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Yes this happened to me years ago when I didn't have insurance. They told me I needed thousands of dollars of dental work. I took the x-rays and brought them to another dentist. He did an exam and looked at the x-rays the other dentist took. My teeth were 100% fine.
I'm so glad I have dentists in my family, that I have good relationships with and can always ask them their opinion since I don't live in the same state as them anymore and go to local dentists where I'm at. If I did still live near them, I would obvious just go to them for free!
Yes this happened to me years ago when I didn't have insurance. They told me I needed thousands of dollars of dental work. I took the x-rays and brought them to another dentist. He did an exam and looked at the x-rays the other dentist took. My teeth were 100% fine.
According to many posters here, the more you pay, the better off you are.
We once went to a dentist and after a full mouth x-ray they came back with a plan to replace all our old fillings with a different type of filling. As I recall the bill to replace all fillings was near $2500.00. We decided not to do that at that time.
The dentist I had been going to for 14 years passed away; not only was I heartbroken about his passing, but sad to lose a fantastic dentist who did excellent work and wasn't greedy.
All of his records were transferred to another dentist so it seemed the easiest path to just start seeing the new dentist. Stayed with him for about two years until I retired and no longer had dental insurance. The new insurance I obtained wasn't accepted by his office so I was out looking for another provider.
The next dentist told me I needed to have every crown replaced plus fillings. He said to immediately make an appointment to begin the work; when I asked about the costs he said his staff checked with my insurance and they told them how much it would pay. When I told him I needed to know the out-of-pocket he became irritated and said that it wasn't necessary for me to have that information. Scratched him off the list.
Tried another dental office and their examination was completely different; they named different teeth than the previous dentist that required attention. Tired of the ongoing search I decided to have some of the work done, only to discover on my next visit there was a new dentist and he came up with yet another list. Shortly thereafter he left and another dentist was on staff who gave me a completely different list!
Luckily I finally ended up with a very good dentist at another office in town who is similar to my first dentist: very ethical and not money hungry. He performed a thorough examination of my teeth and gums, plus xrays and didn't find any issues at all. I even had the xrays and records from the last dentist sent to him for review, and he still couldn't identify any needed procedures.
In my town there are hundreds of dentists, like attorneys and doctors. Anyway, when I started to use alternative toothpaste I made on my own and taking care of my teeth much much better and decided NOT to do xrays anymore, I had to call around for a dentist who would clean my teeth and didn't push xrays. I found one and he charged me $65 and normal cleanings in this town are over $100 and xrays are pushed. That was years ago and since then no dental visits.. I believe I do a good job with dental hygeine. I spent many hrs and $$ in dental chairs to a LOT of years.
I find older well established dentists are not out for the big money. My experiences.
I arrived in town and went to a new dentist and was just shocked when I got the word about my teeth. She told me I needed about $6000 in dental work including crowns, root canals, and about 7 fillings. I told her I would get back to her and then went for a second opinion.
The new dentist said my teeth were fine except for one small cavity which cost about $150 to fill. The next time I showed the document the other dentist gave me telling which teeth needed the root canals and crowns. The second dentist said that the first dentist was lying to me to pad her pocket.
Could I report the first dentist to some board for telling me I needed things done to my teeth that were not necessary? Do you think this is common?
It was good for you for seeking a second opinion. Nowadays, let it be any case, it is always good to take a second opinion.
I've had a dentist tell me, 20 years ago, that my wisdom teeth were "rotting out" and needed to be pulled - ASAP!
20 years later, I still have my wisdom teeth.
There are huge ethical issues with pulling teeth that don't need to be pulled. And one of them is, although it's rare, occasionally a person dies from being put under anesthesia to get wisdom teeth pulled.
These dentists should be cracked down on. I know they have huge student loans to pay off, but that shouldn't be my problem. It's theirs.
Another story I call BS on.
ROTTING OUT?
LOLOLOL
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