Dentists in Taiwan: FAQ and Resources

Hi All,

Can I get an update from people who’ve recently had root canals? I’m in the process of getting one at Wangfang, but am getting more and more scared, since the person handling my root canal is quite young and has never worked on a foreigner. She seems so nervous and says because “i’m caucasian the roots of my teeth are so different from asian roots.” It’s freaking me out to say the least.

I live near zhongxiao fuxing. Would love to hear from anyone who’s a wai guo ren and has had a root canal recently. It’s important to me that the dentist has had experience with foreigners, and is preferably educated in the states.

Thanks in advance!

I am in so much pain… Don’t go to wanfang for a root canal. I will have to find someone else by tomorrow.

I had an implant done at MetDent Dental Clinic (see previous page), and felt no pain. Steven was my dentist, but he and his partner both went to NYU and speak fluent English.

[quote=“Emahee”]Hi All,

Can I get an update from people who’ve recently had root canals? I’m in the process of getting one at Wangfang, but am getting more and more scared, since the person handling my root canal is quite young and has never worked on a foreigner. She seems so nervous and says because “I’m caucasian the roots of my teeth are so different from Asian roots.” It’s freaking me out to say the least.

I live near zhongxiao Fuxing. Would love to hear from anyone who’s a wai guo ren and has had a root canal recently. It’s important to me that the dentist has had experience with foreigners, and is preferably educated in the states.

Thanks in advance![/quote]

Taipei University hospital - is where I went for a checkup on my crown and to get rid of an abscess… though my experience was 90% great… the first dentist spoke fluent english and was very good at his explanation of everything he saw and answered questions without an attitude… then I was transfered over to a lady to have the area cleaned - which was not explained to me completely… as they proceeded to drill a hole into the side of my tooth where the infection was and now I must use interdental brushes to keep this hole area clean. I am bit upset about that…but atleast they didnt totally f’up and remove my tooth completely. So I still have my tooth and now the smell of a dieing gumline in that area every now and then. They claim I already had a root canal… and I dont remember ever having one in that area. But my memory is not the greatest… I might have when I was really young… since this tooth is nearly all cavity and crown… ffffffuuuuu.

Thanks All! I wound up going to the Sunrise Dental Clinic. There’s a woman there who only does root canals. After seeing her, the pain went away. Seems like a good, clean, hi-tech place. The English is not excellent, but I’ve been able to get by.

I saw Dr. Wei recently. Dr Wei, 2F, 2-1 Lane 14 Zhongshan N Rd Sect 7 ph 2875-4012.

His English was better than good. He was patient as he explained x-ray images. He was thorough.

He does NOT take insurance as of 5-7 years ago.

I would recommend him. However, knowing that some dentists take NHI, I’m not sure that I’d recommend him STRONGLY. Regardless, I will go back to him.

Just thought this may be helpful to some looking for dentists in the Tianmu area.

Is 800NTD without national health insurance (NHI) for teeth cleaning and 100-150NTD for one x-ray reasonable? I read that with NHI teeth cleaning is somewhere around 100-150NTD but I don’t know how much of the medical cost is subsidized by NHI.

Best dental / dentist in Taipei ?

Anyone have a good tip on a dentist/oral surgen in Kaohsiung? I’ve been in pain for days now, but went to a local hospital the other day, got all numbed up, and then the surgen refused to do anything. He’s not the first, either. There have been at least four dentists refuse to work on/with me since I’ve been in Taiwan because I’m just utterly terrified of the process and get quite stressed out. No matter how hard I try to convince them to just go on and be done with it, they all get worried over my over anxious state and refuse.

This Dr. told me I can have general anesthesia, but this will require a three day hospital stay! The positive thing about this is that they could fix anything they found all at once, of course, but I’d really rather not be hospitalized for three days. Also, I don’t think they were planning on cutting out the correct tooth the other day. They didn’t do all that thorough an exam and since my mouth full of pain meds has warn off, it is now very clearly the adjacent tooth that is giving me the HURT. I was in so much pain before that it was impossible for me to identify which tooth might be the problem. Anyway, I don’t feel all that confident, or comfortable, returning to that Dr., and hope you guys can give me the contact information for a great one here in K-town? Please?

I’m looking for a dentist in Kaohsiung who I can visit for regular dental checkups. My dentist in Siaogang is very skilled in dental surgery and implants, and I would not hesitate to recommend him for that.
However, I’m looking for regular six-month checkups with a focus on periodontal health and preventative dental hygeine. I’d like to get full teeth scaling and polishing as well.
Thanks in advance,
h

How much would a dentist cost with no health insurance ? To fill a cavity.

I need to have a root canal done, I went to the MetDent clinic in Shida, they replaced a filling that fell out for $1000NTD(separate from the root canal) (I don’t have insurance). They have quoted me $5000 for the root canal, but after looking throught this thred it seems that is pretty cheap. Also they told me I need to appointments for this procedure a week apart, is this the norm? How long does a root canal take? How painful should it be? Is $5000 too cheap?

