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You clearly are more qualified to figure out what's wrong with your mouth than any dentist. They'll all tell you things you don't want to hear, and even if they tell you what you want to hear, you'll second-guess them.
So - do whatever you want. Your odds of doing the right thing for your dental health is about as good as your odds of doing the right thing for anything else you're more qualified than a professional to do.
I mean literally WTF? You are carrying on about how professionals know best and I should just listen to them (or that is what you are implying) when they are all recommending wildly different things. I mean it is pretty obvious that my best course of action is not going just following the opinions of all four experts. In fact, there is no possible way I could do that since they all contradict each other.
Clarification:
I left Dentist #1 who was highly recommended to us and whom I saw for about 10 years, when it finally dawned on me that she was not as honest and straight-forward as I thought she was being. There were red flags earlier which I just ignored. But even when she suggested that I have all my amalgams replaced (which she did suddenly after I had seen her regularly for seven years during which time nothing about my existing amalgams was mentioned at all), I didn’t suspect anything. I didn’t even suspect anything when she didn’t give me a straight answer as to why I suddenly needed them ALL replaced. OK, some had been placed when I was a kid and were really old. But there were others I had had placed just before seeing her (a good thirty years after the earliest ones). Instead of offering any explanation, she just kept saying “your insurance covers it.” But eventually I started becoming more and more suspicious …
Since I was getting no good explanation from her as to why I needed ALL my amalgams replaced suddenly right away, I told her: “If there is an amalgam that is currently problematic in some way, I would be OK with replacing that one or two or three. You know … if she saw some actual, incipient problem with them. And she refused to do the work. She would either replace ALL of them or NONE. And I said, still not understanding what was up with this dentist, OK, none then. Let’s just skip it.
So, the next time I saw her, she said: “Everything looks great, but you have one very small cavity that needs filling.” OK, so I come back for the filling and she says: “Well, it would be a shame to numb you up just for this one tiny cavity, let’s at least replace all the amalgams on that side while we are at it. Don’t worry, your insurance covers it” (well, in truth, some of it). Again, I say, is there an actual problem with the amalgams? And I get a lot of evasiveness from her. So I refuse and just get the cavity filled, although I can see that she is extremely reluctant to just fill this tiny cavity (which I thought was odd).
The next year, the exact same thing happens. Again, I have one tiny cavity. Again, she says, well our treatment plan says that we are going to relace your amalgams, so we should get started on that once we get you numbed up for the filling. And again I say, that isn’t the “treatment plan.” I have already refused that twice. And again, she is extremely hesitant to just do the one tiny cavity (but does it).
The third year, I have another tiny cavity. And this time, I’m thinking: Naaaaa. Time for a second opinion. So I ask exactly where this cavity is and ask to see it. It kind of looks like a cavity to but still I go to …
Dentist #2 (highly recommended by a good friend). This dentist tells me that there is no way I should get all my amalgams replaced and that they are OK for now. (BTW Dentists #3 and #4 also agreed to leave in the amalgams). I also ask him to inspect the tooth where I am supposed have the small cavity ..l and he doesn’t find any cavity at all (not even an incipient, tiny one). Nothing. Just a tiny stain on my tooth, but no evidence of any decay. So that was when I realized that the other two tiny cavities that Dentist #1 said I had were most likely pure inventions to motivate the other treatment plan “While we have you number we might as well …” It also explained why she appeared so hesitant to fill the tiny cavities she said I had — because she knew she was just drilling healthy teeth.
I really liked Dentist #2, but unfortunately he retired during the pandemic, which has led me to Dentist #3 (who by the way did not find a cavity in the tooth Dentist #1 was talking about either). I actually kind of liked Dentist #3, but had a horrible experience during the filling of the one cavity (worst cavity filling experience ever), so that led me to Dentist #4 who saw no incipient cavities (which made me wonder about Dentist #3 a little), but who went right for all my molars, although none of the previous dentists had ever mentioned my needing any crowns.
There was also a suspicious push for more cleaning with Dentist #3. My teeth were supposedly so bad that I needed two separate cleaning — one at that appointment and one the very next week. I said: “Uh huh” and just did not schedule the second cleaning. When I saw the hygienist of Dentist #4 a year later, she actually complimented me on how “not so bad!” my tartar build up was. So, apparently, I didn’t really “need” the second cleaning pushed by the office of Dentist #3.
Anyway, sure I should just listen to professional advice — ha ha ha!
But, just found this article. A journalist went to 50 different dentists in different states and got about 50 different “treatment plans.” So, I guess it’s just like “pick a dentist and have some random work done on your teeth.”
Last edited by Jill_Schramm; 08-26-2022 at 05:24 AM..
bad when I live too. Many dentists just want to pull teeth and put in implants. 5000 to 10,000 a tooth. Thats where the money is. They arent interested in saving teeth.
But, just found this article. A journalist went to 50 different dentists in different states and got about 50 different “treatment plans.” So, I guess it’s just like “pick a dentist and have some random work done on your teeth.”
Since the article is from 1997. I wonder what, if anything, was updated.
This article originally ran in the February 1997 issue of Reader’s Digest.
The article discusses a case of massive overtreatment of many clients by one dentist, but then addresses the field at large.
From the article,
Quote:
Many standard dental treatments—to say nothing of all the recent innovations and cosmetic extravagances—are likewise not well substantiated by research. Many have never been tested in meticulous clinical trials. And the data that are available are not always reassuring
Also,
Quote:
A multitude of factors has conspired to create both the opportunity and the motive for widespread overtreatment in dentistry. In addition to dentistry’s seclusion from the greater medical community, its traditional emphasis on procedure rather than prevention, and its lack of rigorous self-evaluation, there are economic explanations. The financial burden of entering the profession is high and rising. In the U.S., the average debt of a dental-school graduate is more than $200,000. And then there’s the expense of finding an office, buying new equipment, and hiring staff to set up a private practice. A dentist’s income is entirely dependent on the number and type of procedures he or she performs; a routine cleaning and examination earns only a baseline fee of about $200.
In parallel with the rising cost of dental school, the amount of tooth decay in many countries’ populations has declined dramatically over the past four decades, mostly thanks to the introduction of mass-produced fluoridated toothpaste in the 1950s and ’60s. In the 1980s, with fewer genuine problems to treat, some practitioners turned to the newly flourishing industry of cosmetic dentistry, promoting elective procedures such as bleaching, teeth filing and straightening, gum lifts, and veneers. It’s easy to see how dentists, hoping to buoy their income, would be tempted to recommend frequent exams and proactive treatments—a small filling here, a new crown there—even when waiting and watching would be better. It’s equally easy to imagine how that behavior might escalate.
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