Is Your Dentist Ripping You Off?

[Eagle]

Is Your Dentist Ripping You Off?    

[surf4food]

[SUPcheat]

You notice all the dentist commentators trying to hedge around the obvious.  A lot of it is because there is no easy way to document a lot of routine dental fraud and the practitioners without being politically incorrect or inviting litigation/accusations of typecasting, libel or slander.  Even the program remains rather coy about all of that.

The documentary does seem give you a lot of the information you need, you can connect the dots yourself, while trying to rein in any specific commentary that would point out those conclusions.

 Over credentialing and opening the floodgates in North America has lead to too many dentists chasing too few dollars with a lot of debt and business expense, and that does not lead to uniformly high ethics, or at least, poorer general ethics than you might have expected in the past.

There shouldn't be that much caveat emptor in the healing professions, but there you have it, it is frankly embarrassing. Utilize multiple opinions and beware of unusually high estimates, heavy calculated sales pitches for cosmetics, or the guys who are "diagnosing the plan" rather than the patient.

[goodfornothin]

Oil pull 10 minutes a day, brush and floss regularly
I haven't been to a dentist in years, I guess I'm an anti-dentite

[Eagle]

There shouldn't be that much caveat emptor in the healing professions, but there you have it, it is frankly embarrassing. Utilize multiple opinions and beware of unusually high estimates, heavy calculated sales pitches for cosmetics, or the guys who are "diagnosing the plan" rather than the patient.

^^^ Sometimes getting another opinion is a good idea.   

[PonoBill]

I'm always skeptical of any service, not just dentists. I always ask a lot of questions and looks carefully at costs. But I'm even more skeptical of media, mostly because I worked with them. You should approach any media expose as pure bullshit to begin with, and then look for accidental shreds of truth. Seriously. If you ever see an "expose" about an industry you are very familiar with, you'll understand that immediately.  Start with the understanding that the reporter has to find dirt (or manufacture it) or there is no story, and the only expertise they have is in framing a story--their understanding of ANY business is less than the average ten year old. They don't care, they are uneducable. They want to sell your attention to advertisers, it's the only way they get paid, the only thing they care about. Worse than politicians. There is no such thing as journalistic ethics. Probably never was. Certainly isn't now.

You might consider it harmless, but it ain't. I can't even call the consequences unintentional, because consequences are never considered. Find a good doctor that accepts medicare. Good luck. The media found a few Docs that were screwing the government and made it a national scandal. Yeah, the government is stupid. No kidding. The response was political--Doctors can face criminal charges for "medicare fraud" that might start with a simple error.

[Eagle]

Had a dentist tell me that he knows some colleagues he went to school with regularly push the veneer song and dance.  His position is that it is best to take a more conservative approach as once your teeth are ground down you are done.   Caveat emptor is truly valid. 

The Marketplace exposés generally are pretty good for a media source and can be viewed here - sometimes you can get some good info listening and watching between the lines - 

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeyJPHbRnGaZmzkCwy3-8ykUZm_8B9kKM

[supsurf-tw]

I remember the Maharishi that went to the dentist and didn't want Novocain. He was trying to transcend dental medication

[PonoBill]

I remember the Maharishi that went to the dentist and didn't want Novocain. He was trying to transcend dental medication

PDX? Is that you?

[Eagle]

I remember the Maharishi that went to the dentist and didn't want Novocain. He was trying to transcend dental medication

PDX? Is that you?

Thought that too.   

[pdxmike]

I remember the Maharishi that went to the dentist and didn't want Novocain. He was trying to transcend dental medication

PDX? Is that you?

Thought that too.   

http://www.standupzone.com/forum/index.php/topic,26069.msg267024.html#msg267024

[eastbound]

veneers=misnomer

very little difference btwn caps and veneers--i felt misled when i had 6 uppers done--broke two fronts hit with w squash racquet, and the others were discolored--i assumed veneer meant veneer--means something very different: grind all of tooth to below gumline, but for a small center post, on which to center mount--i was shocked when i saw in the mirror how much healthy tooth had been ground away. had i known i would not have done the procedure. not a fan of grinding healthy tooth away for aesthetic reasons. that said, they've held up for 20 years+

[Eagle]

Had a dentist of 20 yrs replace an old crown a while back.  After taking the crown and a pic of it in situ to a colleague - got another opinion.  The original dentist said it was required -> but after a bit of discussion recanted and admitted it was indeed an "error".  The crown did not need to be removed.  In the end he put in a new $2k crown at no cost and apologized profusely saying that will never happen again.   

The video posted was apropos and confirms that you do get widespread varying opinions and recommendations from dentist to dentist.  The problem with any opinion you get - is that sometimes it is extremely hard to confirm or dispute what you are being told - as you sit in the chair.  You often rely on trust and their judgement.

Caveat emptor applies even to your very trusted dentist -> as no one is perfect.