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I went to 50 different dentists: almost all gave a different diagnosis (1997)

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Re: I went to 50 different dentists: almost all gave a different diagnosis (1997)

#31

Post by CommieBobDole »

I've posted this before, but I went to a new dentist one time and though I'd never had a cavity, the new dentist said I had nine, some of which were pretty bad and needed immediate treatment lest they require a root canal. I didn't have any money or dental insurance at the time, so I didn't go back and just worried about it a lot for a while.

That was twenty-five years ago. Haven't been to a dentist since. My teeth are fine, and always have been.

Funny story about the 'no cavities' thing - when I was maybe 12 I went to a new dentist who found a cavity in a molar, drilled it out, and filled it with some sort of 'invisible' polymer filling and charged a whole bunch of money for it. Next dentist I went to, I mentioned the cavity and he said nobody had drilled on the tooth and there was no sign of a cavity or a filling of any type there.

Some years later, I was reading somewhere online and found out that the dentist who "filled" the "cavity" was a subscriber to a dental practice management program run by the Church of Scientology that, in part, taught that it was OK to rip off patients who weren't Scientologists. A few years after that, the dentist got arrested for molesting children and is probably still in prison.

Re: I went to 50 different dentists: almost all gave a different diagnosis (1997)

#32

Post by MattRix »

rossdavidh wrote: post #12

At the very end of the article: "This article originally ran in the February 1997 issue of Reader’s Digest." Surely this should be noted in the HN title?

Hah, that explains why all the quoted prices seem low compared to what they are now.

Re: I went to 50 different dentists: almost all gave a different diagnosis (1997)

#34

Post by whatever1 »

evmar wrote: post #19

My wife was shocked to learn in dental school how many people were there focused on the money. From her experience I learned that dentistry in particular is a profession that has a low investment / high payoff ratio. Relative to medical school dental school is easier to get into and shorter, and unscrupulous dentists can extract a lot of money out of patients. PS: I feel compelled to share her best advice re oral hyg…

Ok sample of N = 1, but here it goes.

Flossing daily was the single thing that imroved my dental hygiene more than anything else. Brushing, mouthwash, fluoride treatment, gum laser treatment, regular dentist visits, nothing worked. Still had bleeding gum, pain here and there, bad smell, unstopabble tooth decay.

In my mid 20-s I started flossing daily (even multiple times when I feel like food is stuck). Really my mouth problems all went away.

I wish someone had shown me in an earlier age the benefits. I would have saved a lot of my teeth.

Re: I went to 50 different dentists: almost all gave a different diagnosis (1997)

#35

Post by j45 »

CommieBobDole wrote: post #31

I've posted this before, but I went to a new dentist one time and though I'd never had a cavity, the new dentist said I had nine, some of which were pretty bad and needed immediate treatment lest they require a root canal. I didn't have any money or dental insurance at the time, so I didn't go back and just worried about it a lot for a while. That was twenty-five years ago. Haven't been to a dentist since. My teeth a…

What’s the saying.. At every meeting something is sold, either a reason why you’re buying, or a reason why you’re not buying.

Re: I went to 50 different dentists: almost all gave a different diagnosis (1997)

#36

Post by doubled112 »

unshavedyak wrote: post #27
bluescrn wrote: post #16

'While you've got good insurance, we can upgrade all your teeth now, before they get bad'? There may be stereotypes about the British having bad teeth, but I've never had a dentist try to milk my wallet like that despite a poor diet having done a fair bit of damage over the years. Dentistry here seems much more about doing the minimum necessary work to save teeth and relieve pain. The thought of getting crowns done e…

> I've only had one done, and it wasn't a fun experience - it's something I see as a last resort to save a tooth, certainly not something I'd want to go through for cosmetic improvements. What was "unfun" about it? I'm familiar with what they are, but not the pain-points (in the non-literal sense lol) of getting them.

For me at least, I’ve had freezing fail many times.

Once they begin, I believe you’re pretty much stuck there until the dentist is done, and that’s a lot of drilling.

