Do you think dentists are educated crooks?

[flavor]

Why is it that dentists don't have the patients' interest at heart?

[safari]

May I suggest changing a dentist? You can find a crook in any field. I am sure you have a valid reason to be upset, but you can't call all dentists crooks just based on your bad experience with your dentist.

[vinnieg24]

my moms my dentist, so I don't think thats a correct evaluation, and since she still booked 3 months in advance and gets at least a hundred gifts from her patients year after year I think they like her lol...just switch dentists if you aren't happy

[simpleyme]

I love/ hate my dentist ,I hate that she charges so damn much and my insurance is worthless but I love the way she makes my teeth look good

I also hate myself for not taking care of my teeth in the first place and therefore costing myself all that money,is she to blame for that? no, does she get to reap great profits from it ? yes she sure does

[disneysteve]

Why is it that dentists don't have the patients' interest at heart?

I agree with safari. If you don't like your dentist, get a new one, but don't shoot down a whole profession because of your bad experience with one person.

We love our dentist. He is friendly. Prices are reasonable as dentists go. He never keeps us waiting - we are always seen right on time. His office is very nice. His staff is wonderful.

As for having the patient's best interests in mind, last month by wife was having trouble, she thought, with one of her caps (which another dentist had put in years ago). She was sure she'd need to have it replaced. She went to our dentist and he did the whole exam and said he really couldn't find anything wrong with it and saw no reason to replace it. He could very easily had said, "Yep, I need to replace it" and made hundreds of dollars and we wouldn't have complained since that's exactly what we expected. Instead, he was honest and said nothing needed to be done.

If you don't trust your dentist, or doctor, or mechanic or any other professional, get a new one.

[krayziebone33]

Is there a particular reason why you posed this question? We all just assume that you had a bad experience, but is that really the case? What happened exactly to you or someone you care about, if anything, that made you want to start a thread on the topic?

[FrugalFish]

I've had a couple bad experiences with dentists (including one who wanted to fill about 10 cavities that didn't exist). I've been very wary of dentists since then and if something doesn't feel right, I won't go back. Right now I drive 100 miles to see a dentist just because I like and trust him. I don't worry about how expensive or inexpensive he is, I just want someone I can trust.

What happened to you?

[DebbieL]

Well, a few years back the Reader's Digest sent someone (who's teeth were in extremely good condition - they made sure of it) all across Canada to various dentists for check-ups. OMG - I couldn't believe it. He never got the same "diagnosis" from any of them. Lots of them wanted to do a variety of dental work that he "needed", some were up into the several thousands of dollars. He listed all the different teeth that he was told had cavities (no two doctors found the same teeth with cavities from what I remember). He was told he needed crowns and some really expensive work by some by some of them. They did find an honest one. I think it was somewhere in Nova Scotia.

I came away from that article so disturbed. How can several dentists look at an x-ray of the same mouth (that had no cavities) and most come up with several cavities, etc. Even the ones who said there were cavities didn't find them on the same teeth. If I have a fractured arm, I would expect that several experts across the country would all be able to examine my x-ray films and make the exact same finding. Why should a tooth x-ray be any different.

The richer the neighborhood he went to, the higher the dollar amount of work he "needed" seemed to be too.

Let's just say my trust for many dentists goes about as far as my trust for many mechanics (they also did an across Canada article about mechanics - I must admit I was far less shocked to find out how dishonest most of them had been than the dentists).

My daughter and I had a good dentist, but he's recently retired. Hopefully the guy who took over his practice is as good as he was.

[disneysteve]

He listed all the different teeth that he was told had cavities (no two doctors found the same teeth with cavities from what I remember).

Remind me not to go to a dentist in Canada.

Maybe we are just lucky, but, as I said above, our dentist isn't like that. In addition to the deal with my wife's cap, last year I went for a check-up. The hygienist did the cleaning and thought one tooth was developing a cavity. She told the dentist so when he came in to check me. He checked it, probed it, reviewed the x-rays, etc. and said he thought it was fine and nothing needed to be done. No complaint from me.

