So, it’s finally happening.

The moment I’ve been both dreading and looking forward to. This horribly painful pest of a root canal (see below) is finally getting the attention it has always wanted and I have been want to give. In a few hours, I am going to BIDC and getting this tooth retreated, hoping to save the tooth. If the tooth is not save-able, it’s implant time.

See broken filling and abscess (infection) on bottom right hitting nerves of tooth behind it. No fun, or in Thai, “mai sinook”.

My Consultation Experience

I requested a bunch of quotes online to get a feel for what the prices were. If anybody is interested, leave me a comment, and I’ll give you my entire spreadsheet.

I did a consultation for around 2,000Baht with Bumrungrad International Hospital, one of the premier hospitals in Bangkok. And it was certainly premier. You know it because it’s one of the best hospitals for the wealthy oil countries, all the immediate neighboring restaurants were Arabic; it has high speed Internet and several types of coffee and cafes – Starbucks included. But my consult was just average, the doctor told me the same thing I’ve heard and read online, and had to consult a root canal expert within the consult, and told me that maybe they could save the tooth, maybe they’d have to do an implant.

After a lot of pushing and asking a series of “why” questions, the doctor did a bite analysis and figured out something that I hadn’t known before. Two teeth were impacting really hard on the tooth with the infection. I am honestly shocked that after $2,000 worth of TMJ Bite Analysis Testing, that my previous dentist was not able to figure this out and adjust the bite three years ago, before I even had the first root canal done. All it took was a simple bite test with crayon-coated paper to figure this out (see below).

Crayon-like material on a piece of paper, blue on the top, red on the bottom, tells which teeth are hitting where. A basic examination that should be done with anyone whose teeth are cracking or painful. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s stressed in dental training, because I had to really push one of the doctors to do this test.

I believe in the medical industry in general, there really can be a problem with too much technology and not enough common sense. Long story aside, this is one of the reasons I chose not to become a doctor, despite interest and passion in medicine.

This doctor at Bumrungrad shaved down my tooth in the right spot (I would have done it myself three years ago if I had access to a dental drill) and my pain was gone, 100% gone.

So that was awesome, but I still had an infection. And the quote for re-treatment was 40,000Baht and for an implant 120,000Baht flat fee with Bumrungrad.

Why Bangkok International Dental Center?

Even though the total quote for BIDC was 47,000 as compared to 40,000, the dentist that I saw was remarkable holistic and was an expert in root canals. Immediately she saw my X-Ray and said that I had enough bone structure to save the tooth and that it is always better to save the natural tooth. Any dentist who is trying to make money off you will tell you to go for the implant, because it is a much more expensive procedure.

Additionally, she recommended that the crown be done in the same material as the tooth above, because the “two teeth operate as a unit.” I was amazed when she said this, because it is the first time that a dentist has used this philosophy with me. In my vast dental experience, and I’m not even joking, I have spent a lot of time in dentist chairs, dentists are primarily concerned with how to treat a single tooth. At this point, I can rattle off the checklist that most dentists go through when they look at a tooth and decide how to treat it.

One of the reasons I have had so many problems is that the treatment for one tooth, ended up damaging the tooth adjacent to it. It’s no fun when it’s not cavities that are causing your pain, but having large pieces of ill-fitting metal glued onto your natural tooth.

Back to the point of the actual experience. They spoke English fluently and were very up front about what times and dates I would need to come in, and how much I would need to pay at each visit. Bumrungrad was rather vague, saying that it would be 3-4 visits to retreat the root canal, and then 2-3 visits for the cap, each visit 2-3 weeks apart. BIDC told me I need to come in on February 25, March 4, and March 11 and I was so impressed with the philosophy, reputation, and clarity of service that I scheduled the appointments then and there.

Alright… and it’s almost go time. Fingers crossed that the local anesthetics work!

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