baby teeth??

solidstars

solidstars

Registered User
am just wondering if it's normal for baby teeth to be yellow/chipped? my son's upper teeth are really starting to worry me (the bottom row seems just fine).

also, can i just take him to any dentist, or are there specialised baby dentists in hk?
 
Solidstars, There is a paediatric dentist listed in the directory on geobaby called Dr Denise Linda Giles. I take my son to see her and she is really great with kids. I havent taken my daughter to her yet (15 months) but she fell last week and chipped her top tooth slightly so I will be making an appointment for her next week.

The yellow might be because of lack of enamel on his teeth, which could make them more susceptable to cavities so it might be worth checking this out. My son had this issue due to the meds he was on as a premie baby but so far my daughters teeth seem fine (apart from the chip!)
 
I am not sure, in my head I am thinking $700 for some reason but I will dig out the receipts and PM you the actual cost. $700 may have also included treatments. I will confirm in the morning!
 
i took my son to the dr above and although she was great with him (especially for his first dental experience) there were a couple of things i wasn't too happy with:
1) she said that for the amount of work my son needed she would NEVER do the work on him while in the chair. she said that he should have it done under general anesthesia in baptist hospital. the cost she quote for my 5 year old's teeth: minimum $40, 000 HKD (not including the $1300-1500 she charged for the initial visit and the cleaning he received at his first appt).

2) when i almost died at the amount that she quoted, she said that it would be possible to see the public dentist and gave me the contact details. which seemed very nice and all, but when i found out that i needed a reference letter detailing the work she believed needed to be done.... she didn't answer my numerous requests for such a letter.

i ended up taking my son to Bangkok and having his teeth done there. the dentist at bumrungrad hospital was FANTASTIC. he said that he didn't think that my son needed to have it all done under general anesthesia at all, just to break down what needed doing into a couple of appointments. so, that's what we did. my son had 8 fillings, a root canal and a crown all done in 2 appointments. there was only about 5 minutes of crying (my son didn't like the "mouth opener").

best of all?

it cost us $4,000 HKD!

so, in the end, my son and i had a great 11 day holiday in bangkok. he got his teeth done. we stayed in a nice hotel and took a few tours and had a ball....total cost? about $20,000HKD... still 1/2 of what it would have cost in HK! (we were planning on NOT spending so much on taking tours etc, but we could have come home after about 6 days as all of the work was done... but tickets were already booked and hotel paid for...so we had to make use of our time).

over all, i would say, yes, the doctor mentioned above is great with kids... but she seems to like patients who are loaded, don't care what it costs and don't question her "advice".
 
Sounds like a nightmare situation to be in Cara. Dr. Giles did say to us once that my son needed an extraction and she felt he would not cope so would like to do it under general anasthetic, but I was totally against it as I felt it was not necessary as it was one that would fall out in its own soon enough and it was not hurting him at all so I declined.
I think for me, I like him going there as she puts him at ease, he likes choosing a dvd to watch and he now has no fear of dentists (unlike myself who had a very bad experience when I was 14 and have hated them ever since!)
We are very lucky though, that our insurance covers a lot of the dental costs as I think if I had to pay it all out of my own pocket I would be going down the public route or going to another country as you also did.
 
thanks cara, yes i was afraid that being in central would make her one of those expensive dentists...

i always save my check ups and dentist appointments for my trips to bangkok too, but for my son i'm starting to get worried and probably can't wait till we go there next year... (actually i need to have something done too..i hate how medical care in hong kong is so expensive and it's not like the service is particularly excellent either)

in this case i guess i'll just take him to our neighborhood average dentist to get it checked out? that wouldn't be overly dramatic would it?
 
you cannot take your boy to just a regular dentist. you must take him to a pediatric dentist/ periodontist (children's dentist).

regular dentists don't have the proper training to deal with children or their teeth.

solidstars, is there any way you could make a quick trip to bkk? or maybe just go to a cheap-ish pediatric dentist here and keep the xrays etc and take them with you when you go to bkk?

amyH, seems to me that Dr Giles is rather quick to say there is a need for GA...perhaps she'd rather have the kids asleep than on her chair? she tried to tell me that her charges would have been the same if she was doing it in the hospital as if he had it done in the chair....makes me think that perhaps, it is just less hassle for her to have the kid asleep on the gurney instead of dealing with wide awake kids who are scared and possibly in pain.
 
You may be right there. I was quite surprised when she said it to be honest but I just dismissed it immediatley so did not even have a conversation about the costs involved - I can tell you that if she had quoted me anywhere near the price she quoted you I would have been the one passed out in her office!
 
thanks carang, i will take a look around my neighborhood and see if they have a pediatric dentist around here!!!
 
Hi, so with all the things going on, i finally got took baby around the neighborhood dentists and enquired at 5-6 of them. most said that since it's baby teeth, they don't think it's necessary to do anything with it as the permanent teeth will come in anyways (this is what our doctor said too, but he's not a dentist!)

two suggested i go to a paediatric dentist as my son probably needs major cleaning and therefore will need to undergo general aneasthetic, which i am really uneasy about. Oddly, both gave me namecards to the SAME paediatric dentist, and i just wanted to ask on here if anyone has experience with her and whether you know what her fees are?

Dr. Celine Cheong, Children's Dentist Clinic, in Causeway Bay.

Does anyone have experience with 2 years old undergoing general anaesthetic?

Cara, I wanted to take him to bangkok for CNY (dentist plus visiting family) but it's just too expensive!!!
 
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