Singapore! The best part is they said they can do it all in 2 weeks, INCLUDING the time to make the crowns! So I booked my flight (about $100 SGD) and hotel for 16 days (about $800 SGD) it still comes out cheaper by $1000 SGD AND I get to “work” (I’m a photographer, remember). So with my “vacation” all booked I arrived on a Saturday and had my first appointment the next day. Dental4U opens 7 days a week 9am to 8pm. You might want to consider cost of living expenses but I didn’t much care because the cost of living in Thailand is way lower than Singapore, so I’m getting a discount even eating only in restaurants and only those whose food menu I’m familiar with ie Chinese food, Italian food, franchise fast food etc. and those establishments are way more expensive than the local mom and pop shops or street food (there’s A LOT of those all over the place, it’s pretty cool)! I have too many food allergies to be an adventurous eater, especially since one of my allergies is to peanuts and Thai food is known to use peanut products regularly.

Dental4u in the afternoon

Dental4u at night

Back to Dental4U. After their initial exam including more precise x-rays of the teeth requiring the root canals, the treatment plan now includes: a teeth cleaning session, 3 more fillings AND this one shocked me, 2 crown lengthenings. What the **** is that?! I had to Google it and wait patiently for my bro’s response to this new development (I had asked them to email me the treatment plan and x-rays so I can research and decide). So basically crown lengthening is cutting away some gum to expose more bone so there’s more teeth to glue the crown on (there was too little of my tooth left to secure the new crown). If not the new crown + tooth structure will likely not be able to handle the rigors of chewing. They had booked me a slot on Monday and I figured if they were yanking my chain, I just won’t go then I’d go find a new dentist. So I had to pay $400 THB for the 2 x-rays which comes out to less than $18 SGD, the x-ray I had done in Singapore cost me around $45 SGD. Dental4U emailed me the x-rays even before I finished paying and I sent them over to my bro who confirmed later that I should get it done. Anyways, if I have to get it done then I have to regardless of where I go to get it done and if the prices at one place is higher then everything else will be too, right? Well, that’s my reasoning. So it all comes down to this. With all the new treatments added, the quote on the high side comes out to $79,3000 TBH which is roughly $3400 SGD which is STILL CHEAPER than the original Singaporean quote! So all my treatments were completed May 8, 2019 and my last session wass follow up to check the healing progress of the gum surgery which is on the 10th exactly 14 days! I budgeted a couple days extra, cuz you never right?

Dental4U side view

Dental4u early in the morning

With the costs out of the way, I’ll describe my experience. According to my bro, this was quite a lot of work to fit into 2 weeks coming from a patient comfortability standpoint. With all honesty, I didn’t find it all that bad (despite how I look in the photo below, haha), I do have a pretty high tolerance to pain though. There was only once where it hurt so bad I squirmed and grunted, that was during the follow up root canal procedure on my molar. The only other painful times were the injections into the back cheek area behind the molars and the more painful ones are the injections to the roof of your mouth. I don’t know if it was just me or they were using less numbing gel but it seemed to hurt more each session. By the last session it was more than just a “**** I stubbed my toe!” kinda pain to a more “***!!!*@&#^$% that HURTS” kinda pain. I honestly think it’s me because they’re pretty liberal with the painkillers. I have a whole bunch left over. If you read the reviews there are A LOT of other people who go to Thailand for their dental work and I’ve read many who have had more stuff done or harder stuff done than what I had done, so whatever your case may be, it’s worth the research I think.

