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Great, sane, conscientious dentist

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  1. #21

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    Oct 2008
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    Thanks again to everyone who replied to my initial post and to those who have messaged me directly with dentist recommendations.

    My belated update:

    I ended up visiting a dental practice in Central. As it turned out, most of the small restorations (i.e. resin "fillings") that I'd had done in HK by other dentists had not been done properly. The dentist used an LED-illuminated magnifying video camera, hooked up to a large monitor, to show me what they were doing in my mouth and to point out the problems with my old dentists' work.

    After removing the old restorations, in one case, she showed me that the cavity (while relatively small) hadn't been completely removed -- just covered over with resin. In another case, the previous dentist had failed to go beneath the gum line to remove a small bit of a cavity that was still festering and would have caused me a great deal of trouble down the line.

    This new dentist fixed the glued-together teeth problem, but they still left a tiny bit of resin sticking out very slightly that caused dental floss to "catch" on it for a moment whenever I'd floss that gap. When I pointed out this problem at the start of the next visit, they confirmed the issue and fixed it (for the most part) free of charge. They offered to completely redo that restoration (presumably also at no additional charge) but I'm satisfied at the moment.

    I had several restorations done during each visit, which took a couple of hours, with the dentist working very methodically and carefully. Because each restoration was a bit different, and I had several done during each visit, the cost of the visits varied but came down to about $HKD 10k each time.

    Last edited by dear giant; 21-09-2011 at 01:00 AM.
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  2. #22

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    Mar 2007
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    DG,

    since you got some recs from others, and you seem to have found a decent dentist, could you tell us who that person is, where he/she works?


  3. #23

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    I'll PM you.


  4. #24

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    Oct 2011
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    Exclamation

    Thanks for the detailed report, I'm interested too.

    Quote Originally Posted by dear giant:
    $HKD 10k each time.
    Is there a typo? 1,300 USD for a 2-hour visit redoing some fillings? Coming from abroad, may I ask if that is a reasonable price in HK? Thanks.

  5. #25

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    Quote Originally Posted by pizza:
    Thanks for the detailed report, I'm interested too.

    Is there a typo? 1,300 USD for a 2-hour visit redoing some fillings? Coming from abroad, may I ask if that is a reasonable price in HK? Thanks.
    Nope, the number is right. It was very expensive (about $HKD 20k for two visits) and I wouldn't have spent that much if I hadn't already run into major problems with dentists charging what I would consider to be normal prices.

    The glued-together tooth was the final straw that made me give up on using "local" dentists (i.e. HKU-trained locals w/decent but not perfect English) but my experiences with local dentists in general have been poor. When I was getting that fixed, she unearthed a lot of other shoddy work by the dentists that I had used previously. She showed me the hidden cavity and beneath-the-gum-line cavity that I mentioned in my previous post clearly and I saw it with my own eyes.

    I've had other bad experiences too -- like a dentist giving me a root canal but leaving one of the roots completely untreated without saying a word about it to me. That bit me in the ass a few years later. A different dentist also gave me a filling made of temporary material as opposed to a permanent filling -- again, without telling me. Both were resin, though there was a very slight difference in texture when I touched that spot with my tongue. That had to be redone as well.

    There are plenty of dentists in HK that will charge much less but after taking my chances with them over the course of nearly ten years and finding their work to be substandard again and again, I'm resigned to shelling out a lot more to get decent work done.

    Basically, born-and-bred HKers will do a decent job under two conditions: (1.) the work is for themselves or a close family member or friend whom they truly care about or are afraid of and (2.) when they know that someone is definitely going to go over their work with a fine-toothed comb shortly afterwards and that there will be consequences if they cut corners. Otherwise, they generally tend to feel as though they "win" a bit by doing less work than they promised to do or were supposed to do. This is a near universal attitude, held by everyone from the cleaning lady in the big, expensive, luxury-brand-crammed shopping mall who sweeps dust behind something instead of into a dustpan right on up to a dentist who will look you in the face with a big friendly smile before and after doing a shoddy job on your teeth.
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  6. #26

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    Also, the issue of HKers poor work ethic is compounded by their generally low expectations.

    For example, before I got my glued-together teeth fixed, my wife and I were talking with an acquaintance of my wife's. This person is a local physician who we both like -- friendly, warm, and outwardly very competent. We hadn't seen her in a while and, in the course of catching up, I mentioned having had a dentist glue two of my teeth together.

    She told me that her dentist had done the same to her some ways back and I asked who she'd had fix it, hoping that I could make an appointment with the same person. As it turned out, she hadn't bothered having it fixed and her teeth were fastened together to this day. She wasn't concerned about not being able to floss in between those teeth and just thought that it was normal for dentists to do stuff like that.

    The acceptance of shoddiness and corner-cutting is deeply ingrained in HK society. Shopping malls selling luxury goods that get covered in bamboo lashed together with strips of plastic when repairs are needed. New apartments where none of the walls are straight and the plaster begins flaking off immediately. High-end restaurants were the cleaning staff wheels the garbage past the diners to take it out because, presumably there aren't any service corridors in the rear (or maybe it's just more convenient for the cleaning staff). Huge billboards from local megacorps that nobody bothered to proofread and, as a result, have spelling mistakes on them.


  7. #27

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    It must be hell being your wife.


  8. #28

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    How so? She and I are on the same wavelength.

    If someone trains as a dentist, hangs out their shingle and practices as a dentist, and accepts patients, then they should try to do decent work -- not the crappiest that they can do without being hauled into court.

    The same goes for everyone in every occupation/field.

    HK has its pluses, but my wife and I have both experienced the absence of pride in one's work that prevails in HK.

    Last edited by dear giant; 07-10-2011 at 09:14 PM.

  9. #29

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    Jul 2012
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    Hi

    Quote Originally Posted by dear giant:
    I'll PM you.
    New expat moving to HK in a few weeks. Could you also PM me the name of this dentist you found? Thanks so much!

  10. #30

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    Quote Originally Posted by jay13sz:
    New expat moving to HK in a few weeks. Could you also PM me the name of this dentist you found? Thanks so much!
    Seriously? Read the boards a little longer before you follow DG. He hates HK, hates HK'ers and has quality expectations that are beyond belief. If you are just a "normal bloke" you may find normal dentists quite fine here. I have. However, if you resonate with all of his anti-HK crap, then for sure, keep going.