I’ve been looking at all the dental clinics in my area using Google maps. Every clinic I’ve seen has one or more 1-star reviews from Taiwanese patients, with comments such as “poor pain management”, “the dentist cheated me” or “they practice over-treatment”.
Are dentists here really bad, or do Taiwanese people just have different expectations from their dentists?
The safest option is going to be the dental clinic in a large hospital. Some good dentists do exist but aren’t very common, from my experience.
A lot of dentists just open their own little shop in a neighborhood and do things their own way. Many of them just give basic service whatever insurance or people can afford and not really accustomed to higher grade service.
A Dental Clinic with multiple dentists and staff would be a more current up-to-date with better service. It might just require going by each one and taking a look and getting an impression.
It’s quite sad that many of my students from University practice herein Taiwan they were good students maybe just not enough to go around. I do know both my mother-in-Law and father-in-Law have been taken to the cleaners! She is diabetic and should have a different protocol for implants but this putz continues to put implants in and they fail! My sister in law has a dentist that wants to do ortho in her before doing a fixed bridge( replaces a missing tooth and is cemented in) The stories from going around are really amazingly bad!
Well, I’ve learned another lesson: Thank God for my wife… so we have been eating out and they bring me the bill and have already put the 10% tip in but on the credit card slip there is a line for tip! Almost gave them 20% sneaky devils… I guess I’m just another dumb adoga…hahahahaha
My big worry is over-treatment.
I know it’s a problem worldwide, but in Taiwan margins must be thinner due to the national health insurance system. Also doctors here overtreat by giving out absolutely tons of medication (which I assume they get insurance money for), so must be tempting for dentists to do the same.
Are you a dentist working in TW? Is it possible to visit you?
If not, any tips on how to tell a good dentist from a bad one?
wish I could find a good dentist in Taichung
My suggestion would be where did they do their dental school, US & Europe trained are generally your best dentist from what I know of Europe especially Germany, Swiss or Swede
US: west coast or Midwest trained Harvard trained dentist are lousy! Great at research but hand skills leave a lot to be desired
Actually there isn’t a lot of medications in Dentistry antibiotics and pain meds that’s about it.
As far as over treatment, I tell my patients if they feel comfortable please please get a second opinion… always remember if it doesn’t feel right in your gut you’re probably right get out and find somebody else! Over treatment is starting to be a real problem in the US, students are paying upwards of $500,000.00 US just for dental school and insurance companies are cutting reimbursement so the younger dentists are over treating… we old farts were trained and have a completely different philosophy mine was always: would I do this to a family member? If no then I wouldn’t do it to my patient… to hell with money I have to sleep at night and get up in the morning and look at the reflection in the mirror
The dentists I’ve been to are all fine. I had wisdom teeth removed last year and each time I went it took like 15 minutes at most.
This is like the greatest straight line of all time, but ima take the high road.
Welcome back from the gulags, my son. Be good! 