I found dental care both fairly expensive and painful. I was fortunate in having a dentist who had studied in Germany and spoke vey good German. How-ever, it turned out that she was the head dentist, and the dentist and staff who actually worked on my wisdom tooth spoke no German and less English than I spoke Mongolian (i.e., not much). That was three years ago. The tooth has given me no trouble since then. I wanted to have my teeth cleaned, but the cost to have even any one tooth cleaned was more than the cost to have all of my teeth cleaned in Korea, where I had health insurance. This was in UB.
My Mongolian co-workers, who were federal employees, said they never used their medical insurance and didn't recommend that I get it. They said they paid directly for their medical care instead. I can't remember the reason or reasons they gave, but they were of one opinion.
When I had to have surgery (in UB)., I chose a hospital that had a partnership, so I thought, based on the name, with a Korean university. How-ever, no one spoke Korean, and very few of the staff, except for the head nurse of my ward, spoke more than a few set phrases in English. It was a bit scary. The facilities were "adequate," but not sparkling by any means. The surgery seems to have been done fairly well, but getting information was difficult. I was assisted by my boss, who speaks fluent English but obviously couldn't be with me all the time. The surgery was very inexpensive.
I am no longer in Mongolia and would like to return (except to the smog of UB), but hesitate due to my concerns about having surgery or other hospitalization.
