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Dentistry is less scientific and more gratuitous than people think (2019)

theatlantic.com

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Re: Dentistry is less scientific and more gratuitous than people think (2019)

#241

Post by mrmuagi »

throwawash wrote: post #153
jghn wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes people just get unlucky and there's not some direct causal factor. Yes, it could have been the mouthwash. It also could have been a combination of their germline genome having some unfortunate mutations and/or a series of unlucky somatic mutations.

If mouthwash has harmful ingredients keeping it in your mouth for a prolonged duration and spitting it out instead of drinking it will not solve your problems, contrary to the quoted line. If an patient who is an outlier exhibits an extreme habit related to the affected cancerous organ, it seems advisable to take note even if it is possible there are undiscovered more serious contributing factors.

I mean, you are making a jump from correlation to causation. There is a reason science does not use anecdotes and relies on statistics, p values, and, confidence intervals.

That being said, did you happen to know what ingredients were in play, since he was using the same product for ~>20 years it sounds like, maybe the carcinogen landscape was much more under researched that long ago? I mean leaded gas was still sold in the US 'til 96 -- even though theres just so much evidence of it being harmful to the nth degree.

Re: Dentistry is less scientific and more gratuitous than people think (2019)

#242

Post by edouard-harris »

Scoundreller wrote: post #187
edouard-harris wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. In fact, a great hack is to go to an inexperienced dentist instead of an experienced one for routine work. The reason is that dentists who are fresh out of school are competent enough to do basic cleanings and checkups. But they haven't yet had time to accrete the expensive habits, and the little business optimizations that feed them, that highly-paid professionals often develop. I generally switch dentists ever…

I think this depends on what the debtload of your area’s new dentists might be like.

Interesting point. For whatever it may be worth, I live in Canada, though I don't believe dental school here is especially less expensive than it is in (say) the US.

Re: Dentistry is less scientific and more gratuitous than people think (2019)

#243

Post by dwaltrip »

jodrellblank wrote: post #203
bigmattystyles wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am especially skeptical of offerings that deal with therapy and the massive advertising campaign some companies like betterhelp. Improvement from therapy is not something that’s easily measurable and I’ve know a few therapists (not psychologists) and their coursework from reputable universities absolutely shocked me in its lack of scientific rigor. I have no doubt there are wonderful and competent folks working at…

> " Improvement from therapy is not something that’s easily measurable " Is it not? I have commented before about the work of Dr David Burns[1], and one thing he drills over and over is that therapists need to start measuring their work, and it is easy, and they don't because they either don't want to hear that they are doing a bad job or they depend on their clients for long term income and so aren't incentivised to…

Measuring psychological well-being is not easy.

With emotional dysregulation or trauma, which comes in many varieties and is more common than people realize, the path towards healing often involves someone feeling "worse" at first as they begin to face pain and emotions that have been suppressed

Someone who hasn't yet overcome their biggest difficulties won't have deep insight into their various psychological states and frames of mind. Without proper guidance, attempts to measure what's going on and assess progress can cause confusion and frustration. Especially if they aren't receiving helpful treatment, which is unfortunately far too common.

I think there is potential for measurement to help, but it's a difficult thing to do well.

This is all simply an aspect of the more general issue of how psychology and psychiatry are not well-developed areas of practice. Humanity is still learning how to effectively approach these problems.

Re: Dentistry is less scientific and more gratuitous than people think (2019)

#247

Post by jodrellblank »

freiherr wrote: post #12

What I didn't hear often enough when listening about teeth health is how important is diet and lifestyle for the teeh health. While there was talk about brushing and regular dentist visits, the diet factor was mentioned briefly and half-heartedly that you shouldn't eat sugar. Which nobody listened to anyway (especially as a kid). How much more is there to it is well explained in Weston A. Price - Nutrition and Physic…

Weston Price (Dentist) travelled the world looking at indigenous people eating their traditional diet, and found they had very little tooth decay. Tooth decay starts up with the modern refined flour, refined sugar, diets. As well he found that they have very round wide mouths and not much teeth overcrowding that is so common today, and wide noses and nostrils, easy breathing through the nose. He put it down to nutrients in food, things like eating organ meats, around the time of Upton Sinclair, re-disovery of Vitamin C for scurvy and so on. e.g. https://elliottwall.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/westonpri...

More modern day dentist Dr John Mew suggests that wide, round dental arches with plenty of room for teeth comes from a lot of hard chewing; the tongue pressing up against the roof of the mouth to mash food also exerts an outward pressure which shapes children's mouths / faces to be wider, and that's missing with modern diets.

People elsewhere in this thread have brought up mouth breathing as a thing which dries the saliva and worsens tooth decay, that's affected by having narrow nostrils which are more difficult to breathe through, which could be affected by childhood nutrition and chewing?

Re: Dentistry is less scientific and more gratuitous than people think (2019)

#248

Post by puffoflogic »

(2019). Posting this material undermining the trustworthiness of medical professionals in the public eye is inexcusable given that we are still in the middle of a pandemic, which continues only because of existing disinformation. It's really disgusting this is allowed on HN let alone reaches the front page.

Re: Dentistry is less scientific and more gratuitous than people think (2019)

#249

Post by djohnston »

One time I had a dentist who told me my tooth hurt because sometimes they just do, but that there wasn't anything clearly wrong and nothing to do about it. He was right (pain subsided with no recurrence) and now I appreciate Dr. G a lot more than I did at the time :)

Re: Dentistry is less scientific and more gratuitous than people think (2019)

#250

Post by cies »

WalterBright wrote: post #225
corry wrote: post #136

Ah this article put the finger on why I don't trust my 'new dentist': The operation is just too slick from a business POV. As someone familiar with SaaS or in general this kind of recurring business model, you can sense all the little operational policies and procedures designed to increase your LTV. It's a well-oiled machine. Without fail, the hygienist recommends cleaning not once every 12 months or even every 6 mo…

When I was 21, my dentist recommended removal of my wisdom teeth. I asked why, he said because they are difficult to clean, and so I'd lose them anyway by 30. I switched dentists. I'm old now, still have those teeth, and they are the healthiest teeth in my mouth. If you want to keep your teeth, 1. get an electric toothbrush 2. brush for the full 2 minutes, twice a day 3. floss twice a day, gently (overdoing it will e…

0. Something food something.

If I eat certain things my teeth feel so much cleaner at the end of the day then other things. I do not believe that is not a very big factor.

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