| ▲ | donatj 5 hours ago |
| Like 15 years ago now I had broken a filling. Went in to a new dentist because my insurance had changed. They told me I had 14 cavities, and 3 of my teeth needed crowns - and they were surprisingly rude about the whole ordeal. Reading the reviews on Yelp, someone had said they had a similar experience with their first visit and went to a different dentist and were told they had none. I decided to get a second opinion and heavens am I thankful I did. They replaced my filling right then and there and I think I've had maybe 3 cavities in the 15 years since. I put very little faith in dentists to not be scam artists. The part I find particularly … funny is the disagreements. I had one dentist who insisted I needed to be using a pre-rinse. That dentist ended up leaving, and a different dentist at THE SAME OFFICE told me it was a waste of money and I should stop because it does nothing. I swear they all just make it up as they go. I've had multiple dentists tell me this rough tooth in the back of my mouth needed to be capped because it was "falling apart". I started using imported NovaMin on it out of curiosity and it became super smooth instead of rough and no one has mentioned it since. One dentist I saw for a number of years would try to insist I needed a dental implant for a missing molar and if I didn't all my teeth were going to come out alignment. I didn't have money for it at the time. Not a single dentist before or since has mentioned this. |
|
| ▲ | rockostrich 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| For what it's worth, the same thing happens with physicians. For some reason when I was living in Jersey City about 7 years ago, there was a lack of dermatologists in the area that took my insurance and were also taking new patients. I finally found one, made an appointment, and went in for a full skin exam. I waited for about 20 minutes after my appointment time, finally was called in, the dermatologist commented that someone my age (late 20s) shouldn't have any acne on their chest and tried to prescribe and sell me a bunch of ointments directly from his office. He spent maybe 2 minutes looking at me and definitely didn't do a full skin exam. A couple of years ago I moved and had to find a new PCP. Went to the first one I could find that was close-ish and took my insurance. While I'm in the waiting room, I see 50% of the people leaving with these packs of meal replacement shakes for weight loss. When I was finally called back, I see a bunch of signs about subscriptions for the shakes and all of the different flavors they had. I ended up getting a physical from the PA in the office instead of the physician that I had made my appointment with. I have nothing against PAs or NPs, but I expect to see the physician I make my appointment with. The whole thing was so shady that I ended up just finding a new PCP. |
| |
| ▲ | ww520 17 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | Dermatologists are hit or miss. I had one years ago who had her own practice. Her office was fancy and filled with skincare products; I guess her main clienteles were women wanting better looking skin. But she was good. She looked at the symptom for a minute, prescribed a cream, and gave detail instruction on how to apply it. The whole visit was less than 5 minutes. My skin condition plaguing me for several years were gone within two weeks. Years later I had dermatologists in hospitals who were bad to useless. The only good one was a new graduate doing substitution shift for my dermatologist who was on leave. The sub prescribed medication that actually work. | |
| ▲ | lokar 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | And it's not just scams for $, it's missing standard care. My father (80) and I have the same (genetic) heart condition. My current and previous cardiologist (due to a move) ordered a week long heart rhythm recorder, noting that doing this every 2-3 years was the standard of care for the condition, to catch irregularities before they become serious. My father's current and 2 previous cardiologists did not. They ended up having to do an urgent pacemaker implant since he was frequently on the verge of passing out in his apartment due to an irregular rhythm. One of these two groups of Drs is very wrong. | |
| ▲ | devilbunny 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | One of the reasons I am an anesthesiologist is that while you might have issues with the surgeon or the surgery, I find that very few people decline my services. If anything, they generally want more. | | | |
| ▲ | daemonologist 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Dermatologists (at least, the mundane sort you come across in a suburban office park) are another matter entirely. I assume it comes from doing a lot of elective work for wealthy people who are concerned with their appearance rather than their health. The PCP is more surprising to me. | | |
| ▲ | therealdrag0 an hour ago | parent [-] | | Otoh the Derm I go to is the most pleasant experience I have in medical care. Super nice office, very pleasant chatter, quick full body check in and out. Something to be said about wealthy elective care subsidizing my healthcare experience. | | |
| ▲ | jerlam 43 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Those cosmetic derms probably don't spend the bulk of their time dealing with health insurance. |
|
|
|
|
| ▲ | gwbas1c 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > They told me I had 14 cavities, and 3 of my teeth needed crowns A few years ago there was a story floating around about a young dentist who purchased a practice from a retiring dentist, and the practice wasn't making as much money as it should have. He reviewed patient records and realized that the prior dentist was performing a lot of unnecessary procedures; and contacted the patients. Some patients had persistant pain from the unnecessary procedures, too. There was at least one lawsuit, from what I remember. I think it had to do with the prior dentist misrepresenting the business's value. |
| |
|
| ▲ | HelloMcFly 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > I swear they all just make it up as they go. Good rule of thumb: trust the person who isn't telling you to spend more money, usually. |
| |
| ▲ | KellyCriterion 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Good advice. Im at a well known megaprofessional dentist,priced "a little above the average" if you want something unusual. One day, we started to initiate "small project" for some teeth, involving some additonal costs for "beauty-stuff". The accounting appartment(!!!!) of them adviced me to get whatever-XY-insurance before the first step is done to save some costs.
