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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

#161

Post by ProjectArcturis »

vasco wrote: post #85
jnovek wrote: post #40

“ Medicine has become a three-way negotiation between you, your doctor, and The Algorithm.” This characterization makes it sound like a good thing. In reality, the doctor’s responsibility is being pushed to the patient because they are overbooked in the name of economic efficiency. As a patient with complex, non-specific medical condition, I can tell you how miserable this is. I can’t count on doctors _at all_ to mov…

Even if a doctor spends a bunch of time on you, you should still do research. End of the day you're the person that cares most about your health in the whole world, why should you just leave it to a random expert with good intentions? If you spend time researching and come to them with detailed information about your symptoms, what you already ruled out and things you've tried, as well as a good understanding of your…

Exactly. Your health is too important to be left to the doctors.

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

#163

Post by ErikVandeWater »

gtirloni wrote: post #93
jnovek wrote: post #40

“ Medicine has become a three-way negotiation between you, your doctor, and The Algorithm.” This characterization makes it sound like a good thing. In reality, the doctor’s responsibility is being pushed to the patient because they are overbooked in the name of economic efficiency. As a patient with complex, non-specific medical condition, I can tell you how miserable this is. I can’t count on doctors _at all_ to mov…

> Gatekeepers that block access to potential treatment pathways until you can convince them it’s worth a try. You assume they actually know what needs to be done. In my experience, you can see they don't have a clue and aren't willing to do research to learn. They just hand out their usual prescriptions, etc and sometimes hope an exam will give them an obvious answer. On top of that, most doctors only have a very nar…

> On top of that, most doctors only have a very narrow understanding of the human body and don't know when to refer you to some other doctor they will be better equipped to help you.

Are we talking about doctors, not nurse practitioners? It's hard to understand how a doctor with 4 years of medical school and 3-7 years of residency would have a "very narrow understanding" of the human body.

Also, my experience has been that I have always been referred to a specialist when there was any uncertainty about diagnosis or treatment. My trouble has come from them not following up when an RX is denied by insurance, and making it difficult to schedule a doctor's appointment due to not being able to transfer my previous information.

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

#164

Post by JRabo »

JRabo wrote: post #145
mort96 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is your point? Did the author write something which indicates they think Google is an ethical company?

The point is obvious but I'll spell it out for you using HIS own words. "Google almost convinced me to spend $400 on useless laser treatments". He presents himself as "in the know" because the year begins with "2" and anyone in the know would use Google to research an issue. LOL. HE then proceeds to place trust in an unethical company to give him information he needs to make a wise financial decision. Doh!

These are the same people who provide "free" CDNs, and that moronic developers use to ensure everyone's privacy is compromised.

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

#165

Post by unpythonic »

noasaservice wrote: post #100

The title is wrong: Dentist almost convinced me to spend $400 on useless laser treatments; Google results of search spam SEO cesspool

If you read through to the bottom, you'll see the article itself is just a call to action for yet another service which the author is starting. It's an ad. Seeing it buried so deep doesn't make me feel that the author has any better intentions than Google itself -- credibility already gone.

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

#166

Post by tomxor »

Unklejoe wrote: post #62
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 had a dentist appointment before COVID. They found a cavity and scheduled me to have a filling. Then, COVID hit and I cancelled the appointment. I went back two years later for another checkup/cleaning. They didn't find any cavities. Maybe it healed itself? Apparently that's possible via re-mineralization. Either way, if that was possible, then perhaps they shouldn't have been so eager to drill and fill?

To add to the confusion of the very real risk of immoral and unnecessary dental work mentioned elsewhere in this thread - xrays can be legitimately difficult to interpret when looking for small cavities.

Ideally you do want to get even small ones filled as a preventative measure. However IME trustworthy dentists will acknowledge the potential for false positives on less obvious xrays upfront and offer a choice of either probing the area with a very fine drill first or simply defer work altogether and monitor it on each check-up.

Point is, in your case it could be an untrustworthy dental practice (suggesting unnecessary procedures), or the original xray was ambiguous and there was never anything there, or the dentist was poor at interpreting it. Either way if it was that minor they should have made it clear - i'd recommend scepticism next time, feel free to interrogate them, they are doctors and usually welcome it... if they are unconvincing and defensive, go elsewhere.

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

#168

Post by mindslight »

brimble wrote: post #129
jnovek wrote: post #40

“ Medicine has become a three-way negotiation between you, your doctor, and The Algorithm.” This characterization makes it sound like a good thing. In reality, the doctor’s responsibility is being pushed to the patient because they are overbooked in the name of economic efficiency. As a patient with complex, non-specific medical condition, I can tell you how miserable this is. I can’t count on doctors _at all_ to mov…

Can confirm. They paint people who google symptoms as kooks or as annoying, but you have to if you ever want to get an actual diagnosis and treatment, because doctors and hospitals are, quite often, worse than Google at figuring out WTF is wrong. Do your best not to end up in a hospital without an advocate (friend, relative) watching out for you. They'll fail to treat you at best, then discharge you with a shrug and…

Doctors love to mockingly call this "Doctor Google" and reject anything mildly technical that you read on your own, even if you're just trying to have an open discussion and not push a diagnosis. I think the underlying dynamic is that doctors had one of the early monopolies on "knowledge work" and have never adapted their ways [0]. And so they're not used to having to engage with other's ideas, in stark contrast to the open collaboration we're used to in the engineering/scientific world.

[0] srsly if I'm understanding some recent hospital records correctly, they still mostly work by verbally dictating at subordinates who transcribe for them. And they spend most of that dictation simply reciting the patient's known condition. Compare with programming where the working set is openly displayed on the screen (modulo scrolling), and then our contribution is only that of making changes.

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

#169

Post by smileysteve »

joshowar wrote: post #66
donatj wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Its complicated. Technically speaking, if there's any decay in your teeth, that's a cavity. The deeper it is, the faster it'll get worse. When you want to get that filling though, is a judgement call that a lot of dentists make for you sadly. Is it best to go ahead and get those fillings now? Probably, as far as your dental health is concerned. Can it be delayed though and done later? Almost certainly. Just a bigger…

> Is it best to go ahead and get those fillings now? Probably, as far as your dental health is concerned.

Modern science says no, you should apply topical fluoride for most early cavities; and if the teeth use a modern pronamel (cough stuck behind USDA approval) should be able to recover quickly.

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

#170

Post by pc86 »

Bedon292 wrote: post #143
pc86 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That a chiropractor can relieve pain doesn't mean that chiropractics in the "medical" sense isn't a fraud. Imaging that shown the entire concept of "subluxations" in the chiropractic sense are a myth. I've gone to chiropractors for manipulations. Some even were able to bill my insurance (yet surprisingly the cash price was the same as my insurance copay, imagine that). But I treat it the same as getting a massage. It…

What do you mean by "subluxations" being a myth? Most of my back issues come from subluxation of the T2 vertebra. As shown by x-rays and physically being able to feel that is is out of alignment with the rest of the spine. Are you referring to those charts that say these are the random other symptoms you might have from alignment issues? Those definitely seem shady, and pseudoscience at best. Edit: Oh, I see. Overloa…

Yes, I just meant the chiropractic side. They're absolutely real and can be a problem medically. Chiros sort of co-opted it.
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