Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

rd.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 585 posts

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

#141

Post by throwaway290 »

nick__m wrote: post #130
throwaway290 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once I had bad pain and went to a dentist, he pulled out a tooth. Later I heard it's absolutely last ditch and replacement teeth are finicky and will make your life much more problematic. Thankfully it's just enough to the side to not be visible so I am getting away without one. (Though I think it's also problematic long term, because remaining teeth would shift.) Never again to trust a dentist, no matter if it's a p…

Dental implant while costly are wonderful if you have sufficiently dense jawbone, they feel like a real teeth. My dentist also told me that tooth extraction is a last-ditch effort. But that come sooner than you would like; after one rounds of antibiotics, if the pain come back but there are no apparent mechanical defect in the tooth yet the roots are blurry on the x-rays, the probability that a root canal treatment w…

Thank you for insight. Perhaps I heard or understood wrong. Almost sure I was not prescribed antibiotics before extraction that time but to be fair I may be forgetting, it was 4-5 years ago. I guess an implant becomes difficult after so long but I should look it up and see what dentists around say probably.

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

#142

Post by lowkey »

Waterluvian wrote: post #47

My son when 3 had a fall and a few teeth were bent. Went to our local dentist who mostly had a wait and see opinion. But then calls a day later and says they’ve decided they should just come out. Two top front teeth. Would have no top front teeth for years. I went into engineer mode and while I acknowledged I didn’t have domain expertise, I asked questions and probed the whole situation. Very unsatisfactory, meanderi…

> I’m not a conspiracy nut

I think that term has lost all meaning. A more appropriate term for someone who no longer blindly trusts expert consensus without question is an inquisitive skeptic who takes in expert opinions and applies reason, judgement, analysis and data to determine a course of action.

It’s becoming more and more recognized that expert consensus has become highly politicized and that the problem with blindly following the science is that science often follows the money.

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

#143

Post by ilaksh »

kashunstva wrote: post #70
moshegramovsky wrote: post #57

I eventually found a great dentist. The first time I went to his office, it was extremely obvious that he was a Christian. Did that make me trust him more? Yes it sure did, but only because he was young. I would also trust an Orthodox Jewish dentist, but there aren't any here in Seattle that I can find. If I needed a lot of really expensive work, I would probably just go to a high end place in Mexico.

I don’t understand how the religious inclinations of the dentist have anything to do with their trustworthiness in terms of their diagnoses and treatment recommendations.

Because many dentists are fraudulent. Morality is a big part of many religious doctrines. So they might be less likely to lie about unneeded procedures. But overall I agree that it's not in any way something you could rely on.

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

#145

Post by meindnoch »

kentonv wrote: post #53

A couple years ago my dentist sold her practice to a new dentist. Before I had an appointment with the new dentist, my wife had an appointment, and he told her she had gum disease with bone loss and needed a deep cleaning and to go on a "periodontal schedule" where she would have to come in every three months instead of six. (Note: My wife and I have different last names and separate insurance, so he wouldn't have kn…

Oh, first I thought "measuring your pocket" meant that they somehow gauged your financial status.

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

#146

Post by rsync »

Some easy heuristics that will save you:

- shower curtains instead of glass doors: subpar airbnb

- Kikkoman soy sauce: probably not the best sushi

- teeth whitening services: dentist not optimizing for dental health

The problem is that they all push teeth whitening ... but it's a strong signal if you find one that doesn't.

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

#147

Post by bombcar »

Waterluvian wrote: post #111
hunson_abadeer wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's easy to come up with such delineation after the fact, but OP was looking for a more comforting answer. By the sound of it, they just didn't like the implications of the initial diagnosis. It wasn't about facts not adding up. The reality is that modern medicine is absolutely amazing, but there are also many interventions backed by shoddy science or no science at all. Sometimes, "doing your own research" e…

It’s funny how every generation of modern medicine acts like this time they know 100% what the correct answers are while we all scoff at how wrong they got it just a few decades ago. Every generation the advice on which way to put your kid to sleep flip flops. It would be shamefully foolish to disregard all the incredible advances and technologies that modern medicine offers. It would be equally shamefully foolish to…

This is true across more domains than medicine - especially in IT, the absolute assurance that those idiots 5 years ago were brain dead but now we’ve solved all the things.

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

#148

Post by m3kw9 »

Dentist can overtreat/under treat/aggressive/conservative(let’s not drill that cavity if we don’t have to). All depend their hungryness for money or morals. Some dentist can remove teeth for the smallest thing which could be borderline valid, but they get paid much more than saving the teeth

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

#149

Post by bombcar »

steveBK123 wrote: post #121
Waterluvian wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the “do your own research” label conflates two categories: people who are shopping for a comforting answer, and people who want to be informed and make conscious decisions. I don’t have to be a dental expert to know that something isn’t adding up and to seek a second opinion.

It strikes me as unfortunate that for a lot of things like home repairs/renovations its pretty normal to get 3+ different opinions/bids.. but for our health its usually your regular doctor, and at most a 2nd opinion in some cases. We'll make life changing decisions based on the opinion/advice of 1 individual, while shopping around on a home project or car repair that's +/- $5k. It seems again like a combination of sh…

My go-to question isn’t “should I do X” but more like “would you do X if this was you” - with good providers it gets closer to the heart of the matter.

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

#150

Post by LegitShady »

rsync wrote: post #146

Some easy heuristics that will save you: - shower curtains instead of glass doors: subpar airbnb - Kikkoman soy sauce: probably not the best sushi - teeth whitening services: dentist not optimizing for dental health The problem is that they all push teeth whitening ... but it's a strong signal if you find one that doesn't.

Free whitening kit with your cleaning!

means they're charging you enough for both in the fees.

Post reply on HN