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

Routine dental X-rays are not backed by evidence

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 390 posts

Re: Routine dental X-rays are not backed by evidence

#21

Post by sidewndr46 »

rdtsc wrote: post #11

> "Financial aspects of dental radiography also deserve further study," Feit added No joke. That is a major money maker. There is minimal cost per-use and your insurance pays $200 for it (my last one was $186.00 for instance). The dentists would be crazy not to recommend them as of often as possible. Fluoride "rinses" are likely up there too. Rinse for a few seconds and they charge the insurance $50 or something for…

I had some dentist that figured out a way to bill my insurance once every 6 months and get paid. He was insistent I get X-Rays every 6 months as a result. I quit going to that dentist.

Re: Routine dental X-rays are not backed by evidence

#22

Post by bsimpson »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #3

I'm going to also throw anecdotes into the bucket: three dentists completely missed a cavity on one of my rear molars (wisdom teeth) until I mentioned pain, and then they poked around physically and said, "oh yeah, that's a big one."

Your anecdote corroborates one of the key points in the article:

> For instance, a 2021 systemic review of 77 studies that included data on a total of 15,518 tooth sites or surfaces found that using X-rays to detect early tooth decay led to a high degree of false-negative results. In other words, it led to missed cases.

The article isn't just saying you're getting unnecessary radiation. It's also saying that relying on x-rays lets dentists be lazy about finding problems while also billing you for unnecessary work.

Re: Routine dental X-rays are not backed by evidence

#23

Post by sidewndr46 »

galleywest200 wrote: post #15
vardump wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of dental x-rays they took? Panoramic (shows the whole row of teeth in one image), CBCT (volumetric 3D) or intraoral (a digital sensor or film was put inside your mouth)?

Not OP, but I have only ever had the type of dental x-ray where they stick the L-shaped plastic into your mouth and make your bite down while they take photos. I had no idea there were others.

The original machine I used looked like a TSA body scanner but for your head. Somehow it hit plates that were developed into an image the dentist could present to me.

Re: Routine dental X-rays are not backed by evidence

#24

Post by sidewndr46 »

hcrisp wrote: post #13
jebarker wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My bugbear with dentists in the US (after living my first 30 years in the UK) is that they all continually hassle me to have my wisdom teeth removed. Said teeth have never caused me any problems and are all through the gums. I can only assume it's dogma or an opportunity to bill insurance for costly unnecessary surgery.

I asked mine, and he said the wisdom teeth can crowd teeth if the jaw size is too small causing buckling (a cosmetic issue). More seriously, it can interfere with nerves in your jaw (again because of size constraints) causing numbness / paralysis, etc. Likely the decision to remove them comes down to your genetic / jaw structure and whether they have fully come in yet or not. https://www.webmd.com/oral-health/wisdom-…

The other thing that can interfere with the nerves in your jaw is having them extracted. One of my family members has no feeling there because the extraction was bungled years ago.

Re: Routine dental X-rays are not backed by evidence

#25

Post by smt88 »

Log_out_ wrote: post #12

PSA: to hot beverages and food are a constant source of scartissue and cell damage in mouths . and if the dice falls wrong to many times, chancer precursors.. so dont risk to hot stuff

I don't know why you're being downvoted. It is a little off-topic, but you're correct that drinking too-hot liquids increase the risk of multiple types of cancer.

The same is true of alcohol-based mouthwash and alcohol itself. Anything that routine damages cells is going to be a carcinogen.

Re: Routine dental X-rays are not backed by evidence

#26

Post by PlunderBunny »

jebarker wrote: post #9
krackers wrote: post #2

Other outdated yet still routine dental practices include polishing of teeth during checkups for any justification other than cosmetic reasons

My bugbear with dentists in the US (after living my first 30 years in the UK) is that they all continually hassle me to have my wisdom teeth removed. Said teeth have never caused me any problems and are all through the gums. I can only assume it's dogma or an opportunity to bill insurance for costly unnecessary surgery.

I've also retained my wisdom teeth, despite some of them not erupting and being impacted. It's certainly easier to get them out when you're young compared to when you're older, but if you've still got them as an adult, it's not worth removing them unless they're causing a problem, even if insurance is paying for it (all procedures can have side-effects).

Re: Routine dental X-rays are not backed by evidence

#27

Post by sidewndr46 »

electronbeam wrote: post #10
jebarker wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My bugbear with dentists in the US (after living my first 30 years in the UK) is that they all continually hassle me to have my wisdom teeth removed. Said teeth have never caused me any problems and are all through the gums. I can only assume it's dogma or an opportunity to bill insurance for costly unnecessary surgery.

I was told they get harder to remove when you’re older

Yes, it's much harder for a dentist to convince a 30 year old adult than is to convince a 12 year and his helicopter parents.

Re: Routine dental X-rays are not backed by evidence

#28

Post by sidewndr46 »

galleywest200 wrote: post #17
jebarker wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My bugbear with dentists in the US (after living my first 30 years in the UK) is that they all continually hassle me to have my wisdom teeth removed. Said teeth have never caused me any problems and are all through the gums. I can only assume it's dogma or an opportunity to bill insurance for costly unnecessary surgery.

I am in the US and I had my wisdom teeth filled. Granted after the procedure my dentist said he was never filling wisdom teeth again, lol.

Filled? What does this mean?

Re: Routine dental X-rays are not backed by evidence

#30

Post by bsimpson »

hcrisp wrote: post #13
jebarker wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My bugbear with dentists in the US (after living my first 30 years in the UK) is that they all continually hassle me to have my wisdom teeth removed. Said teeth have never caused me any problems and are all through the gums. I can only assume it's dogma or an opportunity to bill insurance for costly unnecessary surgery.

I asked mine, and he said the wisdom teeth can crowd teeth if the jaw size is too small causing buckling (a cosmetic issue). More seriously, it can interfere with nerves in your jaw (again because of size constraints) causing numbness / paralysis, etc. Likely the decision to remove them comes down to your genetic / jaw structure and whether they have fully come in yet or not. https://www.webmd.com/oral-health/wisdom-…

I had mine done in college. I really didn't want to do it.

I would have been totally happy to buck the pressure of "this is what everyone does," but the thing that made me reluctantly agree to it was an explanation that if I didn't, they would bore holes into my then-back teeth as they grew in and I'd have a big problem to deal with.

As I understood it, teeth normally grow straight up, but wisdom teeth grow sideways (with the tops facing the front of your mouth). The wisdom teeth then hit the rest of your teeth and basically bulldoze your mouth.

I have no idea how true/bullshit that is, but it's what I was told to get me to finally acquiesce to the procedure.

Post reply on HN