One concern I have is after doing a little research into root canals it seems I may not really have the need for one(but hey what do I know LOL). What has happened is a filling fell out, it is a large filling in a rear molar, it has become sensitive to temperature, there is no pain, and no infection, no discoloration, swelling or tenderness. Do Dentists here just call for a root canal when a filling is bigger?

Can anyone offer any info or advice about this? I have an appointment for this Friday evening and wondering if I am making the right choice.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[quote=“Craig”]I need to have a root canal done, I went to the MetDent clinic in Shi-Da, they replaced a filling that fell out for $1000NTD(separate from the root canal) (I don’t have insurance). They have quoted me $5000 for the root canal, but after looking throught this thred it seems that is pretty cheap. Also they told me I need to appointments for this procedure a week apart, is this the norm? How long does a root canal take? How painful should it be? Is $5000 too cheap?

One concern I have is after doing a little research into root canals it seems I may not really have the need for one(but hey what do I know LOL). What has happened is a filling fell out, it is a large filling in a rear molar, it has become sensitive to temperature, there is no pain, and no infection, no discoloration, swelling or tenderness. Do Dentists here just call for a root canal when a filling is bigger?

Can anyone offer any info or advice about this? I have an appointment for this Friday evening and wondering if I am making the right choice.

Thanks in advance for any help.[/quote]

If it’s sensitive to temperature it means that the filling is very close to the root and at a really inconvenient time it will abscess. This really sucks so I would get the root canal done now unless you expected to get onto insurance in the next couple of months.

As much as I was trying to avoid going to a dentist here, eventually I still needed to see one, so I compiled a list of dentists that were recommended somewhere to have something to choose from.

(Please note, this is just a list from other sources, I will post my experiences in a moment.)

Brian’s

Recommended by AU & CA Offices
民權東路2段152巷16號
02 2502 1273

Dr David’s

Recommended by AIT
天玉街38巷10號1樓
02 2876 7658
ddda.com.tw/

Duen Ping (敦品)

Recommended by AU & CA Offices
敦化北路222巷10號
02 2545 9770

Excellence

Recommended by AIT
忠誠路1段171巷3號
02 8866 2725

Landmark (達美)

Recommended by AU & CA Offices, there is NHI, Dr. Hsu (許博能) recommended on Forumosa, but doesn’t work there anymore
忠誠路1段159號
0922 888 818
02 2838 0201

Leader

Recommended by AU & CA Offices
敦化北路222巷62號
02 2712 2472

Lin & Partners (崇民牙科)

Recommended by Community Ctr, AIT, AU, CA Offices, no NHI, Bad experiences described on Yahoo Knowledge (in Chinese)
天母西路60號5樓
02 2873 6488
南京東路三段259號3樓
02 2715 2476

Professors’ (博世)

Found it myself, current workplace of Dr. Hsu (許博能) that previously worked at Landmark, no NHI
濟南路1段7號8樓
02 2729 1181

Seattle

Recommended by Community Ctr, NHI
中山北路6段470號2樓
02 2875 5119
cunc.com.tw/drchiayifu/

Summit

Recommended by some Forumosa users, NHI, Bad experiences described on PTT (in Chinese)
新北市新店區北新路二段53號
02 8911 2576
i140.photobucket.com/albums/r36/ … istmap.jpg

Recommendation sources

AIT: acs.ait.org.tw/medical-info.html
AU Office: australia.org.tw/tpei/Medica … aiwan.html
CA Office: canada.org.tw/taiwan/assets/ … 20List.pdf
NZ Office: (no recommendations at all)
UK Office: (no recommendations for dentists), ukintaiwan.fco.gov.uk/resources/ … als-taipei
Community Ctr: (e-mail question), communitycenter.org.tw/

My experiences with dentists here:

First, I called Lin & Partners (Tianmu branch). From the compiled list of recommendations they seemed to be the safest choice. They don’t accept NHI and are probably the most expensive, but I’m fine with that as long as the quality is also fine. I didn’t want to take any chances.

I was told I could make appointments in English there, so I started speaking in English when I called them. This was not a good decision, as the receptionist’s English comprehension was clearly insufficient. Even though I spoke rather slowly she could not understand me, and when I said “I need a filling,” she thought I needed “cleaning.” Then, out of the blue, she switched to Chinese. The conversation went much smoother from then on, but if I couldn’t answer her in Chinese I doubt we could continue at all.

Although I called in the morning, they did not have free slots for the whole day, so I decided to go somewhere else. It was just a single phone call so I might be wrong, but my impression was that they already had enough customers and didn’t really want my business.

My second attempt was to call the Summit, which seems to be the place most often recommended on Forumosa. When I called them at the time they open (2.30 pm), they said they were full and would not make an appointment for me: I could just come and wait, but this was something I didn’t want to do, so I decided to try yet another place.

This time I called the Landmark, the workplace of Dr. Hsu also recommended on Forumosa. He doesn’t work there anymore, so (somewhat reluctantly) I made an appointment with Dr. Chen. He turned out to be a very good choice, fixing my long-neglected cavity really well, giving me more time than necessary and also explaining things as he went on. I got local anesthesia when I asked for it. The amount was sufficient and Dr. Chen waited approx. 10 mins for it to start working, so I didn’t feel any pain at all. (This part I was worried about because many people had mentioned problems with anesthesia in other clinics.)