On the first day in the morning when step 1 started, I talked to the doc about this advice - she said: "I do not know what they thought but this is a dentist, not an insurance reseller. I do not suggest to do this, you wont need it in your case." Since then, I never went to another one. | |
| ▲ | santadays 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Yea, there are good ones out there. I had a horrible experience with unnecessary work done because I didn't know any better, drilled too deep, root canal, then installed a crown that cracked. Told me everything had to be filled. Next dentist basically just said I need regular cleanings, or to learn to floss better. I've been going to him for 10 years now. Recommended lots of people to him. Another signal is, how nice is their office? Is it a little converted bungalow with drop ceilings? Or a big modern monstrosity with floor ceiling windows. I've also had experience bringing a friend to Mexico to get work done, which worked out well. Ended up saving a bunch of money, got the work done that day. | |
| ▲ | m463 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | "Never argue with a man whose job depends on not being convinced." | |
| ▲ | doc_ick 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | [dead] |
|
|
| ▲ | KellyCriterion 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Thats a US thing;
in Europe dentists do not try to "upsell" you any stuff, usually; for sure there are some shady practitioners, but their number is small. This behaviour is induced to how the local health schemes over here work: The doctor usually does not have an incentive to sell more stuff. |
| |
| ▲ | thomasahle 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | My experience from Denmark and Belgium is that dentists here will definitely disagree a lot. I had one dentist tell me I needed 6 cavities filled. Let him do two and then went to another dentist who told me all my teeth were good. I've only ever had problems with the two teeth the first guy drilled. Later a dentist wanted to drill another few teeth that were hurting. I instead got a better toothbrush and all the issues went away. I Denmark we're talking about including dentistry in the national healthcare. I wonder if that will clean up the business or make it worse. | |
| ▲ | ttoinou an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | The thing the OP describes happens in France as well |
|
|
| ▲ | creakingstairs an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I had multiple similar experiences and I’ve had deep mistrust of dentists since. I had an amazing dentist while I lived in Japan, never upsold. There was a complication after a root canal (which I heard is just inherent possibility) and then they took full accountability and fixed the issue without charging me a dime. Now I’m back from Japan and the first dentist tries to sell me some toothpaste and toothbrush wtf |
| |
| ▲ | m463 an hour ago | parent [-] | | I have friends from japan who think japanese dentistry is not that good. | | |
| ▲ | servo_sausage 2 minutes ago | parent [-] | | I've found that the mentally around medicine in JP is pretty different to the west, dentistry included. It's a bit different to the quality of care. Personally I'd say the quality and availability of the latest technologies is limited, but the honesty around up selling and responsibility for ongoing outcomes resulting from their intervention is better. There are some other aspects, like the general bias against intervention in JP. |
|
|
|
| ▲ | lolakutty 42 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I went to a dentist in one of the new dental clinic "chains" that recently opened at my place, regarding some pain in the jaw, and they suggested to pull out a molar, and if the pain does not disappear, then suggested to take an X-ray. I excused myself nicely, and went to someone I know for a long time, and they figured that the pain was due to the fact that I was using one side more than the other when chewing. And fixing that fixed it... |
|
| ▲ | LetsGetTechnicl 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| >One dentist I saw for a number of years would try to insist I needed a dental implant for a missing molar and if I didn't all my teeth were going to come out alignment. I'm in the same situation! I had an impacted molar when I got my wisdom teeth removed, and this dentist who is otherwise okay mentions it every time. I'm skeptical of its necessity and nice to see someone in the same boat |
| |
|
