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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

#161

Post by schaefer »

hexator wrote: post #70
schaefer wrote: post #63

I fail to see how this “your dentist is taking advantage of you” narrative is any different than the anti vaccine FUD. To reap the benefits of our society of specialists, we have to trust the specialists in our lives…

Because of the reasons outlined in the article? Did you read it?

I did read the article, thank you. what happened to Carol was tragic.

And I hope some form of justice catches up to the corporations and people that hurt her...

---

but I think over the entire population - there is more harm than good to be done in spreading anti-dentist rhetoric.

just 200 years ago, dental abscesses were the leading cause of death[1].

[1]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10686905/

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

#162

Post by loocsinus »

amflare wrote: post #122
loocsinus wrote: post #97

I am a dentist. The article and some of the comments here make me sad. sorry for the bad apples in my profession. I am sure most of the dentists are honest. If you have questions about procedures you don't understand, you can ask me.

Given that most of us can only afford to go to the dentist twice a year when our insurance covers it, what advice do you have for sussing out bad apples?

word of mouth. just ask your friends and relatives for referral.

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

#163

Post by pests »

mwigdahl wrote: post #36
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…

I had a similar experience -- went to a new dentist, they found two "cavities", tried to hard-sell me into getting them filled right then. I declined, never went back to that practice, and 10 years later my teeth are perfectly fine. #notalldentists, of course, but there are certainly unscrupulous ones out there, and not just a few.

I had a rougher life in my 20s.

I once went to a dentist and they told me they want to pull 13 of my teeth and give me dentures.

I knew they were in bad shape but this absolutely freightened me. Four of them were my wisdom teeth but I still thought it was nuts.

15 years later, I still have all of the 13 they wanted to pull.

I did lose two unrelated molars and the matching wisdom teeth basically slid into place replacing them. Then two root canals + crowns.

That experience turned me off dentists for a long time.

My current dentist is great. They do all they can do save a tooth and only extract as a last resort.

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

#164

Post by partiallypro »

I went to one dentist relatively recently, they were highly rated on Google, they said I needed eight, EIGHT fillings. I had them do two of them. Then they stated that I had to get so many I was going to go over my benefits and it would cost me $1500 or so after it all, out of pocket. I went down the street, had an evaluation, they said I had one cavity. They filled it, and I was on my way. Then months late, the place I had gone that said I had eight fillings, one of the fillings I let them put in fell out after only ~1 year. I could have called them up and asked them to fix it, ideally for free, but they lost so much of my trust I just had the new dentist fix it.

Anyhow, it's hard to trust dentists.

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

#166

Post by biomcgary »

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…

About 15 years ago my wife needed a fair amount of dental work due to a dentist screwing up her mouth in childhood. We traveled to Brazil and got the work done by a dentist that my family knew and spent a week hanging out with my family there. The cost including travel and the dentist, etc. was far less that what the US dentist quoted and my wife hasn't had a dental problem since. The procedures were far less invasive than what was recommended by the US.

Too many people uncritically accept the highly motivated claims of experts. Fortunately, if you get a second opinion from another dentist, they are unlikely to imagine the exact same set of fake problems as the first dentist.

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

#167

Post by foobarian »

xyclos wrote: post #35
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…

When I was 12, I was scheduled by my regular dentist to have two cavities filled. It was the first time I had anything negative in a dental checkup. We were very poor, so my dad was pissed that it was going to be almost $400 to get them filled. He found a different dentist that was supposed to be a bit cheaper, and I went to that one instead. He was shocked to hear that I had been scheduled for two fillings. Since I…

I wonder if there is room for a service that just performs X-rays and passes them through some kind of AI model as a kind of a "dental fizz-buzz." Surely they wouldn't have any perverse incentives in that case.

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

#168

Post by floren »

A few years back, shortly after moving to a new town, I went to a dentist for a cleaning & check. She told me I'd need to replace my crown -- but luckily, the hygienist chimed in, they had just bought a brand-new state-of-the-art crown-making machine so they could do it right there the same day! Then, adjusting her Invisalign-branded face shield, the dentist asked me if I'd ever considered Invisalign. I finished the cleaning and told them not to call me any more.

That turned me off dentists so much I didn't go back to anybody for over 2 years. Finally I did actually start having trouble with that crown just before a vacation, so I picked the first local guy who could see me on short notice. He did some x-rays, pulled the crown off, cleaned it up, and glued it back in. 30 minutes, $100. He does x-rays the old fashioned way, by jamming a bunch of uncomfortable bits of film into your mouth. Most of the equipment is kind of dated, and there's not a ton of staff. I cherish this dentist.

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

#169

Post by thinkharderdev »

lolinder wrote: post #78

Dentists function similarly to mechanics for most people: they're the expert who knows everything and you know basically nothing. They tell you something is wrong and they need to do a $X00 procedure to fix it, but you have no way to validate in the moment that this is true. The funny thing is that with mechanics I think this has long been widely understood. People realize how important it is to find a trustworthy me…

A less cynical view of it is just that diagnosis of engine and dental problems is still pretty subjective so different providers will have different judgements about what constitutes a problem that needs fixing. If one dentist says you have a cavity that needs filling and another doesn't it doesn't automatically mean the first dentist is crooked. It could be the second one is wrong or it could just be that what constitutes a cavity that needs filling is not very well-defined.

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

#170

Post by UncleOxidant »

OMG, I can't imagine having all of my upper teeth removed and implants put in in one session. When I had to have a molar removed due to cracking the dentist referred me to a different dentist who specialized in removals. The removal was done and then I had to wait about 6 months before the implant was put in because the bone needed to fill in from the extraction - I think that's the normal way these things are done, not an all-in-one-day procedure.
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