Not looking forward to ever needing anything like that.

Re: I went to 50 different dentists: almost all gave a different diagnosis (1997)

#37

Post by prepend »

packetlost wrote: post #28
prepend wrote: post #15

This is the one place I like insurance because it at least gives some cost conscious perspective to proposed procedures. My insurance sucks but at least it’s useful that insurance considers optional what my dentist says is essential. For example, my dentist only does tooth colored fillings and my insurance doesn’t cover them. My dentist says the covered ones are unsafe. It’s a weird situation. My last dentist said I…

The thing about teeth and crowns is, it's fine until it isn't. I've actually had a molar collapse while eating almonds. It's honestly more traumatic than you'd think. Anyways, as a result I did a bunch of research and it turns out that crowns are important for reducing further damage to the root. A split down the the root is it for a tooth, and prosthetics are not a great replacement. My dentist gave me a price break…

I understand how crowns work.

My issue is that one dentist thought it was an emergency and it obviously isn’t. It’s not the optionality, it’s that one said it was not optional.

And that one dentist charged $3000 and one $1800. And they don’t have options. That is the only price they charge.

Re: I went to 50 different dentists: almost all gave a different diagnosis (1997)

#38

Post by prmph »

Does anyone know the best way to get proper diagnostics care for a possible tooth fracture without being given the run around and ripped off by dentists?

Whilst extracting my last wisdom tooth (in the US) the dentist must have made a bad mistake, because right after the procedure I couldn't bite down properly on the affected side on my mouth.

I went for years with this situation, and started experiencing occasional pain on that side. Whilst a teaching assistant the the University of Washington (UW), I used to visit UW Medicine for faculty, telling the dentists that I suspected a fracture (based on my research). However they would invariably just throw me off, claiming it was very hard to identify such cracks, it might not actually be a crack, etc.

Eventually I lost that tooth, almost certainly due to the widening crack, as I suspected.

Now back home in Ghana, another tooth seems weak when eating certain very hard foods, and again I suspect a crack. Again, dentists in general seem unwilling to really address it, halfheartedly trying various diagnostic procedures that do not actually uncover the problem.

One was quick to propose a root canal, which seemed weird to me as the first line option to address something like that. This dentist describes himself as a root-canal specialist, and it's not a stretch to assume that he sees every dental problem in terms of root canals. Another dentist suggested it was a small cavity, and did her drill and fill routine, which has done nothing at all to alleviate the problem. Yest another dentist claims I need some tooth tissue filed away to correct the problem.

So now I'm not sure what to do. It seems cracks are hard to identify; I'm not sure why dental imaging cannot help much here. I'd like to know if there are better options than dealing with lazy dentists who just want your money.

Re: I went to 50 different dentists: almost all gave a different diagnosis (1997)

#39

Post by thedanbob »

If anyone is in my situation where you need dental work but can't afford it and have some time/availability, see if there's a dental college nearby that has a student care program. The one I'm going to is costing me about 40% of the quote I got from a regular dentist for the same work. (The downside is it takes a lot longer.)

Re: I went to 50 different dentists: almost all gave a different diagnosis (1997)

#40

Post by pests »

ravenstine wrote: post #26

There's a lot of perverse incentives baked into dentistry. This is true of allopathic medicine was well, though I think it can be more difficult for someone to dispute a diagnosis from a dentist; who are you to say that little dot on your X-ray isn't serious enough to be drilled? It wouldn't surprise me if there are many fill-n-drill dentists out there. I knew people whose oral hygiene and diets were far worse than m…

I had a rough life when I was younger. I went to the dentist maybe 7-10 years ago and they told me they wanted to pull over 10 teeth. Probably closer to 14. I was shocked and shaken. They were even talking dentures. I couldn't believe I was going to be basically toothless. I never went back and it ored dentistry for years.

I just switched dentists last week. One cavity and they want to fix an old crown.

I never had one of those teeth pulled.

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