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Comment by cj | Hacker News Reader

This reminds me of when I went to a dentist in SF who told me I needed to have my wisdom teeth out.

I did the initial exam, and then hesitated when it came to booking the procedure. The dentist noticed my hesitation, and said something along the lines of "And after the surgery, don't forget we'll also prescribe really great pain medication!"

10 years later my new dentist says the wisdom teeth are fine and to leave them in.

In the US, dentists and doctors are running businesses first and foremost. They have profit and revenue goals just the same as any business.

Always get a 2nd opinion if you're unsure whether you're getting the best treatment.

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Starting from my mid teens, I've had around a half dozen dentists tell me that I should get my wisdom teeth removed without me reporting any problems or having any negative side effects from them. I've declined to have them removed every time and I'm still sporting four healthy wisdom teeth into my 40's which now is decades of dentists negligently telling me to get them pulled for their own profit.

My family practice doctor has never recommended that I get a pinky finger removed, I don't understand why dentists recommend removing perfectly functional and healthy body parts unsolicited. At this point I just use it as a metric of the dentist's trustworthiness.

I'm in the same position, although luckily it was only two dentists who recommended that before I found a third who said "wait and see". I stayed with her through my twenties until I moved away, and now at 40 I still have all four wisdom teeth and never had any issues with them.

However, to be fair to the previous dentists, I was doing this through the Irish free dental program and they wouldn't have made that much money. I think there's very high chance of wisdom teeth going wrong and many of them default to removing them to be safe. That may something wrong with modern dentistry - perhaps dentists in twenty years will look at it as an archaic practice - but that doesn't necessarily make it a scam.

Thank you for mentioning the Irish system and being fair.

I was going through the US Army system (also not a monetized system) when I got swept into some sort of new training pipeline, where the newest (and youngest) Army recruits, me included, were being treated (by the newest dentists.) One after another, each of the Soldiers began coming "home" to our barracks from the dentist with chipmunk faces (swelling from wisdom tooth surgery) so when it was my turn, I declined the surgery. I was shown xrays of my wisdom teeth not erupted, and they fairly explained that they could erupt crooked. I took my chances, kept them, and still have them 20 years later.

They went on to the next, and it was no harm, no foul. Some people might come from backgrounds where they don't care for their teeth, so the free procedure now was in their best interest, and some dentists just want to get training and do more procedures.

You are so right about that! If everyone is getting them pulled, we no longer have data on what percent of people can't clean them well at home and they end up rotten in later life.

I agree it sucks to have to jam my toothbrush into the back of my cheek to clean my wisdom teeth, but I am glad to do it.

I think this is incredibly common. I currently have my wisdom teeth which are not bothering me at all, and I have received completely contrary advice with one dentist gently encouraging me to have them removed at my next convenience, and one telling me to not really worry about it. Since I suffer no pain or discomfort I have decided to just leave them be for the time being.

Odd, my dentist's hygenist complains that people who have their wisdom teeth suck at taking care of them in general.

Mine got pulled for good reason. They were severely impacted, and pushing other teeth out of alignment. (I can still feel that I have out of alignment teeth in the far back of my mouth.)

Not everyone should "keep their wisdom teeth." Sometimes... they gotta go.

Mine were not impacted but they are the hardest teeth to keep clean as they are so far back in the jaw. I've since had two of them pulled for decay, the other two are still healthy.

>Odd, my dentist's hygenist complains that people who have their wisdom teeth suck at taking care of them in general.

Mine complains about having to clean them since they have to reach way in there to get at them, but it always pleasantly surprised how well I keep them clean.

Aha! So they don't like the extra work. I wonder if that is part of the problem! These teeth are a pain to deal with. I wish they would be more impressed with your ability to clean them rather than complain.

I think the issue is that a lot of times they get impacted, where they are basically sideways cramming into another tooth, and it's a lot easier to remove them before that happens than afterwards, which means dentists tend to be really aggressive about suggesting they get removed. One of those situations where you see the problem a lot so you think it's a bigger deal than it actually is. Like someone that works at a car dealer saying that every Whatever is crap because that's all the work on, despite it statistically not being worse than any other model.

I got them out because I'd randomly get a dorrito or something stuck right inside the gum causing them to bleed and be messed up for a week, about 4 times a year.

I had a dentist in Seattle that urged me to get some fillings done. They wanted to do at least 3. COVID happened and I didn't feel comfortable going into the dentist's office, but they called me every three months for those entire 2 years urging me to come back in. Weird thing was my teeth felt great that whole time... I wondered with each slightly more urgent phone call that they worried I would end up deciding I didn't need the fillings!

Eventually I moved and switched dentists. On my first exam, he suggested one filling but said if it wasn't bothering me then I don't have to schedule it. Strange indeed.

I'll add - I have taken to asking for an incorrect second opinion. Did this by accident the first time and it has worked well since.

Dentis A says tooth on the left side needs a rootcanal.

Ask Dentist B for a second opinion on the tooth on the other side of my mouth.

If they 'agree' I probably don't need either one.

When I was a teenager, there was a dentist in my town who had the reputation to be the best guy at removing wisdom teeth. Everybody and their mother wanted to have their wisdom teeth removed there. Fortunately, my father told me this was BS and I kept them.

That being said, where I live dentists don't make a lot of profit on that kind of care. They earn on crowns.

> 10 years later my new dentist says the wisdom teeth

You got lucky. Pretty much every wisdom tooth consultation goes like this "they might grow in ok, but they might not and that will cause other issues".

"and so will will wait until evidence for one of those other issues is observable." said no dentist ever.

I'm 53 and one of them is sideways and has been sideways for 30-odd years, it still doesn't hurt and until it does it can stay where it is, only the teeth dentists have worked on have problems.

If it suddenly becomes a problem 10 years from now I'll be really surprised.

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