261–270 of 585 posts
My own opinion: their arrogance is the most offensive part of the situation. There are plenty of great doctors and surgeons out there, don’t get me wrong. But the majority seem to think they are a superior species.
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 feel like dentistry in particular is one of the least rigorous of medical sciences. From my point of view (patient), I feels like dentists base their treatment recommendations on how much kickback they’re getting from medical corporations (Invisalign anyone?) and biased papers. I wonder why dentistry is so far removed from the rest of the medical profession on this. Not that MDs are immune to the above but it feels…
Anyways beyond that, dentistry sits in a very interesting position where there isn't a whole lot that can be done (without major breakthrough). It's why so much is based on preventative measure. It's also why the field feels "antiquated" in a way, we're still using simple instruments to scrape the teeth (or inside the tooth when it comes to root canals), or yanking the entire tooth out. We haven't got much farther than cavemen using stones to clean plaque in that way, besides the pain mitigation.
It's the one field that is ripe for revolutionary improvements if it weren't for corporations constantly pushing their garbage studies.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> I’m not a conspiracy nut. I believe in listening to experts (but ultimately making an informed decision). I believe in modern medicine. But that experience shook me and forever changed my trust in the dental industry. Ask anybody who’s experienced a “chronic” illness about the “experts” and they’ll tell you a tale or two. The experts are great until they have a case that is unusual. The don’t have the time or know…
This is very true. I had a SO with severe chronic gastric pain and they got passed around by doctors for years. One jerk wrote "drug seeking behavior" into her file and that made things even worse. Finally someone took her seriously, got imagery done, and discovered surgery was necessary. In US healthcare you have to be your own advocate and be willing to push. The system breaks down if you don't have a routine and o…
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While this might happen, it's certainly a tiny minority of cases. In most cases it's just too big of an ego to admit that they really don't know, and not willing (private practice) or unable to (employed by a big hospital) spend the large amount of time needed to raise the chance of finding the cause from 0% to maybe 2%. Truth is that modern medicine still knows much less than is often assumed, let alone individual d…
I was with you until the last sentence: > There's an absurd amount of potential for LLMs here. The problem is not that doctors are stupid, the problem is that a lot of ailments are just not easily diagnosed. Even if the doctor has one (or more) suspicions what the red rash on your skin is, there just aren't any tests for many conditions. Many diseases are only diagnosed by symptoms and the underlying cause is unknown…
There aren't any tests that the doctor has on hand, because the doctor is a unit in the medical system designed to provision affordable care instead of a scientist attempting to cure you. It would be too expensive to test you, especially for something that will probably go away on its own.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> I’m not a conspiracy nut. I believe in listening to experts (but ultimately making an informed decision). I believe in modern medicine. But that experience shook me and forever changed my trust in the dental industry. Ask anybody who’s experienced a “chronic” illness about the “experts” and they’ll tell you a tale or two. The experts are great until they have a case that is unusual. The don’t have the time or know…
"The experts are great until they have a case that is unusual. " I was so pissed by this I created a way to find experts. People that actually studied the issue, have actual publish papers on the topic. What I found was no one cared. No one wanted "experts" - they want a specialist that is in their network and close. Example of searching for mohs surgury. https://www.opendoctor.io/research/?research_papers=mohs&zip..…
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…
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Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> I’m not a conspiracy nut. I believe in listening to experts (but ultimately making an informed decision). I believe in modern medicine. But that experience shook me and forever changed my trust in the dental industry. Ask anybody who’s experienced a “chronic” illness about the “experts” and they’ll tell you a tale or two. The experts are great until they have a case that is unusual. The don’t have the time or know…
This is very true. I had a SO with severe chronic gastric pain and they got passed around by doctors for years. One jerk wrote "drug seeking behavior" into her file and that made things even worse. Finally someone took her seriously, got imagery done, and discovered surgery was necessary. In US healthcare you have to be your own advocate and be willing to push. The system breaks down if you don't have a routine and o…
100% the same thing on this side of the pond, US healthcare isn’t special here.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> I’m not a conspiracy nut. I believe in listening to experts (but ultimately making an informed decision). I believe in modern medicine. But that experience shook me and forever changed my trust in the dental industry. Ask anybody who’s experienced a “chronic” illness about the “experts” and they’ll tell you a tale or two. The experts are great until they have a case that is unusual. The don’t have the time or know…
This whole fear of being labeled a "conspiracy nut" for exploring less trodden paths needs to end. Calling people conspiracy nuts for looking behind curtains they shouldn't was a good tactic by various entities to cover up secrets and misdeeds, but it has spilled over into the non political arena and poisoned everything. Humans don't have a full understanding of everything, and in fact it's quite the opposite, in tha…
Until COVID came around and unearthed the absolute hoards of dO yOuR oWn ReSeArCh imbeciles. Now the sensible practice of getting a second opinion and exploring other options/doctors has been mixed up with the kooks: extreme politics and actual conspiracy theories, to the point where it’s hard to take any of it seriously.
When someone now says they don’t trust doctors, you have to dig deeper to understand if it’s someone genuinely seeking out other options, or if it’s one of Those People who’ve gone off the deep end.
Unfortunately I had a ligament tear in my knee and after 4 surgeries I developed some pretty bad pains.
I took a vacation and scheduled visits to 10 orthopedic surgeons who had some of the highest medical credentials in the country.
Everyone told me that pain was caused by a different thing and dismissed ideas of other doctors.
The confidence with which they told me the reason would have convinced me have I not visited other doctors.
Later I had similar experience with doctors from other health areas.
Essentially, in medicine they can only diagnose the most typical stuff, for anything else it's just a bunch of wild guesses.
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…
Yeah, our dentist sold the practice and the new one gave me a (unnecessary?) filling that is so painful I can't eat properly on one side of my mouth anymore. Of course, I now don't want to go back to the new dentist, I want to find a new one that isn't going to screw up the first time they touch me, but that's a minefield too (finding a new dentist). So I've dealt with the pain for like 4 months already. Sigh.