Do Vietnam Dental Clinics Charge
More for Foreigners?

The direct answer: yes, it exists, but not everywhere

Dual pricing, where international patients pay more than local patients for the same treatment, exists in parts of the Vietnamese service economy including some healthcare facilities. This is not unique to Vietnam. Similar practices appear in tourist-heavy markets worldwide.

The justification clinics give typically includes the cost of English-speaking staff, the provision of international patient coordination services, airport pickup, hotel liaison, and the assumption that foreign patients are more willing to pay Western-equivalent prices even in a lower-cost country.

Some of those costs are real. English-speaking coordinators, international patient concierge services, and extended consultation times do carry genuine overhead. Whether those costs justify significantly higher base treatment prices is a separate question and varies considerably by clinic.

What is not defensible is a simple nationality-based premium applied to the base cost of clinical treatment: the same root canal, the same crown material, the same implant system, priced differently because of where your passport was issued. That is what I would call discriminatory dual pricing, and it is the practice many international patients are reasonably worried about.

Why Picasso Dental Clinic uses uniform pricing

Since opening in 2013, Picasso has operated with one price list. A Vietnamese university student and an Australian retiree pay the same 7,000,000 VND for a Zirconia crown. A Vietnamese professional and a British patient pay the same 40,000,000 VND for a single Nobel Biocare implant including the crown. The treatment is the same. The materials are the same. The price is the same.

This is not a marketing claim. Our fee schedules are published. Any prospective patient can request a quote, and Vietnamese patients at our clinics pay the same figures as international patients requesting quotes through our international patient program.

Uniform pricing also simplifies operations considerably. We do not maintain separate price lists, run complex nationality-detection workflows at the front desk, or face the awkward conversations that come when two patients discover they were quoted different prices for the same procedure.

How to identify dual pricing before you commit

The most direct method is simply to ask: "Do you charge the same prices to Vietnamese patients and international patients for identical treatments?" A clinic that practices uniform pricing answers this question without hesitation. A clinic that evades, qualifies excessively, or becomes visibly uncomfortable with the question warrants more scrutiny.

• Ask for written itemised estimates Request a written price breakdown for your specific procedures. Reputable clinics provide this before any commitment. Vague verbal quotes with no written follow-up are a caution signal.
• Cross-check with a Vietnamese contact If you have a Vietnamese acquaintance or colleague, ask them to request pricing for the same procedure at the same clinic. Comparing the two quotes directly reveals whether the clinic prices consistently. An honest clinic quotes the same figures to both inquirers.
• Read Vietnamese-language reviews alongside English reviews Vietnamese-language Google reviews, forums, and social media often mention prices. If Vietnamese reviewers consistently describe affordable treatment while international reviewers comment on high costs for the same procedures, dual pricing is likely occurring.
• Check whether the clinic publishes its fee schedule Clinics with nothing to hide typically publish their pricing. A single publicly available price list that does not differentiate by patient nationality is a positive indicator of transparent practice.

What legitimately explains price differences between clinics

Not every price difference between two clinics is dual pricing. Different clinics genuinely have different cost structures. A clinic in a prime district of Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City pays substantially more in rent than a clinic in a residential suburb. A clinic using imported Nobel Biocare implants has higher material costs than one using domestic components. A clinic with specialists who trained abroad commands higher fees reflecting that investment.

These cost differences are real and apply equally to all patients. What distinguishes legitimate pricing from discriminatory dual pricing is that legitimate factors do not vary by nationality. If the same treatment with the same materials costs more because of where you were born, that is dual pricing. If it costs more because the clinic is in a premium location with premium materials and specialist staff, that is legitimate price differentiation.

The value proposition even at fair prices

International patients sometimes ask whether, even at uniform fair pricing, treatment in Vietnam represents genuinely good value. The answer is yes, by a very large margin, and for structural reasons that are not going away.

Vietnamese clinic operating costs are a fraction of Australian, British, or American equivalents. Rent, staff salaries, utilities, and regulatory compliance costs are all significantly lower in Vietnam. These are not quality compromises. They are macroeconomic realities. A Vietnamese clinic dentist with equivalent training and experience to an Australian counterpart simply costs less to employ because the cost of living and salary benchmarks in Vietnam are different.

The same Nobel Biocare implant system, the same Emax ceramic material, the same Lava Plus crown costs a fraction of the Western-market price at Picasso not because we are cutting corners but because our overhead is genuinely lower. A single Zirconia crown at 7,000,000 VND (approximately $280 USD) involves the same materials and lab process as a crown charged at AUD $1,800 in Sydney. The savings are structural, not quality-based.

For full pricing detail, see our dental costs overview. For the international patient experience, see our international patients page.

Our commitment since 2013

We have treated patients from 65 countries alongside Vietnamese locals for over a decade. The consistent feedback from international patients who later ask our Vietnamese patients about their experience is that the pricing is exactly the same. That is the outcome of a deliberate policy, not coincidence.

Transparency builds trust across visits. Many of our international patients have returned two, three, or four times over the years. Several bring family members. That kind of repeat relationship does not develop when patients later discover they were overcharged relative to local patients. Uniform pricing is foundational to the way we operate.