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Comment by partiallypro | Hacker News Reader

I have largely stopped trusting dentists, unless I have pain. When my lifelong dentist fell out of network I went to a new dentist and they pushed all kinds of procedures and nonsense, saying I needed 3 fillings, etc. I've been to another dentist and they said things completely different. I don't understand how two professionals can draw polar opposite conclusions. It really seems they recommend needless procedures to fill their books of business and fleece costumers.

It's visible cavities and decay, it's not like you're diagnosing based on symptoms someone is describing to you, which I can understand for general doctors or specialists drawing blanks or different conclusions.

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An old acturian at my current job usually tease new developers that they are just like dentists - never satisfied with anyone elses work and always suggesting serious rework that is critically important.

Living with a dentist I learned that the single most important factor (by far) in the health of teeth is the genetic factor. Some people do not brush their teeth for years, never floss, have bad diets, etc. and still barely have a cavity. Others do it "by the book" and yet their teeth are a ruin. This is not to say that brushing teeth or flossing won't help. It will just not compensate if you pulled the genetic short straw.

But as in every job dentists also feel pressured to point out other people's lack of quality work to promote their own. You'll see this in the IT guy who immediately recognizes that whatever the previous one did on your computer was amateurish and they can do it better, same with the electrician, the plumber, the mechanic, the plastic surgeon, etc.

I often dream of having a bunch of experts in any field in the same room answer some kind of basic question.

After college I worked at the computing lab. Someone started to talk about OOP. One dude said that OO was one thing; the other contradicted saying it was another thing. They started to debate about what said things were really .. they never reached any sort of conclusion.

Medicine isn't different. Sometimes I think we need a 2-tiers doctor meeting where you can have at least 2 different opinions in one go.

  I've been to another dentist and they said
  things completely different. I don't 
  understand how two professionals can draw 
  polar opposite conclusions.

Isn't there some kind of solution for these sort of diagnostic aberrations or difference in medical opinions?

I know they have tumor boards for cancers and such where they try to arrive at a consensus plan of treatment for an individual patient.[1]

Surely there are such solutions for dental / other medical issues, right?

Somewhat tangential from all this, I'm amazed that in this day and age we still have such a hit or miss approach to treating patients. Its mind blowing how little our medicine has advanced in some aspects despite cutting edge innovations.

[1]

What Is a Tumor Board? An Expert Q&A

https://www.cancer.net/blog/2017-07/what-tumor-board-expert-...

My litmus test is what a new dentist says about my wisdom teeth (I have all four).

Please share what you expect a good dentist to say

not: "we should make a plan for removing these"

Those pokey things the stick in your teeth were found to create pockets in your teeth where bacteria can hide and actually cause cavities.

Source: a dentist.

You mean the pokey things a dentist holds when he's exploring your mouth? :)

Yes. Looks like Wikipedia confirms, so don't let dentists probe your teeth! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_explorer

" Some dental professionals have questioned this practice in the first decade of the twenty-first century.[1][2] The use of a sharp explorer to diagnose caries in pit and fissure sites is no longer recommended and clinicians instead should rely on "sharp eyes and a blunt explorer or probe." Penetration by a sharp explorer can actually cause cavitation in areas that are remineralizing or could be remineralized. "

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