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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

#231

Post by recursive »

buffalobuffalo wrote: post #229
rootusrootus wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is some merit to that idea. It is not perfect, but it is a potential red flag. I experienced something similar a couple weeks ago when I went to a local dermatologist for a skin cancer screening. The office was gorgeous. Top of the line everything, spacious, just incredible. When the doctor came in, he was a whirlwind - he glanced at my back, the fronts of my arms, and my face ... then pronounced me in…

I guess that's objectively worse since it results in false negatives as opposed to false positives. But personally I think it stings a bit more to get tricked into procedures you don't actually need. It's genuinely hard to identify dishonest practitioners. I think the best solution might be to convince the insurance companies to pay for second opinions. And then only to pay for the procedure if the two diagnoses agre…

How many false positives are worth a false negative? I don't know the answer, but I don't think it's 'infinitely many'.

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

#232

Post by throwaheyy »

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…

Similar experience here. When I moved to a new place and had to find a dentist, the first one I went to told me I needed two root canals, even though I had been to my original dentist just 6 months before. The waiting room was filled with massage chairs and large flatscreen TVs (which would have been expensive 15 years ago).

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

#234

Post by warner25 »

thinkharderdev wrote: post #169
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 const…

True. I'm in the Army, so I typically see Army dentists. That means that they're on salary (edited to add: in a rigidly seniority-based promotion system, working in a clinic that isn't concerned with profit and loss), not getting paid under a fee-for-service model. It also means that I see a different dentist every time I go in, due to them working interchangeably on a team and all of us moving every 1-3 years. Anyway, despite them having no obvious incentive to influence their work one way or the other, I get told different things every time I go in. One dentist found a cavity during my annual exam, and when I showed up for my appointment to do the filling, the next dentist couldn't find the cavity. So, yeah, I think it's more art than science.

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

#235

Post by ryandrake »

EasyMark wrote: post #201
brightball wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dad is a dentist and he recommended a guy in a city near me. My wife and I both went there for a few years and never had any issues. The office was sold to a new, younger dentist...oddly enough a guy I knew from college years before. From that point forward, we both had regular cavities that needed to be filled. Eventually, we found another place and had a similar experience to yours: everything was fine. I always…

Left a dentist over this "you need root planing!" whaaaaatt?? I brush my teeth 2 times a day with an electric tooth brush and they are squeaky clean. I said to schedule me for it "we can get you in today!" me: "i gotta see a man about a dog" . I go to a new dentist and say nothing, he takes me in, does the xray, etc for new patient. Says my teeth and gums look great, no cavities. Guess who I cancelled on the next day…

The real question here is: How did you manage to get a new patient appointment with the second dentist so quickly? New Patient appointments where I live (rural CA) are at least a 3 month wait.

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

#236

Post by dennis_jeeves2 »

A similar situation is true for cancer, they sell you treatments that are expensive but will not alter the course of cancer (except for intermittent negatives on tests, which raises false hopes), to add insult to the injury, your quality of life will be substantially worse than if you did not have the treatment.

It goes without saying that there are exceptions to the norm I mentioned above.

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

#237

Post by dennis_jeeves2 »

alwa wrote: post #159

I’m reminded of Ferris Jabr’s well-reported 2019 piece for the Atlantic, exploring the shaky scientific basis of much of what we know as dentistry. It seems a lot harder to hold dentists (and their investors) to a uniform standard when the field is so much more art than science. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/05/the-tro... (And previous HN discussion in 2022; 366 points, 342 comments; https://news.…

Regarding shaky scientific basis - The mass fluoridation of water fits the bill.

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

#238

Post by leptons »

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've been to some awful, painful, overly-expensive dentists that acted more like car salesmen than dentists.

I finally found an honest one that prioritizes my comfort and doesn't charge me an arm and a leg, and I've been a customer for over 20 years.

I moved to a different city a few years ago, but I will still drive 1.5 hours in traffic to go see my dentist (I'll try to book outside of rush hour though).

I did try one dentist close to my new house, and it was awful. It reinforced my confidence in my regular dentist. Never going to anyone else as long as I live.

Once you find a good one, stay with them as long as you can. Not all dentists are the same, it's no joke, some are just there to rip you off.

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

#239

Post by dennis_jeeves2 »

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.

> I am sure most of the dentists are honest.

Honest but incompetent. For example most wisdom tooth removals are not necessary, but because (I think) it was taught at dental school most would recommend it.

To be fair this is not a dentists' only problem, it's true for every profession.

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

#240

Post by yodsanklai »

cj wrote: post #18

This reminds me of when I went to a dentist in SF who told me I needed to have my wisdom teeth out. I did the initial exam, and then hesitated when it came to booking the procedure. The dentist noticed my hesitation, and said something along the lines of "And after the surgery, don't forget we'll also prescribe really great pain medication!" 10 years later my new dentist says the wisdom teeth are fine and to leave th…

When I was a teenager, there was a dentist in my town who had the reputation to be the best guy at removing wisdom teeth. Everybody and their mother wanted to have their wisdom teeth removed there. Fortunately, my father told me this was BS and I kept them.

That being said, where I live dentists don't make a lot of profit on that kind of care. They earn on crowns.

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