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The 'Irrational' Way Humans Interact With Dentists

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Re: The 'Irrational' Way Humans Interact With Dentists

#51

Post by Someone »

olefoo wrote: post #39
stellar678 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just crowdsource the reading! It would be really interesting to check out the aggregated quality of this kind of technique.

If by crowdsource you mean have multiple dentists look at every image set, then maybe. But if you're suggesting that a random selection of people look at dental x-rays and guess where the cavities are... that would be an interesting experiment, but I wouldn't expect too much. In either case, I doubt you'd find much traction since looking at dental x-rays isn't something most people are going to want to do on a regula…

Such compensation need not be financial. I can see a market brokering between people in the same boat "if you look at my x-Ray, I'll look at yours."

First, however, you would have to find out whether lay people are any good at this task.

Re: The 'Irrational' Way Humans Interact With Dentists

#52

Post by alister »

This article further confirms the ridiculousness of asking friends and co-workers to recommend a dentist. I do trust friends and co-workers to recommend movies or restaurants because most people have seen hundreds of movies and eaten at hundreds of restaurants. Both most people have had only 1 or 2 dentists in their entire lives. They have no basis of comparison to say whether their dentist is any good.

You might as well choose randomly from a phone book. That's what I did when I moved to a new city. Actually I looked for dentists that were close to me, that spoke English natively (I live in a very cosmopolitan city), whose dental degrees were more than 5 years ago (gained experience) but less than 20 years (not outdated), and whose staff were pleasant and prompt on the phone (on the theory that the behavior of the staff will reflect the character of the boss).

Thus I picked my dentist without a recommendation and without meeting or speaking with him, but I think my method is less arbitrary than asking your friends and co-workers. (And yes, I do wish there was a better way.)

Re: The 'Irrational' Way Humans Interact With Dentists

#53

Post by kmfrk »

I would be short of two teeth, if my mom hadn't had the resolve to get me a new dentist, just as the newly hired one began getting all sorts of weird ideas.

I was only there one time, and no harm was done, and no teeth were removed, but you can recognize many kids my from my city by them missing one or two teeth. I don't really know what to think of that, but it sounds like something straight out of a wicked story. I guess it is a wicked story.

Teeth are the most difficult part of your body to maintain, which makes it all the more awful considering how proportionally dependant you are on dentists compared to other experts you need regularly.

I was never afraid of dentists, because I was there to keep my teeth healthy (and as they always were, I didn't try nor fear a cavity and subsequent drill), but if I didn't have a dentist I loved dearly, I would probably shudder at the thought of them doing a sloppy job.

Re: The 'Irrational' Way Humans Interact With Dentists

#54

Post by CountHackulus »

timcederman wrote: post #30
jojopotato wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any pointers on what to avoid?

The main areas I evaluate are: - technique (one of the most important, but generally difficult to interpret without some tuition. However some good indicators are time spent in mouth during procedures, how prepared is the dentist (hunting for tools is worrisome), level of pain, number of times work has had to be fixed) - hygiene (appropriate glove changing, mask, tool use and sterilization). The most obvious things I…

> - hygiene (appropriate glove changing, mask, tool use and sterilization). The most obvious things I notice are whether tools are coming out of sterilization bags and being placed on a sanitized surface. Does the dentist return a tool that's been in your mouth back to the sanitized surface?

Just for clarification, that tool SHOULD be going back to the sanitized surface correct?

Re: The 'Irrational' Way Humans Interact With Dentists

#55

Post by aplusbi »

I just recently got dental insurance again and now I'm kind of wondering how I should choose my dentist.

I was going to a dental school for treatment which meant that I was being treated by students under the supervision of dentists. They don't have a financial incentive to find cavities and everything is checked by two dentists.

It's possible that they have an academic incentive to find cavities (more practice for example) but at least two dentists have to agree with their assessment before they continue.

Unfortunately they don't accept insurance and my insurance company is kind of a pain when it comes to out-of-network dentists.

Re: The 'Irrational' Way Humans Interact With Dentists

#57

Post by cdr »

ars wrote: post #46
jerf wrote: post #20

There seems to be a massive disparity in techniques and tools, too, though I am reporting only anecdotally. I recently got dental insurance again after a long time, and for better or worse started going to a dentist again. I picked him via "since I have no other metric to use I might as well pick the closest that takes my insurance". Somehow I stumbled onto an older guy with a lot of experience but who has also kept…

That seems to be "Laser Fluorescence Cavity Detection", brand name "DIAGNOdent" (for all the people asking where to find him, I guess you can ask for this by name). But it's not a perfect system - detection is about 80% to 90%, http://jdr.sagepub.com/content/83/suppl_1/C80/T1.expansion.h...

80% to 90% sounds massively better than x-ray.

Re: The 'Irrational' Way Humans Interact With Dentists

#58

Post by ubernostrum »

ugh wrote: post #37
protomyth wrote: post #19

A dentist is the closest thing most of us get to a cosmetic surgeon. They can have a large effect on our appearance and have procedures that will probably cause us the most pain out of anything the normal person has done to them. Plus, they hold up an x-ray and say "This is..." not "This might be...". You really owe it to yourself to get a good look at who is doing the work. As an example, as a child I was under gove…

“Plus, they hold up an x-ray and say ‘This is …’ not ‘This might be …’.” Ha! My dentist actually said ‘This might be …’ as we looked together at a X-ray. He said that we could be looking at very, very early caries or just a shadow and that X-ray images are always tricky. I will be X-rayed again at the next routine checkup to see if anything has changed. Incidentally, how common are X-rays in the US? It sounds like th…

Standard practice here in the US is a full mouth x-ray about once every 12-18 months, because that's what insurance will pay for.

(and my dentist is the same way -- he'll sit down with an x-ray and sometimes photos as well, and go over "OK, this might be the beginning of a cavity, or it might just be a stain from drinking tea/coffee...")

Re: The 'Irrational' Way Humans Interact With Dentists

#59

Post by aaronbrethorst »

Now that I'm contracting and have to pay for dental care out of pocket, I've been thinking that the next time I go to a dentist, I'm going to tell them up front that I am only there to see them for cleaning and x-rays, and that I will be taking their results to another dentist for drilling and filling.

This interview just reaffirms my total lack of trust. It's like going to an auto mechanic. Setting aside notions of customer loyalty and karma, and what would happen if word ever got out, the auto mechanic maximizes their revenue by screwing over their customer.

"Well, of course they're trying to screw you. What do you think? That's what they do. They can make up anything. Nobody knows. 'By the way, you need a new Johnson rod in there.' 'Oh, a Johnson rod. Yeah, well, you better put one of those on.'"

http://www.seinfeldscripts.com/TheFusilliJerry.htm

Re: The 'Irrational' Way Humans Interact With Dentists

#60

Post by sjf »

ars wrote: post #42

Why fill a cavity so early? Why not wait till it's a bit more obvious? I don't mean wait till it's so bad you need a root canal, just till it's not a "maybe".

In don't know if this is typical, but I've never gotten a toothache before it was time for a root canal.
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