alt Hacker NewsLike 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.
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> 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.
> 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.
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.
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.
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.