Healthcare & Hospitals
Dental Care in Chiang Mai for Foreigners
A guide to dental treatment in Chiang Mai for expats and visitors — recommended clinics, typical prices, dental-tourism notes and what to expect.
5 min read
Why people fly here for this
Dental care is one of the few areas where Chiang Mai isn’t just cheaper than the West but competitive on quality too. The city has a dense cluster of well-equipped clinics, a large foreign patient base, and dentists who are entirely used to explaining treatment plans in English.
The result is that a six-month cleaning becomes something you actually do rather than something you postpone, and work you’d been putting off for years suddenly becomes affordable. This guide sits under our healthcare hub, alongside the hospital and insurance coverage.
What things cost
Approximate ranges at established Chiang Mai clinics. Prices vary by clinic and complexity.
| Treatment | Typical price (THB) |
|---|---|
| Consultation and X-ray | 300–800 |
| Scale and polish | 800–1,500 |
| Composite filling | 800–2,000 |
| Root canal | 6,000–15,000 |
| Porcelain crown | 10,000–20,000 |
| Implant (post + crown) | 45,000–90,000 |
| Whitening | 6,000–15,000 |
| Extraction | 1,000–3,000 |
Compare a crown at 15,000 THB here against several times that in the UK, US or Australia and the arithmetic of dental tourism becomes obvious. Most policies treat dental as an optional extra, which our guide to expat health insurance covers in more detail.
Choosing a clinic
Chiang Mai has three broad types:
Hospital dental departments. Bangkok Hospital and Chiangmai Ram both have dental units. Highest prices, most institutional environment, easiest if you want everything under one medical roof.
Established private clinics. The sweet spot for most residents and visitors. Modern equipment, English-speaking dentists, transparent price lists, and enough foreign patients that the process is smooth.
Neighbourhood practices. Cheapest, often excellent for simple work, less likely to have English-language support or online booking.
What to look for when choosing:
- Clear, published pricing rather than quotes given verbally
- Digital X-ray and modern equipment
- A dentist who will explain options rather than only recommend the most expensive one
- Willingness to give you a written treatment plan before starting
- Recent, specific feedback from other patients rather than generic reviews
Planning a dental trip
If you’re coming specifically for treatment, plan the timeline backwards from the lab work.
- Cleanings and simple fillings: a single visit
- Root canal: typically two to three visits over one to two weeks
- Crown: two visits, usually a week or so apart
- Implants: multiple visits over several months, with healing time between stages
- Full-mouth work: discuss the schedule before booking flights
The common mistake is arriving with ten days and an implant plan. Get an initial consultation and a written plan first, ideally by email with X-rays sent ahead, then book the trip around it.
Get the treatment plan in writing
A written plan listing each procedure and its price protects you from scope creep and gives you something to compare between clinics. Reputable Chiang Mai clinics provide this as standard.
For residents
If you live here, the practical routine is simple: a scale and polish every six months, X-rays annually, and deal with anything flagged immediately rather than waiting.
At these prices there’s no financial reason to defer dental work, which is genuinely one of the better quality-of-life differences between living in Chiang Mai and living somewhere expensive.