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Routine dental X-rays are not backed by evidence

(arstechnica.com)
352 points keithly | 1 comments | 14 Oct 24 21:37 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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krackers ◴[14 Oct 24 21:56 UTC] No.41842434[source]▶
Other outdated yet still routine dental practices include polishing of teeth during checkups for any justification other than cosmetic reasons
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jebarker ◴[14 Oct 24 22:03 UTC] No.41842519[source]▶
My bugbear with dentists in the US (after living my first 30 years in the UK) is that they all continually hassle me to have my wisdom teeth removed. Said teeth have never caused me any problems and are all through the gums. I can only assume it's dogma or an opportunity to bill insurance for costly unnecessary surgery.
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hcrisp ◴[14 Oct 24 22:08 UTC] No.41842574[source]▶
I asked mine, and he said the wisdom teeth can crowd teeth if the jaw size is too small causing buckling (a cosmetic issue). More seriously, it can interfere with nerves in your jaw (again because of size constraints) causing numbness / paralysis, etc. Likely the decision to remove them comes down to your genetic / jaw structure and whether they have fully come in yet or not.

https://www.webmd.com/oral-health/wisdom-teeth-removal-neces...

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1. sidewndr46 ◴[14 Oct 24 22:23 UTC] No.41842739[source]▶
The other thing that can interfere with the nerves in your jaw is having them extracted. One of my family members has no feeling there because the extraction was bungled years ago.