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Google almost convinced me to spend $400 on useless laser treatments

blog.tjcx.me

21–30 of 438 posts

Re: Google almost convinced me to spend $400 on useless laser treatments

#21
post #10

This is the kind of marketing-driven content I can actually get behind, not joking. Glacier MD at least has the problem right.

What's to stop Glacier from becoming the same as Google for the same reasons? That's a mountain of med ad cash on the table.

Dignity and resolve to their mission statement are what prevent it.

Not exactly a strong hand to bet on, but it's better than nothing.

Re: Google almost convinced me to spend $400 on useless laser treatments

#22
post #14

> Laser bacterial reduction (LBR) is just one example of the many high-stakes medical decisions Whether or not to drop $400 is not a "high-stakes medical decision". Also, expecting Google to give you high-quality medical advice when your actual, licensed, trained dental hygienest is not is asking a lot of a search engine. Personally I've found sticking "examine.com" on the end of most results to be very useful for an…

> Whether or not to drop $400 is not a "high-stakes medical decision". This just feels out-of-touch. $400 on a medical decision is a MASSIVE choice for many people -- it could be the difference between whether not they eat.

It could be a high stakes decision but perhaps not necessarily a high stakes medical decision?

Re: Google almost convinced me to spend $400 on useless laser treatments

#23
Btw these small brushes regularly applied _as instructed by professionals_ fixed this problem for me. I understand it can get really bad and can actually require more drastic measures.

https://www.tepeusa.com/collections/tepe-interdental-brushes...

(The brush is basically applied to the space between teeth and touching the gums, but see a pro please first.)

Re: Google almost convinced me to spend $400 on useless laser treatments

#24

Why are dentists so scammy? In Norway I've seen documentaries about them sending the same people to multiple dentists, and some of them receive wildly different advice. Some of that can be ascribed to some being in the school of pro-active, so they want to fix your teeth at the first glance of issues. But in the end, most of the things being quoted were unnecessary. They all seemed very intent on removing wisdom teet…

At least in the US its because dental insurance isn't part of normal health insurance. Dental insurance mostly just covers the bare bones (teeth?) treatments like regular cleanings and an xray every couple of years. SO in order for the Dentist to make money they ahve to upsell every other treatment not covered by insurance. With regulars health insurance the doc is payed for pretty much any specific treatment they deem necessary so they know they will be payed.

I think if we had the 'pay out of pocket' kind of thing for other health care we would see the same thing.

Re: Google almost convinced me to spend $400 on useless laser treatments

#25
post #5

I have found that dental clinics in the US can be some of the shadiest health related businesses you have to deal with. There are few independent clinics around. Most of them belong to huge corporate conglomerates that push down shady treatments like this, or offer predatory financing for these “treatments”. I’ve had only two instances of a health professional outright lying to me and telling me I had a health condit…

One thing I've found is that many doctors are willing to share the rationale for their decisions and recommendations if you question them on the state of the research. Some have even gone as far as to send me papers after we've met. Doctors in many cases are human body-nerds and are willing to talk with interested patients about their subject.

Doctors who won't justify themselves can often be avoided at least in medium-sized and larger urban areas.

The main observation is that in medicine you need to be your own advocate. The doctor is used to people who just want an answer or a cure. They're not going to break out the journals for every patient because most patients don't want that. This also goes for dentistry.

Re: Google almost convinced me to spend $400 on useless laser treatments

#26
post #14

> Laser bacterial reduction (LBR) is just one example of the many high-stakes medical decisions Whether or not to drop $400 is not a "high-stakes medical decision". Also, expecting Google to give you high-quality medical advice when your actual, licensed, trained dental hygienest is not is asking a lot of a search engine. Personally I've found sticking "examine.com" on the end of most results to be very useful for an…

> Whether or not to drop $400 is not a "high-stakes medical decision". This just feels out-of-touch. $400 on a medical decision is a MASSIVE choice for many people -- it could be the difference between whether not they eat.

I guess I tend to consider "high-stakes" in the context of medicine to mean life-or-death, and not prophylactic pre-gingivitis treatments.

Re: Google almost convinced me to spend $400 on useless laser treatments

#27
post #9
post #4

> In the pre-Szaszian era, medicine was something that happened to you. You would put your health in your doctor's hands and they would unilaterally decide your course of treatment. But in today's patient-centered world, doctors are more like consultants To be honest I've only seen this level of "patient-centered" stuff in the US. Never heard the phrase "Ask your doctor about xy" anywhere but on US TV. Sometimes pret…

I would personally rather be involved in the decision making process related to my very existence rather than just told what to do.

But why?

Imagine your grandmother who knows nothing about computers or tech asking you about GPUs and which programming language is best because she's curious about buying Bitcoin vs investing in Ethereum.

For someone who can't tell the difference between a screen saver and a computer virus, the discussion is meaningless, and only the illusion of control exists

Re: Google almost convinced me to spend $400 on useless laser treatments

#28
post #9
post #4

> In the pre-Szaszian era, medicine was something that happened to you. You would put your health in your doctor's hands and they would unilaterally decide your course of treatment. But in today's patient-centered world, doctors are more like consultants To be honest I've only seen this level of "patient-centered" stuff in the US. Never heard the phrase "Ask your doctor about xy" anywhere but on US TV. Sometimes pret…

I would personally rather be involved in the decision making process related to my very existence rather than just told what to do.

I mean, I do see where you're coming from, and I have in the past second guessed some medical advice and asked if they'd considered a particular diagnosis I had a hunch on.

On the other hand, they're a professional and they've usually spent the majority of their life training to be good at what they're advising you about. I don't demand to be involved in the design of planes I fly on or bridges I cross, because frankly I'd do a worse job than even a pretty bad qualified engineer.

Re: Google almost convinced me to spend $400 on useless laser treatments

#29
I had almost the exact same experience. Sitting in the chair prepped for a cleaning and the DH dives into this tale about “bad bacteria” and how if it gets into my stomach during the cleaning I could have all kinds of problems including heart disease and so on. Then the follow up treatment plan had other “beneficial” procedures not covered by insurance - platelet treatment to improve healing. I called the insurance company to ask about the plan and discovered the uncovered items were more than the actual procedure itself. The dentist wouldn’t negotiate or change to a code the insurance company recommended.
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