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

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

#41

Post by a2tech »

matsemann wrote: post #12

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…

Dentists are trying VERY hard to get included under standard medical insurance in the US. If you think they're scammy now, wait until they can start billing your insurance. People with insurance are often divorced from the cost of services rendered so they'll really be able to reap profit then.

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

#42

Post by warent »

SamBam wrote: post #38
warent wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

And to extend your analogy, instead of the grandmother talking to a helpful expert, all the information they are given comes from BitCoin salesmen, and she's expected to "do her own research."

Side effects may include losing all your money, but those side effects are like really really rare

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

#43

Post by seanmcdirmid »

matsemann wrote: post #12

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…

Dentists don’t remove wisdom teeth, they just refer you to an oral surgeon. The problem with wisdom teeth is that they increase maintenance requirements, it’s hard to clean back there and they can affect adjacent teeth if they do go bad. So I get why many dentists default suggest to remove them (I still have mine but recently started running into problems at 47).

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

#44

Post by acheron »

petesergeant wrote: post #7

> 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…

> 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.

This is true.

> and "reddit.com" as a suffix pretty good for anything else.

LOL. Our definitions of "high quality" are apparently different.

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

#46

Post by SamBam »

snemvalts wrote: post #36

The biggest problem with Google and medicine are the summary boxes and QA widgets up top, matching a search term to an excerpt. It's hilariously bad, it pulls misleading info out of context. It is probably responsible for more than zero deaths worldwide.

It's really weird. One of the widget boxes rephrases some of your search into explicit questions, and then the result is an out-of-context snippet that is definitely not answering the question.

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

#47

Post by b112 »

warent wrote: post #27
donatj wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

"What's and adblocker" - my Grandma.

Well, you know a phone book? And, you know how if you want to phone someone, you tend to look up their number in a phone book?

"Yes"

Well, computers are the same. They only know numbers, they're computers after all, and DNS maps the names you see for websites, to numbers, so computers can find the website.

"Uh, OK"

The adblocker I am going to install, makes it impossible for the computer to see the numbers for advetisers. It can't find them in its phone book any more. So, no ads!

Now grandma understands how DNS works, and what some adblockers do.

Some things are not as technically complex as we think they are.

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

#48

Post by brightball »

donatj wrote: post #17
matsemann wrote: post #12

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…

I went to a new dentist for a broken filling and they tried to tell me I had 14 cavities and set me down with a finance person to set up a payment plan for how I was going to pay for them over the next 5 years. I went to a second dentist, they fixed the broken filling and said my teeth were otherwise fine. I have the paperwork to back this up. I’d been seeing another dentist for a while and he suddenly wanted to crow…

This was my experience as well. I went to the same dentist office for years with no issues. He sold the practice so we went to the new guy...every single time we went in there was a cavity that needed to be filled.

Went to a new dentist and everything is fine again.

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

#49

Post by matsemann »

karencarits wrote: post #33
matsemann wrote: post #12

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…

Article: https://www.nrk.no/trondelag/hvor-ofte-ma-du-ga-til-tannlege... "Gjessing visited eight dentists. * Five found no holes. * One found a hole. * One found two holes. * One found three holes. * Three removed tartar. * One recommended brace for 2500 kroner and a new appointment. ... Memo visited six dentists. * Three thought everything looked good. * Two recommended replacing fillings. * One found two holes and…

The last one also got tartar removed at all dentists according to the article. Probably him I was thinking of.

Wonder if this is the original I was thinking about, from 10 years ago. Crazy difference in what they get recommended based on the dentist. https://www.aftenposten.no/norge/i/kJqKj/samme-tenner-helt-f...

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

#50

Post by wheybags »

warent wrote: post #27
donatj wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I had a sugery for a common issue performed, as it happens, by the ex head of some surgeons union type organisation in my country (Ireland). The established technique has an uncommon but not so uncommon tendency to have issues where you just dont heal properly. I was unlucky and I didn't heal. I spent a year being tended by various nurses and reviews etc etc and when I finally started to research it myself I found there was a new far better surgical method available, but the guy who did my surgery was old and hadn't kept up to date. I found a surgeon who specialised in the new method and I was fully healed and done forever in a couple of months.

They might be an expert, but it's your (literal) skin in the game.

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