[sweeps]

Steve, I respect your opinions... but do you think it is possible that you get special treatment because you yourself are a doctor? You've mentioned you have an outstanding family doctor as well. I wonder if your doctor/dentist treats you differently than the average patient? Or perhaps you have the inside track on knowing who the exceptional doctors/dentists are? Again, I ask this with all due respect.

[JBinKC]

I agree over treatment is rampant within the dental profession but it also shows up in medicine. I had a condition that took $8000 to diagnose that I accurately diagnosed on the internet by myself just using medical terminology for symptoms.

[disneysteve]

Steve, I respect your opinions... but do you think it is possible that you get special treatment because you yourself are a doctor? Or perhaps you have the inside track on knowing who the exceptional doctors/dentists are? Again, I ask this with all due respect.

I don't know. We picked this dentist based on recommendations from friends and neighbors in our area. I have no professional connection with dentists at all. I don't refer patients to them or work with them in any way, so I don't feel that I'm getting any special treatment. We've also referred others to this dentist over the years and they've all been very pleased too, so it isn't just us.

[Scanner]

The same criticism could be levied at my own profession, chiropractic - inconsistent diagnoses and recommendations. They do the same thing to DC's about every 5 years - an expose where they go to 5 different DC's with the same problem and get 5 different recommendations.

There are many reasons for it - some of which is just a judgement call on the part of the physician.

I know I have overtreated some patients. I know for sure also I have undertreated them, prematurely discharging them to have them relapse 1 month later.

As much as we would like to think otherwise and as much as the media leads us to beleive the opposite, healthcare is a lot of times more an art than a science.

I think another part of the problem is that physicians as a whole aren't paid to consult (I know I am not , maybe DisneySteve is).

We are paid to intervene.

Do you think anyone here likes going into a dentist/doctor/chiropractor and getting charged $150 to hear, "Nothing is wrong. Thanks for stopping by."

Americans flip their lids when they hear that. Do something!!!

Even my pediatrician feels obligated to have every visit end in antibiotic. I have told him to stop that. . .that just his opinion of if it's viral or not is good enough for me.

I know with Blue Cross of NJ, if you come in to me, I do an x-ray and I discover cancer in the spine and refer to an oncologist, I get $0.00. I am not reimbursed for what's called E/M (evaluation/management).

If I lay them down and manipulate them though, I'm paid $30-40.

You see the problem with that?

So this can bias our recommendations towards intervening. I'm sure the same thing happens in dentristry. Not paid for exams/opinions. . . paid to intervene.

If the insurance paid me for opinions up front, it would go a long ways from biasing the recommendations (and I do my best to remain unbiased but even the most dedicated gets caught up in the system).

So once again, the whole system is sick.

Pay your doctors for opinions people - it's the most valuable part of the whole health care experience - medical, dental or chiropractic.

Same with mechanics - he puts your body or your car up on the lift - insist he take something for his time to tell you nothing is wrong and to leave it alone.

I hate to put it like this - but you have to pay people to keep them honest. Not particularly a testament to human nature but anyone in business would realize this is a fact of business/life. I don't get why insurance companies and the American public doesn't get that. . .I guess they are after the interventions.

[DebbieL]

I think looking at an x-ray film of a person's mouth should be pretty cut and dried when it comes to things like whether or not there's an actual cavity in a tooth.

As for chiropractors, I can see there being more room for differences.

PS - Yes, I LOVE going to the dentist, paying my money (for the exam) and hearing "Nothing's wrong". Same goes for doctor's etc.

[m3racer]

Why is it that dentists don't have the patients' interest at heart?

Troll alert!!!! Your comments are entirely ignorant!!!! Why don't you learn something about a particular profession before you make a moronic statement.