Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/04/18/open-wide.html
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The longform is well worth the time. Scared the ever-living hell out of me.
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I feel this way about auto repair as well. And most mechanics can’t hide behind student debt.
I feel this way about hospital charges as well.
I feel this way about medical testing at my GP many times as well.
I feel this way about prescription drug prices as well.
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Is the answer not to just pay them a salary, rather than paying them like wild-west anti-cavity gunslingers?
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My dentist pushed a “root scaling” procedure that I was hesitant to accept. I finally did, and my mouth has felt more uncomfortable ever since.
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Confirms my suspicion the dentists are like the body shops of medicine. They just kind of of suck off of what the insurance companies will pay for and try to get you do unnecessary things. Like when I was told I needed my wisdom teeth out “Just because they might cause trouble some day.”
Or when my kids’ dentist tried to sell us on this plastic coating for their teeth (which we declined since we didn’t really like the idea of having plastic in their mouths). Dentist seemed shocked that we didn’t want to do it especially since our insurance would pay it with no out-of-pocket so why not?
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My ex-wife’s dentist when she was a child insisted that “children did not feel pail like adults” so whenever he found a cavity he would just yank the tooth. Her brother grew up with a total fear of dentists, and would not go in for treatment even though the teeth in his mouth were rotting out. Eventually he lived on beer and milk, and died young.
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I like it when they do their exams with an oral camera, and you can see what they’re looking at, and they explain to you what is on the display. The person I go to does this, and I haven’t needed any work done in years.
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I came to share my experiences of over treatment in my youth (ironically in the UK in the 1970s).
But I will say that I was also told for many years that I should have my remaining two wisdom teeth removed “just in case” and like you I called bullshit on this. Until one got infected - and now as a 50 year old with a very infected wisdom tooth causing me major pain and inability to open my jaw more than 2cm. neither my health or my dental insurance wanted to pay for the procedure. I shopped around for literally months (losing 30 pounds in the process as I could barely eat) and finally flew to Minneapolis where a newly graduated deal surgeon agreed to take me on as a patient and pulled the tooth and cleaned up the infection.
If I had the benefit of hindsight, I would have had that wisdom tooth removed before it caused trouble, but maybe I was just unlucky and that 10% “just in case” chance came true. Now I have one orphan wisdom tooth and wonder if that needs to come out before an infection sets in
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When I was a kid I was taken to see an orthodontist, for reasons, and surprisingly, he said I needed braces. I had heard legends about how painful braces are, and so I asked, “just for cosmetic reasons, or is something wrong?” He admitted, “just cosmetic reasons,” and I noped right out of there.
Ever since, I have had (occasional) compliments on my nice straight teeth.
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I like my dentist a lot but in recent years have gotten the sense that he and his staff are trying to push add-on procedures. Most recently it was a laser based-treatment that, over the course of two years, went from $500 a session (which I was definitely not going for) to about $50 a session (probably because other patients weren’t going for it either). I did it once, but let them know I’d have to see serious results to get it every visit as they intially suggested.
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I’ve been really lucky. I went to the same dentist I had as a kid, and he always told me I had “boring teeth”. When he retired, his son took over the practice, and replaced maybe 2 fillings in 10 years. I moved and my new dentist recommended putting crowns on some really old, like 45 year old, really large fillings and my insurance covered it, so I did get talked into it. He did a root canal only after my tooth actually started hurting. No one has ever pushed anything on me, not whitening or any other service.
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Wow that sucks. I didn’t share the rather lame and silly justifications the dentist gave me when I pushed back a little on the subject, which raised my suspicions.
Suffice it to say your story succeeded in freaking me out a bit regardless.
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I’m a dental assistant and I’ve seen this stuff first hand. Any doctor that doesn’t explicitly show you the problem on the x-ray in a clear manner probably ripping you off. I’ve had patients come in and tell me that our office is the first they’ve been to that even points out where the work is on the x-rays
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I suspect I’m very much the edge case.
I had the first two wisdom teeth taken out when I was 20. I had the third removed at 53 - so I had 33 good years and I suspect there were signs that a better dentist could have seen that would have prevented the infection getting as bad as it did.
I guess my advice would be that if you get pain in that area, jump on getting help for it sooner rather than later
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I remember the first dentist my mom took me to. After pocking around with a sickle probe, he told my mom that he had “discovered” eight cavities. Let’s just say she was very audibly incredulous. She took me to another dentist; two cavities.
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