My turn next Lotsa Meds

Dental4U has a website that you can checkout at www.chiangmaidental4you.com it looks a bit dated and some links don’t work but it has a comprehensive price list. You can see the head honcho there got one of his degrees from UCLA. On the walls of the clinic are plaques and conference photos of him being a speaker. To me, that looks legit. During my 2 weeks of going in and out for treatments, I’ve seen 4 receptionists, around 6 dental assistants and I’ve had 4 dentists work on me. Dr. Muttaruk (the head honcho) did the crown lengthening, Dr. Kwan did the root canals, Dr. Ice and Dr. Yumi did all the rest (Dr. Yumi did the crown stuff). Anyways, I bring this up because there are photos on the website of all the dentists. The only one I saw/recognized is Dr. Muttaruk. Everyone else I don’t recall seeing, again their website seems dated and most of the time everyone is wearing a surgical style masks making it hard to recognize faces. I have found their pictures in a dental registry/consolidation websites (listed near end of post) though so they are legit dentists. Note: there are a lot of certificates hanging on the walls but I didn’t go and read them to see which is who’s. All I know is my mouth and teeth feel great, better than I can remember! I never once felt mistreated/manhandled. They were all very, very courteous constantly asking if I was ok, do I need a break etc. I bit an assistant pretty hard during one of the x-rays, I heard bite when in actuality she said don’t bite. I felt so bad because I didn’t know until I opened my eyes (had to close them for the x-ray) and saw pain in her eyes and she was shaking her hand. I apologized profusely and she was okay about it and didn’t exact revenge, lol. Then I bit Dr. Yumi when she was fitting the crown. This time I was told to bite but I reacted so fast she didn’t get her finger out of the way in time, I guess. She laughed and apologized for telling me to bite! Everyone is so nice, courteous, friendly and speaks English fluently. The clientele there, I’ve noticed, is predominately non Thai (I’m basing this on skin color and my experience in differentiating Asian races) but I have seen Thai people in the waiting area. Since my hotel was literally a 3 minute walk away I pass the clinic a lot on my photo walkabouts, food runs etc. and I have to say I almost always see someone waiting in the reception area so they are relatively busy which makes me appreciate more the effort they made to accommodate my last minute booking.

The equipment looked new and well maintained as did the interior of the clinic. From what I saw, there was the main dental area which had 3 dental chairs separated by dividers so not much privacy but nobody is gonna be looking around cuz they’re having work done too and nobody can really see your face when they’re walking by as there’s too many hands and faces around your face. Anyways, there is a small x-ray room with an lcd panel in the hallway to facilitate the viewing of the x-ray that was just taken. Across the hallway is a separate room with a 4th dental chair but that one looked different, more stuff around it and to me looked more fancy. I suppose I could have taken some selfies in there but really wasn’t in the mood to but I do regret not taking selfies with any of the Dr.’s though. I’ll be sure to get ’em next time.

I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend anyone who needs dental work to check out Dental4U in Chiang Mai. As for me, well, I will be going back since there’s more work to be done. Since it’s not urgent and I was told my estimated recovery time is 2 months, I have time to decide what treatment plan I should take…implants or dentures. Something to note, they have a minimum credit card transaction amount which was $500 TBH so if you’re getting some less costly stuff done, bring cash.

Aside from a google search of dentists in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Here are some resources I used when doing my research, two dental consolidation sites: Dentaldepartures.com and medigo.com. If I had chosen to get treatment in Bangkok, it was a toss up between Bangkok Smile Malo Clinic and Truth Dental, but I was leaning more to Truth Dental. Something to note, if you get any x-rays, be sure to ask them to email you a copy of the x-ray as opposed to a printout so you can forward to other clinics for quotes and if you chose another clinic it may save you some costs as they can use that x-ray, if its current.

*** UPDATE: It’s been a week and my teeth feel great, no more tenderness in the gums. I have switched to an electic toothbrush too, I think it helps me a lot.

I will be posting more info on Chiang Mai including the hotel I chose as well as travel guides to the places I’ve managed to check out. Consider following me for updates on this Chiang Mai trip or to find not only my toys and collectibles posts but also my travel bloopers, blunders and shenanigans posts, photography related news/reviews posts and the occasional contest entry.

All the photos (unless otherwise noted in the post) were taken by me and are available for sale. If you’re interested in buying an image or three, 😃 please don’t hesitate to contact me for more details. Thanks in advance!

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