Americans are getting dental implants more than ever — and at costs reaching tens of thousands of dollars. Experts worry some dentists have lost sight of the soul of dentistry: preserving and fixing teeth.
This has definitely been happening forever. Unnecessary fillings are par for the course. I went to a new dentist once and on the first visit he told me I needed 3 fillings. I declined and a high pressure sales pitch followed. I went to someone else the next time who said there was nothing that required immediate attention. I’ve been going there for years and just now needed one filling from her.
Lots of other people would just trust the first sleazebag dentist, or lack the confidence to say no, making this a serious problem. Licensing boards need to hold their licenses accountable for performing ethical work
Seems like the way to deal with this would be for dentist #2 to report the issue to a licensing agency of some sort and they evaluate the records from both to determine the correct recommendations and if #1 is found to be recommending unnecessary work they get the shit fined out of them and have their license revoked if it’s repeated or particularly egregious.
I felt like I was let in on a dirty little secret that nobody else knew about. It’s almost stunning to see someone else who’s aware of what he told me. I texted my friend with this article right after I made my comment and he sent back this to me:
Happened to me nearly 40 years ago on my baby teeth. My mother finally had enough and took me for a second opinion and the next dentist found no problems. It’s given me 40 years of dental anxiety so bad that I have to go to a specialist that deals with it. The only time I had to have work done there, they drugged me to the gills.
This has definitely been happening forever. Unnecessary fillings are par for the course. I went to a new dentist once and on the first visit he told me I needed 3 fillings. I declined and a high pressure sales pitch followed. I went to someone else the next time who said there was nothing that required immediate attention. I’ve been going there for years and just now needed one filling from her.
Lots of other people would just trust the first sleazebag dentist, or lack the confidence to say no, making this a serious problem. Licensing boards need to hold their licenses accountable for performing ethical work
Seems like the way to deal with this would be for dentist #2 to report the issue to a licensing agency of some sort and they evaluate the records from both to determine the correct recommendations and if #1 is found to be recommending unnecessary work they get the shit fined out of them and have their license revoked if it’s repeated or particularly egregious.
I felt like I was let in on a dirty little secret that nobody else knew about. It’s almost stunning to see someone else who’s aware of what he told me. I texted my friend with this article right after I made my comment and he sent back this to me:
The dude’s one in a million.
Happened to me nearly 40 years ago on my baby teeth. My mother finally had enough and took me for a second opinion and the next dentist found no problems. It’s given me 40 years of dental anxiety so bad that I have to go to a specialist that deals with it. The only time I had to have work done there, they drugged me to the gills.