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Routine dental X-rays are not backed by evidence

(arstechnica.com)
352 points keithly | 3 comments | 14 Oct 24 21:37 UTC | HN request time: 0.813s | 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Other outdated yet still routine dental practices include polishing of teeth during checkups for any justification other than cosmetic reasons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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1. wccrawford ◴[14 Oct 24 22:28 UTC] No.41842806[source]▶
I had the opposite experience. I told the dentist that I thought my wisdom teeth were causing my migraines, and they said it was possible but unlikely, and didn't really recommend removing them. I pushed, and they relented. They were right, it didn't make any difference.

Oddly, I only had wisdom teeth on one side, and not the other. So only 2 teeth were removed.

replies(1): >>41848723 #
2. red-iron-pine ◴[15 Oct 24 14:03 UTC] No.41848723[source]▶
sounds like the dentist was on the level. lotta things it could be, and those may be easy to address without dental surgery.

did you ever figure out what the root cause of the migraines was?

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3. wccrawford ◴[15 Oct 24 23:36 UTC] No.41854207[source]▶
Unfortunately, no. And they've been getting worse over the years. I have, however, found Excedrin Migraine is really good at dealing with them, so it's not as big a deal as it was, since I hadn't found anything back then.