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A new dental scam is to pull healthy teeth to sell you expensive fake ones

arstechnica.com

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Re: A new dental scam is to pull healthy teeth to sell you expensive fake ones

#131

Post by sk11001 »

Suppafly wrote: post #108
hansonkd wrote: post #31

This might sound stupid but I refuse to go to dentists that have "too nice" of an office. Over the years I have lived in several places and had a variety of dentists and one common theme that sticks with me, the nicer and higher tech the office is, the more procedures they are going to recommend you. They need to pay for the equipment and office somehow. I've had one dentist say I need 3 cavities filled. That I neede…

I think the sweet spot is a somewhat younger dentist that has their own office with a few exam rooms, and avoid the businesses that are multiple dentists. I say somewhat younger because solo dentists seem to mostly buy their equipment once, presumably mortgaging it over decades, and then retire when it's mostly used up. So a younger one is going to have the technical advantages that the older ones don't. I much prefe…

The logic is flimsy - having the newer equipment also means looking for reasons to use it to justify the cost so these dentists will often recommend expensive onlays instead of fillings for example.

Re: A new dental scam is to pull healthy teeth to sell you expensive fake ones

#132

Post by Suppafly »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #112
Suppafly wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the sweet spot is a somewhat younger dentist that has their own office with a few exam rooms, and avoid the businesses that are multiple dentists. I say somewhat younger because solo dentists seem to mostly buy their equipment once, presumably mortgaging it over decades, and then retire when it's mostly used up. So a younger one is going to have the technical advantages that the older ones don't. I much prefe…

Yeah, my best dentist experiences have all been with a practice where it's just the owner (or a family operation). Practices where it's a bunch of dentists in some corporate thing never have been as good.

I will say that I did have a bad experience with one where the support staff was all family of the owner, because the receptionist mom was a miserable person and the hygenist wife was rough with the cleanings.

The one I'm at now is great, it's a solo female dentist and all of the support staff are relatively young women, they don't advertise as being specifically all women, I think it's just how it works out since most hygienists are women traditionally. But the younger hygienists definitely have a softer touch doing the cleanings and are better at giving information and tips while doing so. Has made me realize the hygienist at my old office was just unnecessarily rough and terse for no reason during cleanings.

Re: A new dental scam is to pull healthy teeth to sell you expensive fake ones

#133

Post by switch007 »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #2

I went to a new dentist when I was 18 because my other dentist was unavailable. He declares that I have two cavities and fills one, but doesn't use enough anesthetic. Given my bad exp with him I went back to my other dentist who's flabbergasted that there was supposedly a cavity on the other tooth. No sign of any decay. These kind of experiences are why I try to vet a new dentist very hard before trusting them, even…

Dentists rushing with the anesthetic is my biggest pet peeve with them. They always try to blame you in that you're special and need extra. I know there is some element of that, but it's mostly rushing

Re: A new dental scam is to pull healthy teeth to sell you expensive fake ones

#134

Post by boomchinolo78 »

dopylitty wrote: post #103
belter wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a case where a private equity organization has been proven not to be shady? Would love some examples. "Warren Buffett: Private Equity Firms Are Typically Very Dishonest" - https://youtu.be/r3_41Whvr1I

There might be one case somewhere that could be found where a firm that technically counts as PE isn't shady but in general the very idea of private equity is shady so it follows that all the PE firms would be shady also. The point of PE isn't to run sustainable businesses that provide quality products and services for customers while treating their employees well. The point is to rapidly suck all the value out of bu…

Some are good but then think about it this way, most of them look forward to leveraging debt. Which easily puts them in a position, (with for ex. the current high interest rate environment), in which they are trapped.

And ^ above we're just talking about the ones that seek long-term investment. The ones that look for a quick flip in 6-10 years? Hard to trust them

Re: A new dental scam is to pull healthy teeth to sell you expensive fake ones

#135

Post by epcoa »

pests wrote: post #126
hansonkd wrote: post #31

This might sound stupid but I refuse to go to dentists that have "too nice" of an office. Over the years I have lived in several places and had a variety of dentists and one common theme that sticks with me, the nicer and higher tech the office is, the more procedures they are going to recommend you. They need to pay for the equipment and office somehow. I've had one dentist say I need 3 cavities filled. That I neede…

There is an article that's a few years old of a guy going to ~60 different dentists to see what variety of services he's offered. I remember he went to his original dentist to get a baseline and it was just a cavity. He was suggested all the way up to full denture replacement, IIRC. I do remember him making a connection to the office nicenwss.

First thing I thought when I saw this headline: People think this is a new scam?

Re: A new dental scam is to pull healthy teeth to sell you expensive fake ones

#136

Post by IncreasePosts »

sameoldtune wrote: post #50
hansonkd wrote: post #31

This might sound stupid but I refuse to go to dentists that have "too nice" of an office. Over the years I have lived in several places and had a variety of dentists and one common theme that sticks with me, the nicer and higher tech the office is, the more procedures they are going to recommend you. They need to pay for the equipment and office somehow. I've had one dentist say I need 3 cavities filled. That I neede…

When I started working at Amazon in 2014 I had a number of coworkers from India and Taiwan whose dentists had convinced them that they needed professional teeth cleanings every 3 months. I didn’t say anything as I am not a dental expert, but it felt like my coworkers were being taken advantage of. Like you I had an experience as a child with a dentist who my parents later found out was full of B.S.

Well, how much did it cost, and how much time did it take?

If I could pop in for 20 minutes for a professional cleaning and it was under $50 I might do that 4x/yr.

Re: A new dental scam is to pull healthy teeth to sell you expensive fake ones

#137

Post by Suppafly »

z0r wrote: post #56
sameoldtune wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I started working at Amazon in 2014 I had a number of coworkers from India and Taiwan whose dentists had convinced them that they needed professional teeth cleanings every 3 months. I didn’t say anything as I am not a dental expert, but it felt like my coworkers were being taken advantage of. Like you I had an experience as a child with a dentist who my parents later found out was full of B.S.

I'd get a professional teeth cleaning every 3 months if my insurance covered it

>I'd get a professional teeth cleaning every 3 months if my insurance covered

Same, especially if I could get just a cleaning and not deal with the exam. I've often thought it'd be nice to be able to just pop in and get them professionally cleaned without the whole dental appointment around the cleaning.

Re: A new dental scam is to pull healthy teeth to sell you expensive fake ones

#138

Post by Loughla »

jollyllama wrote: post #114
woobar wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are saying that multiple dentists found issues with your wife's teeth, she routinely refuses treatment, and this is somehow a scam?

She's going in for cleanings. If she's not experiencing problems, what does that tell you about the prognoses she's receiving?

That sometimes problems don't hurt until they're serious problems?

I would rather have a tooth taken care of before I need a root canal?

Re: A new dental scam is to pull healthy teeth to sell you expensive fake ones

#140

Post by timbaboon »

This is exactly what a dentist tried to do to me! My normal dentist wasn’t available so I saw another one (she had great google reviews!). This dentist said I had a tooth that was bad and she would have to do an implant, but then I should do all the teeth around it because otherwise “it will look weird”. She told me it was urgent and had to be done in like a month. Quote was about $10k (I live in South Africa and this amount of money is even more ridiculous here). Then gave me all the info on how I could finance it. I went back to my normal dentist and she said yeah, just need one filling and we’re good. Saw another dentist too, and she also agreed I didn’t need a full set of new teeth.

Anyway, I was chatting to a friend after this experience and it turned out this dentist had sexually harassed him in addition to doing a bunch of unneeded procedures (without telling him what she was doing).

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