Dai Bing, BYBO Dental Group Expands Clinic’s International Team

Imagine you have a toothache. So you visit a dentist, who refers you to a gum specialist, who then refers you to an oral surgeon. By now you’ve been to three doctors at three offices, and also have a headache.

Where in Beijing can an expat find a dentist who does it all? With an expanding team of international doctors and hygienists, Dr. Dai Bing of BYBO Dental Group says his CBD clinic is now offering streamlined “American standard” treatment, the kind that foreigners expect and receive back home. This growth at BYBO’s headquarters comes during the most productive period for China’s private dental industry. Never before has demand been so high for new dental equipment and advanced medical services.

Dr. Dai Bing discusses the latest advances in dentistry

“Right now in big cities like Beijing, the level of dentistry is catching up pretty fast,” says Bing, who joined BYBO as chief dentist and chief medical officer in April. “But there are not a lot of dental clinics serving the international community. I want to change that so our patients have more choices.”

Expat patients living in China who seek the quality oral care they get back home – routine cleanings, teeth extraction, implants, root canals – often don’t know where to find a dentist, Bing says. To stand apart from public providers and hospitals, he adds, BYBO’s general dentists serve as the gatekeepers who work to coordinate comprehensive oral care for patients under the same roof.

Otherwise, in the case of dental treatment from public providers, “either one doctor tries to be a hero and do everything by themselves, or he ignores the problem and brushes it off; both cases are bad,” Bing says. “In China, a stomatologist divides treatment into so many subspecialties that they put the pressure on the patient to identify which specialist to visit. Here, we have teams of professionals who take care of the overall oral health of our patients.”

Dr. Bing working with a patient

Private providers like BYBO currently represent a smaller share of China’s dentistry market, but bring in a large proportion of the dental industry’s revenue. Growth is exploding in private practice thanks to recent private capital investment. In the past few years, BYBO has rapidly expanded, opening some 200 clinics in China and employing about 6,000 people.

Founded in Shenzhen in 1993, BYBO was the first medical group to join the Chinese Stomatological Association of the World Dental Federation, which advocates for international dentistry.

The recent surge in China’s demand for oral care reflects the influx of students who decide to pursue dentistry. The number of registered dentists in China tripled between 2010 and 2013, according to a recent KPMG report. Those findings also predict that 42,000 dental-care providers will be operating in China by 2020.

In a country where 560 million people have tooth decay, the level of dental care has been lagging behind for a very long time. Only very recently have many Chinese patients realized that comprehensive dental care, including deep cleanings and tooth implants, can improve their quality of life, Bing says. After generations of not prioritizing their oral hygiene, Chinese patients are finally addressing their bad breath and bleeding gums and seeking quality oral care like never before.

At BYBO this year, Bing has hired and trained English-speaking international dentists and hygienists from the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and South Korea. Over the long term, he says, the clinic will compete with overworked public dental providers by offering better services and accepting all types of insurance coverage.

Dr. Dai Bing, chief dentist and chief medical officer at BYBO Dental Group

Bing was born in Chengdu, and graduated from Sichuan University’s West China Center of Medical Sciences with a bachelor’s degree in dental surgery. He earned his master’s at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and graduated as a general dentist from Boston University’s Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine.

When Bing returned home in 2016, he led the dental department at Beijing United Family Hospital. One advantage of specialized private dental chain like BYBO, he says, is how the chain’s many locations enable more doctors to see more patients.

“It’s not all about the medicine; it’s all about the people,” Bing says. “They become your partner. The patient-doctor relationship should be a partnership. When we are partners, we understand each other. Once we establish trust with our patients and they see the results, they will come back.”

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BYBO Dental (CBD branch)
2/F, Vanke Metropolis, 10a Dongsahuan Zhonglu, Chaoyang District (6568 8827)
朝阳区东三环中路甲10号万科大都会2层

This post is provided by BYBO Dental Group

Photos courtesy of BYBO Dental Group