High dental charges force residents to seek treatment across the border

Removing a single wisdom tooth can run to several thousand dollars and even filling one tooth costs close to a thousand, while the same procedures on the mainland often cost only a third as much, so more and more locals would rather head north to clean and fill their teeth. Local consumers report that public dental services have long waiting times and cumbersome arrangements for appointment locations and dates, so ordinary residents simply cannot get a slot, with those able to use the service largely belonging to specific occupational groups, leaving private clinics as most people's only option, and private charges keep climbing under high rents and equipment costs.

At the same time, the public system has over a hundred dentist vacancies and a turnover rate rising sharply year on year, with young dentists under 35 making up an extremely high share of those resigning, reflecting the declining appeal of pay and career prospects. The government, on one hand, brings in non-locally-trained dentists and relaxes language requirements to fill vacancies, and on the other requires newly graduated local dentists to serve a set term at designated institutions, but neither touches the core issues of high charges and difficult waits.

Caught in the double squeeze of a private market entering a winter as patients are diverted across the border, and a public system that struggles to expand, ordinary residents' dental spending and treatment choices are being continually compressed.