Hacker News Reader

Comment by rossdavidh | Hacker News Reader

At the very end of the article: "This article originally ran in the February 1997 issue of Reader’s Digest."

Surely this should be noted in the HN title?

I note that one of the few dentists he mentions by name as providing a diagnosis consistent with his panel and a reasonable estimate is still practicing: Dr. Henry Wah in Marion, AR, apparently still has a good reputation and has been joined by other family members: https://wahfamilydentistry.com/

Hah, that explains why all the quoted prices seem low compared to what they are now.

Yeah, I read through this thinking "what the heck!" regarding the low prices.

I caught that too…after I had already shared this with my wife

But it still feels relevant. I had a dentist that wanted to drill cavities out with every visit, regardless of how often I flossed and brushed

Been to four dentists since and haven’t been told anything bad at all. There absolutely still exist dentists who are cashing in on us.

I used to be told I had cavities all the time when I was younger, despite religious brushing. Since moving elsewhere, no cavities ever. I did have one dentist who insisted on redoing almost all of these fillings (~8-10 over a few visits). I now rarely stick with the same dentist for long, oftentimes it’s clear they have some upsell. One recently tried to convince me I’m grinding my teeth At night. Having had multiple sleep studies done that have not noted this, and no other dentists corroborating this opinion, it’s clear it’s just a way to sell their fancy laser-fit mouth guards.

Oh wow thanks for posting this. I read this and was thinking “I feel like deja vu from an article I was reading in a physical copy of RD from like 20 years ago” but the bottom seemed to indicate it was originally posted in 2020.

I am guessing today the prognosis will be different and all dentists will give him the same diagnosis. The sub-title will be

> From all dentists, I got a quote of $29,850!

Wow, seeing this headline brought back a faint memory of reading a similar story in a Reader’s Digest at my grandparents’ house decades ago. Apparently it’s the same story!

Dentistry has improved in leaps and bounds since 1997 - as the monetary incentive to over-prescribe treatments has now gone, right? /s

Yeah, agreed, I totally don't believe this problem has gone away. In fact, it is still a noteworthy article for the very reason that it was 26 years ago but sounds like it could have happened yesterday. But, it should be noted in the HN title.

The current trend is for the remaining independent dentist (vets, pharmcies, etc) practices to be bought up by international private equity and enshittified.

The easiest wya to make this happen is to just write

(1997)

as the entire comment. Dang will usually edit the title whenever he notices that.

That would explain the absurdly low cost for a crown. I just wish I could pay $500 for a decent crown but they're more like $1500 to $2,000

Oh, I thought somebody repeated the experiment. I remember this was a classic article.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com