Sunday 1 July 2012

Cheaper dental treatment - To Thailand or not To Thailand



Following my last post, lets refflect on my earlier post with regards to the fairly expensive dental treament in Australia and New Zealand compared to the same Treatment in Thailand.


Why is it so expensive Down Under ?

Well if you ask your dentist you will most likely get the following answer (or something to this effect:)

"Because we struggle with high overheads to run our business, only a small amount of what you pay actually ends in the dentists pocket, after paying for staff, materials, general business expenses etc."

And of course the dentist himselve would like to have a comfortable life, have a nice house, flash car, good wine etc.

And I do wholeheartedly agree with this, I want a nice house, a good car ( and rest assured I have both). And lets be fair - would you trust a lawyer if he arrives in an old Ford Escort ?

But how is this now working in Thailand or India ( or any other nation in south-east asia).

Well lets look at this a bit closer


- nice apartment in Mumbai -   well if you think Sydney is expensive - think again. 4 Million US will not buy you much in Mumbai or Bangkok.








(sure living on the streets is cheaper - but face it you don't want to go to a backroad dentist !!)




- nice car in Thailand - yor medium size European car will outprice any Holden by the factor of 4-5 (100.000 USD is not uncommon).
- general living expenses - might be slightly less, but if you want the good stuff you need the green, and lots of it.


So there are only two avenues left how our Asian collegues might be able to save some costs

a) staff - and yes there is some saving
b) material - and again yes the same implant which is sold in Australia for 800 AUD will be around 200 USD in India. (so I think our all so nice suppliers Down Under need to wake up - and fast )

But thats about it !! So in fact the costs of dentistry in South East Asia at face value are most likely the same than Down Under.

But how can they offer treatment so cheap than - one may ask.

The only ways dentistry can be bought cheaper is by

a) creating a generic low overhead environment (more efficient workflow)
and
b) getting the cheapist lab work in possible ( most likley sourced in either China or some back-road shed using unskilled labor)

Option b) is highly dubious as you will compromise the quaility of the crowns are are about to get fitted to your teeth by either workmanship or material or both. ( Gold crowns form China have found to contain all sorts of metalls but gold).

So to safely reduce costs only option a) is valid.

But how do we change the modell we dentist are operating ? Or can we ?

I think we can ! And you certainly do not have to go to Thailand and/or accept third class lab work for it.

It can be done in Down Under.

Have a look at http://www.dentalabroadnz.com/ and talk to the guys, as this modell suggest that similar cost safings can be achieved, without the 12 hour travel, uncertainty about warranties and quality. All labwork is done by a reputable in house laboratory.
And the best they do speak english - withsome accent so - but hey the Ozzies have one as well.

5 comments:

  1. Your website is really cool and this is a great inspiring article.
    Edmonton Dentist

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great post I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this interesting and knowledgeable article.
    dental treatment

    ReplyDelete
  3. You know your projects stand out of the herd. is something special about them. It seems to me all of them are really brilliant!
    Dentist in Waterloo, ON

    ReplyDelete
  4. I found your this post while searching for some related information on blog search...Its a good post..keep posting and update the information.
    dental treatment

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great article Written
    I like your article which is very informative, I would like to know more about the article .
    Thanks for sharing this piece of information.


    tankless reviews!
    tankless products!
    tankless heater!


    ReplyDelete