I went on to see Dr. Chen again later for cleaning and some miscellaneous stuff. Each time he spent about 1 hour for me, and there was no time pressure of any kind. The room is for a single patient only and there are window blinds, so the degree of privacy is higher than usually in Taiwan. (I saw pictures from another recommended clinic, I think it was Duen Ping, and there were 5 or more chairs in one large room without even any curtains between them. It is also common for dental clinics here to have large windows anyone can see through from the street.)

I can definitely recommend Dr. Chen at the Landmark. We spoke Chinese but I believe he also speaks English. Also, this clinic accepts NHI now, so the total price I paid was 150 TWD each time.

Also, I later found Dr. Hsu and in fact also made an appointment with him. He works at another clinic now (Professors’), where he specializes in prosthetics, but he was also OK to see me for the cavity. I cancelled the appointment though because it was not necessary anymore. The cost of having a cavity fixed there would be about 3500 TWD (including anesthesia but not root canals), they don’t accept NHI.

Hope the above helps someone else in the future. :bow:

@ Doraemonster
Nice post on your experience with the dentists. Especially on the part on privacy which, till today, I find it weird to have several dentist chairs in one room and people off the street can watch you - maybe people do enjoy a freak show LOL :roflmao:

I am having a fairly serious dental issue and need to find a good dentist that can handle crown-work and possible dental surgery… ASAP. I have a crown that I believe has failed and resulted in an infection bad enough for a 39.5 degree fever.

I dont care about going cheap, I just want the biggest, bad-ass dentist/dental surgeon in the Taipei. Anyone know who it is?

has anyone gone there recently? it’s been a year since craig’s post so i’m wondering if everything is still wonderful!

[quote=“CraigTPE”]Upon the recommendation of a friend, I tried a place called MetDent Dental clinic. It’s just a bit north of Shi-Da and west of Da’an Park.

162-4 Jinhua St, Da’an District, Taipei
02-23560277

There are 2 dentists there and the English name of the one I had my appointment with was Steven. Both dentists were educated at New York University. The office atmosphere was very pleasant and comfortable, not chaotic like the others I’d been to, and the equipment was probably the most modern I’ve seen here. Michael speaks English fluently (not sure about the other dentist), but unfortunately the receptionist doesn’t.

When I’ve gone to other dentists, I got very little information about the condition of my teeth/gums or about the procedures I was having done. It could have been the language barrier, or just the attitude that they are the doctor and don’t need to explain anything. I had a routine cleaning, x-rays and started the process for an implant and repair a chipped tooth and Michael explained everything very clearly, which I really appreciated. The routine cleaning was fairly typical for Taiwan.

I’ll let you know how the implant goes.

By the way, I have tried NY Dentist, but was not impressed with their office or their service. I also went to Summit Dentistry, which was pretty clean, modern and efficient, but they skimped on a root canal (no temp crown ) which resulted in a broken tooth, more work required and additional cost.[/quote]

Does Anyone have any experience with dental implants in Taipei? How much do they cost and how many visits does the procedure require? I live in Shanghai but I am thinking about traveling back to Taiwan for this procedure.

Steven

[quote=“Ovechkin”]has anyone gone there recently? it’s been a year since craig’s post so I’m wondering if everything is still wonderful!

[quote=“CraigTPE”]Upon the recommendation of a friend, I tried a place called MetDent Dental clinic. It’s just a bit north of Shi-Da and west of Da’an Park.

162-4 Jinhua St, Da’an District, Taipei
02-23560277

There are 2 dentists there and the English name of the one I had my appointment with was Steven. Both dentists were educated at New York University. The office atmosphere was very pleasant and comfortable, not chaotic like the others I’d been to, and the equipment was probably the most modern I’ve seen here. Michael speaks English fluently (not sure about the other dentist), but unfortunately the receptionist doesn’t.

When I’ve gone to other dentists, I got very little information about the condition of my teeth/gums or about the procedures I was having done. It could have been the language barrier, or just the attitude that they are the doctor and don’t need to explain anything. I had a routine cleaning, x-rays and started the process for an implant and repair a chipped tooth and Michael explained everything very clearly, which I really appreciated. The routine cleaning was fairly typical for Taiwan.[/quote][/quote]

I stopped in last week and it appears that the place has grown. They have cards for 8 dentists at the front desk. I made an appointment but need to wait two weeks to get in. After I made the appointment, I asked if the dentist could speak any English and the receptionist said that perhaps for ordinary things but she wasn’t positive. Thinking of this post, I commented that I had heard their dentists spoke English and she actually left to check, reporting back that they have one who speaks it quite well and two others who could handle English-speaking patients. She also confirmed that the dentist I was booked for spoke virtually none. Although it probably shouldn’t have mattered, I moved my appointment to an English-speaking dentist, which meant that I need to wait another 4 days. I hope this means they are good and, if I don’t find something else in the meantime, will report back.

The receptionists didn’t appear to speak any English and if that were your primary reason for visiting this place, it probably would be best to look elsewhere. However, it’s in a nice location and is a very attractive office.