| ▲ | alexjplant 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| The last dentist I went to had serious bro energy and insulted me to my face a few times. They lied about a treatment and tried to get me to pay for it on the last day of the month shortly before I actually got it done (presumably so that they could book the revenue and do something sheisty with their numbers). They have a 4.9 rating on all major review platforms so I can only imagine what shenanigans they pulled to achieve that. I just switched providers and pray that I have a better experience with this new one. |
|
| ▲ | kyt 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Were you in Arlington, VA? I wrote a yelp review exactly like this 15 years ago. |
|
| ▲ | debo_ 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| For the record, this is how I feel working with other software engineers. |
|
| ▲ | taneq 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I’ve certainly encountered healthcare providers whose motives seem more about profit than best outcomes. In my teens an orthodontist tried to pressure me into having jaw surgery to correct a 5mm overbite. |
|
| ▲ | b112 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| NovaMin Would you please pass on a reliable source? I'd like to try. |
| |
| ▲ | tyoma 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Any non-US Sensodyne Repair and Protect. You can get them off Amazon at a premium price. They will all claim to be Canadian but you will almost certainly get Turkish or Indian. However for you this doesn’t matter because they have the same active ingredient. | |
| ▲ | debatem1 an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | I use this stuff and it is really surprisingly effective. I have no idea if it will turn my tonsils into concrete or something down the road, but it does work. |
|
|
| ▲ | Der_Einzige 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| And then you find out that high fluoride toothpaste requires a prescription! Why? So that way you can't avoid these scammers. Literally scum of society. Worse then lawyers. |
| |
| ▲ | thejazzman 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | where is that?
i stopped having cavities when i started using Act mouthwash -- don't understand how anyone can hate on fluoride. | | |
| ▲ | SAI_Peregrinus 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | There are prescription-only high-fluoride toothpastes. Excessive fluoride (more than you can get from Act + normal fluoride toothpaste) can cause fluorosis, which ends up being bad for the teeth. Normal amounts of fluoride are good for the teeth. The prescription-only toothpastes have enough that you don't want to use them regularly for a long period. As with most things, the dose makes the poison. Some dentists prescribe them even when they're not needed, since it won't be harmful to use a tube of the stuff every year, or even every 6 months, and it's profitable to them. | | |
| ▲ | seattle_spring 21 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | > Some dentists prescribe them even when they're not needed, since it won't be harmful to use a tube of the stuff every year, or even every 6 months, and it's profitable to them. How is it profitable for them? If I get a prescription from my dentist and fill it at a pharmacy, how does my dentist make extra money from that transaction? | | |
| ▲ | kevin_thibedeau 4 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Once the sales rep is happy with your performance pushing product, you get invited to expenses paid conferences in the tropics. |
| |
| ▲ | rrr_oh_man 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | I got high fluoride toothpaste when I was a kid. Turns out, I just didn't know how to brush my teeth properly. 1. Floss first (!!!)
2. Use *any* electric brush
3. Spit, but don't wash out with water
4. Use fluoride mouthwash
| | |
| ▲ | kelnos 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Is there any research/literature on this? A couple years ago I read that the "correct" order was mouthwash -> floss -> brush. | | |
| ▲ | devman0 an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | I thought it was floss -> mouthwash -> brush, but either way brush was always last because the toothpaste fluoride is what you wanted left on your teeth at the end of the process with the mouthwash serving as a base layer. | |
| ▲ | rrr_oh_man 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Really good question. I personally treat it like gym: it's most important that you do it, not so much in what order or even how well. | | |
| ▲ | kube-system an hour ago | parent [-] | | I think the most important thing is to make sure your process leaves a fluoridated product in your mouth at the end. You want the fluoride to stay on your teeth for 30 minutes. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
