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

551–560 of 585 posts

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

#551

Post by phil21 »

liamconnell wrote: post #193
kypro wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same is true for healthcare generally in my experience. Very bad advice is often given. I can't really common about the US, but here in the UK the quality of healthcare is shocking bad. Although we may have the opposite problem, where instead of doing unnecessary procedures to increase costs, the NHS generally tries to avoid doing anything unless you're dying. I had some pain in my abdomen a few years back and ha…

I lived in Argentina for a few years. There are plenty of problems with their public healthcare system that pretty much mirror any country with a troubled economy, but one day a work colleague recommended I visit the Favoloro Institute. I’ve never seen such an impressive healthcare organization in my life. They time their appointments ever 2 minutes so you’re expected to arrive early. Once you start, they wiz you aro…

> after being inspired by the Cleveland Clinic.

Interesting. I was considering commenting that your experience sounds a lot like the VIP (using the term loosely here, it's much more accessible than "multi-millionaire") care available at the Mayo Clinic. You can accomplish in a day or two what would typically take months to years in many areas of the US, including mine.

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

#552

Post by mrguyorama »

jl6 wrote: post #500
no_butterscotch wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So much he said she said is the UK better than us with healthcare or not?!

If it were possible to answer that with a simple yes or a no, it wouldn’t be such a perennial debate. Clearly both systems have benefits and drawbacks.

It's a perrenial debate due to ideology, not actual stats. The UK, despite the struggles the NIH has with.... everything, still has better outcomes than the US. This is JUST "outcomes" btw, as the UK also rates significantly higher than the US in "access to care". The US also has nearly twice as many "deaths that could be prevented by timely access to healthcare".

The main complaint about the UK system that people quote is "it takes a while to see a doctor" but that's true about most people here in the US as well. If you have not top-line insurance or live in a slightly rural area or a million other things.

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

#553

Post by mrguyorama »

ekianjo wrote: post #394
megablast wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The experts are great until they have a case that is unusual. But this is true for every thing in the planet. Data modelling, computer programming, building, everything. Name something that the unusual is not more complicated and difficult to do. Why would anyone think that it would not be true for the health field?? I think the problem is people think health is magical and everything is known. Because they choose…

> I think the problem is people think health is magical and everything is known. The problem is most doctors have absolutely no humility and will never admit to not knowing something. I don't see that behavior among engineers.

I mean that behavior is literally HN incarnate, so you might be exhibiting exactly that in this comment.

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

#554

Post by mikeyouse »

giantg2 wrote: post #367
tyg13 wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm always surprised when people leave comments like these, based on nothing but N=1 anecdata. You don't have any authority to say something like "this is not true" with regards to the whole of the American healthcare experience. Compared to my own personal experience, yours was uncommonly-good. Wait times for specialists for my SO's heart condition are routinely several months out.

To be fair, their statement of n=1 is more evidence than the other person posted (comment without any evidence). Although both are weak.

I mean, n=1 of a guy that had a good experience -- n=roughly 28,000,000 with no health insurance at all. These don't seem like two sides of the same coin in my view.

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

#555

Post by gcanyon »

guythedudebro wrote: post #476
gcanyon wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was probably four when I fell against the sandbox in the playground and knocked one of my top front teeth right out. I carried it inside to the teacher, who had me bite on a paper towel to stop the bleeding and sent me home with the tooth wrapped in another paper towel in my pocket. About a week later I fell against a large wooden block in the classroom and knocked the other top front tooth clean out. I went for so…

You need a mouth guard

It was worse than that -- the football thing happened when I had old-school braces, and my lips were literally smashed onto the railroad tracks, so much so that I had to walk to the drinking fountain and pry/peel my lips off the braces, with an accompanying rush of blood. Good times!

I'm a grown-ass adult now, and I haven't had issues like this since my late teens.

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

#556

Post by elialbert »

microtonal wrote: post #62
leoqa wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a similar experience, got up sold on more frequent cleanings and they always found something to iterate on. I took their offer once to fill a “potential infection” and then recognized the pattern. They probably legitimately think the tooth may decay further - it probably won’t and you probably don’t need pre-emptive correction but they make more money and “fix” the problem for you so they may not see the ethica…

Frequent cleanings are nice though. As an avid tea drinker it's nice to have white teeth again once or twice a year. The insurance covers most of the cost, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

this worked on tea stains for me: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B092SMPQQD

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

#557

Post by kspacewalk2 »

nunez wrote: post #416
UncleMeat wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in the US. I am a software engineer making more than a half a million annually. I have access to tremendous resources and can advocate for myself and my family. I live in a college town because of my wife's career. It is not a big city, but is also not rural middle of nowhere. Getting a routine gynecological appointment for my wife any time in the next six months is impossible. I gave up on trying to get an ap…

Preach. I wanted to get a sleep study done to get to the bottom of my occasional insomnia. My PCP at the time put in the pulmonologist referral (because this hospital network required a referral to get a sleep study done, which is insane in its own right, but that's neither here nor there). This was in January. His next available appointment? March! For a friggin sleep study! And I have a HDHP + HSA and was going to…

My wife got a sleep study done within 2 weeks of booking one, after she asked to be put on a cancellation list. Her actual appointment time was for end of October, scheduled about a month ago. You may need to be proactive and ask to be put on one, for some reason no one mentioned to her that there is one.

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

#558

Post by DropInIn »

mynameishere wrote: post #415
20after4 wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For most people, that's expensive.

No, it isn't. Most people pay about that much for their cable. For the bottom 20 percent, yes, it is a budget-buster. However, that is beside the point. Believe me, I hate explaining simple, simple things--but the person I was responding to is probably comfortably middle or upper-middle class and could afford a miserable 2000/year on a doctor. He doesn't have to become "rich enough", and almost 100 percent of the peo…

Average canadian income is 60k

2 k is a lot for even those at the 50th percentile and extremely significant for those below it.

Min wage earners make about 30k, so that 2k is 6.6% of thier income....

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

#559

Post by DropInIn »

Etrnl_President wrote: post #263
jasonwatkinspdx wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Now imagine doing this on Canadian healthcare, having to wait months or years for each appointment, and nowadays they try to talk you into MAID to save resources…

No one is talking anyone into going the MAID route, that's just some far right conservative party bs.

Really, you just engaged in deception and promulgation of propaganda intended to push people toward neofascist ideology.

Shame on you.

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

#560

Post by DropInIn »

zdragnar wrote: post #357
tyg13 wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm always surprised when people leave comments like these, based on nothing but N=1 anecdata. You don't have any authority to say something like "this is not true" with regards to the whole of the American healthcare experience. Compared to my own personal experience, yours was uncommonly-good. Wait times for specialists for my SO's heart condition are routinely several months out.

What this demonstrates is that wait times are widely variable by specialty and region. Arguments like "for most Americans" are wrong on their face, because most Americans don't live in the same area or have the same issues. My wife and I have both had to see various specialists. Some had very long wait times, many didn't, and of those that did, we were (fortunately) able to call around to different clinics to find on…

"Most" comes from the actual data

The exceptions are part of that data set

Really...

Post reply on HN