These kind of experiences are why I try to vet a new dentist very hard before trusting them, even going so far as to getting a second opinion if the new one finds anything.
I fear there's not really a good way to vet Dentists effectively since most people probably never find out that they've been scammed for years. I'd love to learn some new strategies though.
It's something the government should be doing; running sting operations against dentists with compliants against them. Unfortunately, dentists and prosecutors are in the same social circles.
The problem is that the crooked dentist will argue that the "bait" patient has in fact have cavities. And then if the prosecutor finds somehow convincing evidence that the patient does not actually have cavities the crooked dentist can change tactic and say it was a honest mistake on their part.
With other crimes where "sting operations" work the situation is much more clear cut. The target of the drug sting is either selling drugs or not selling drugs. If you find drugs you can easily prosecute them. With the dental scam even if you manage to catch them red handed once, it is still a long and complicated process to prove it was a scam and not a mistake.
Or alternatively we can legislate to make making mistakes with dental diagnosis illegal the same way having large batches of drugs is illegal. That will make the prosecution easier, but will have all kind of other negative consequences.
There's no shortage of people who would damn-near volunteer for the work, given how many of us have had multiple run-ins with crooked dentists.
Even if it cost, say, $10k to catch each scumbag dentist, the ROI to society would be tremendous. Catch enough dentists in the space of a few months, apply appropriate consequences, and the whole culture will change.
That said, in reality the dentists would 'hire lobbyists' to kill anything like this.
Could it be done as a non-profit perhaps? I mean we clearly can’t do the licence suspension and the jail time that way but we could maybe shame the scammers?
The main issue I foresee is that there's just so much to be outraged about in the world now. People are using shameful behavior to distract from worse shames - it's been weaponized!
So, making a significant impact in a crowded 'shame market', across a tightly controlled media landscape, generally requires a highly skilled dedicated team.
I was wondering about this problem since this thread; specifically, wouldn't it be rather easy to use big data techniques to catch dentists who are way outside norms?
And after looking into it, it seems that insurance companies, Medicaid etc have been doing exactly this, and catching some pretty big fish. It's new for me to give insurance companies much credit for doing anything good, and I feel weird now. Real enemy of my enemy stuff.
What? Are there dentist/prosecutor cocktail parties us software grunts are missing out on?
That said - I'm sure they have tight regulations on who is allowed to X-ray teeth, and diverse ways to keep their own in line should they threaten the apple cart.
Ever heard of nano silver fluoride? ... Exactly. (Unless you saw the HN story on it here recently [0].)
The cost of each filling nets the dentist $100+ and each patient now becomes a repeat customer and serves the dental industry for life. There is no ethics in this space and it's unfortunately a BIG SCAM.
My school dentist always botched the anesthesia, and afterwards I had to grind my teeth for three days to make them fit together again.
I never told anyone because adults kept saying dentistry hurts so I assumed it was normal. I didn't realize how fucked up this was until I went to college and experienced a competent dentist for the first time.
I had problems way back in the 90s with them not working too well on me. But my current dentist gets it perfect every time - properly numb very fast, but remaining fairly localised.
#notalldentists, of course, but there are certainly unscrupulous ones out there, and not just a few.
I once went to a dentist and they told me they want to pull 13 of my teeth and give me dentures.
I knew they were in bad shape but this absolutely freightened me. Four of them were my wisdom teeth but I still thought it was nuts.
15 years later, I still have all of the 13 they wanted to pull.
I did lose two unrelated molars and the matching wisdom teeth basically slid into place replacing them. Then two root canals + crowns.
That experience turned me off dentists for a long time.
My current dentist is great. They do all they can do save a tooth and only extract as a last resort.
So the molars are a back up replacement system?
It was not an intentional replacement or anything the dentist did. I had my back molars pulled and then a few years later while trying to start flossing again I noticed they were back and basically in the same position. I doubted myself for a moment if my memory was failing. Just such a slow long process.
Maybe this is where AI helps with analysis of x-rays. Is there really an urgent issue? Or can it wait?
Maybe insurance companies would be interested in AI review on the basis of future costs. Informed patients might be, too.
I finally found an honest one that prioritizes my comfort and doesn't charge me an arm and a leg, and I've been a customer for over 20 years.
I moved to a different city a few years ago, but I will still drive 1.5 hours in traffic to go see my dentist (I'll try to book outside of rush hour though).
I did try one dentist close to my new house, and it was awful. It reinforced my confidence in my regular dentist. Never going to anyone else as long as I live.
Once you find a good one, stay with them as long as you can. Not all dentists are the same, it's no joke, some are just there to rip you off.
Me, I had mine "professionally cleaned" for the first time in my life about 9 months back, and they've felt permanently a bit off ever since.