Cherry Y.'s Dental Cleaning & Fillings Story

I'd been putting off dental work for a while. Not because anything was seriously wrong, but I was on a student visa in the Bay Area studying design and my health insurance barely covered anything. A deep cleaning and some fillings in San Francisco without decent insurance was going to cost me around $1,500 to $2,000, and on a student budget that just wasn't happening.

A few years before that, when I was working as an accountant in Hong Kong, my manager mentioned that medical tourism in Thailand was huge. People from the Middle East and all over Asia go there for everything from cosmetic procedures to routine dental work. The company I worked for had a branch in Bangkok, so I'd heard the same thing from colleagues too. I filed it away as interesting but didn't really think about it again until I was in San Francisco looking at dental quotes I couldn't afford and thought, wait, why don't I just do this in Thailand?

I researched clinics in Phuket, went through the Google reviews, and the prices were so much lower that I booked appointments for myself and my mom and we turned the whole thing into a nine-day vacation.

Checking it out in person

When we got to Phuket, I went to the clinic before our appointment to check it out in person. I wanted to see if it was clean, how the staff carried themselves, what the vibe was. It was spacious, spotless, and clearly well-run, and I could see patients leaving looking relaxed and satisfied. That was enough for me, so I booked us in.

The math

The dental work was quick and the quality was great. Deep cleaning and fillings for both of us, and the total came to about $200 to $300 combined. For both of us. Even with flights and nine nights in Phuket, the entire trip cost me roughly what the dental work alone would have been in San Francisco. Except the dentist in San Francisco doesn't come with a vacation.

The rest of the trip

The rest of the trip was exactly what you'd want from nine days in Thailand with your family. Beaches, cafes, incredible food, kayaking, exploring caves with my parents. It was a family vacation that happened to include getting our teeth taken care of, and my mom was happy with her cleaning too, which honestly mattered to me more than my own.

If you're thinking about going abroad for dental care, just do your research, read the reviews, and go. It doesn't have to be a big decision. When I did this in 2019, I had to figure everything out on my own, researching clinics, comparing options, hoping nothing would go wrong. These days there are platforms like JetWell that handle all of that for you, and honestly I wish someone had just done it for me back then.

Cherry Y, 43, Brooklyn, NY. Product designer and mom to a miracle baby.