Over the last few years Thailand has become a hub for medical tourists from all around Asia and the rest of the world. Medical tourism has existed for centuries – people from less developed countries traveled to more advanced places to see a dentist, for cosmetic or plastic surgery and for general health checks and surgery. Think of all the rich and famous who still travel to the US for their medical needs. While places like the US are still attractive for the mega rich, general traffic patterns have changed. Countries like Thailand have caught up with the development of medical science in the west and have at the same time been able to maintain their higher service levels and their considerably lower prices.

The Thai medical education system is based on the US model. King Bhumipol’s father, Prince Mahidol, had earned a medical degree from Harvard University and made it his life’s work to modernize the healthcare system in Thailand. During his time he convinced the Rockefeller Foundation to fund an American medical education for a group of Thai men and women. These men and women became the nucleus of the Thai healthcare education system.

Key factors contributing to Thailand’s development into a global hub for medical tourism:

• Many foreigners have made Thailand their home and began to spread the word about Thai medical services
• Early success enabled investment in world-class medical equipment and technology
• International accreditation of Thai hospitals
• High numbers of internationally trained, English-speaking Thai doctors
• Exorbitant healthcare costs in western countries
• Long waiting lists for surgery in countries with government regulated healthcare
• Low service levels in countries with nationalized health care
• Plane tickets to Thailand have become more affordable
• Thailand’s reputation as the Land of Smiles: friendly people, superb beaches and fantastic food.

More and more people from the US, Europe and higher cost Asian locations like Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore are traveling to Thailand to see a dentist, have LASIK and plastic or cosmetic surgery. In the year 2006 Thailand welcomed more than 1.2 million medical tourists and the medical tourism industry keeps growing at 20 – 30% per year.

Currently medical tourists and expatriates are showing interest in elective procedures such as dental implants, new bridges and crowns for their teeth, dental veneers, laser teeth whitening, some come for complete dental makeovers. LASIK refractive eye surgery, cosmetic surgery procedures like face lift of rhytidectomy, rhinoplasty or nose jobs, otoplasty or ear surgery, eyelid surgery or blepharoplasty, liposuction, tummy tucks, breast augmentation or mammaplasty and breast lifts or mastopexy. Especially from the USA, where many are not insured at all or underinsured or from countries like Canada, where a national health insurance exists but has for many procedures lead to unacceptably long waiting lists, patients also fly in for more serious procedures: They look for cardiac bypass surgery in Thailand, gastric bypass surgery in Phuket, knee replacements and complete hip replacements in Bangkok.

While Bangkok offers the greatest choice for most types of dental, plastic and cosmetic surgery, the MediThai website also carries information on hospitals and clinics in Phuket, Pattaya, Chiang Mai and Koh Samui.

MediThai features reviews of most of Thailand’s best hospitals and clinics. Special attention is given to best-in-class facilities like the Bumrungrad Internaional hospital, the Bangkok Hospital, the Bangkok International Dental Center or BIDC, the Samitivey Hospital and the TRSC International LASIK Center. Others covered are Bangkok Hospital Pattaya, the Bangkok Nursing Home or BNH Hospital, Silom Dental Building, Thantakit Dental Clinic, Bangkok Dental Spa, Promjai Dental Clinic, Phuket Dental Care Clinic, Samui International Hospital, TRSC in Phuket and Pattaya, Laser Vision and the Rutnin-Gimbel Excimer Laser Eye Center.

MediThai is for you, if you are looking for a dentist in Bangkok or other parts of Thailand. It is also for you if you are looking for the best places for LASIK in Thailand. Or if you need more information about your options regarding cosmetic surgery in Thailand.

MediThai is a completely independent information provider: We are not affiliated with any hospital in Thailand or other parts of the world or with any company organizing trips to Thailand for patients from abroad. Because of our independence MediThai can publish positive as well as negative experience reports without conflict of interests.

We hope you can benefit from our website and, since it's content is as good as the contributions we receive, we also hope that you can share your personal experience with us for the benefit of all those, who come after you.