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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: 0.203s | source
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rdtsc ◴[14 Oct 24 22:06 UTC] No.41842547[source]▶
> "Financial aspects of dental radiography also deserve further study," Feit added

No joke. That is a major money maker. There is minimal cost per-use and your insurance pays $200 for it (my last one was $186.00 for instance). The dentists would be crazy not to recommend them as of often as possible.

Fluoride "rinses" are likely up there too. Rinse for a few seconds and they charge the insurance $50 or something for it.

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ninalanyon ◴[15 Oct 24 07:40 UTC] No.41845904[source]▶
Those prices are absurd. My whole annual check up including a digital X-ray, visual inspection, tartar removal, polishing, costs less than that.

And that is in high cost Norway.

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throwaway2037 ◴[15 Oct 24 08:05 UTC] No.41846093[source]▶
How much did it cost?

If _much_ lower than 200 USD per visit in a very wealthy country, then I assume:

(a) dentists don't make very much money. Less than 100K USD?

(b) most of the work is done by poorly paid dental assistants (20 USD per hour or less).

Running a high quality dental clinic is expensive, both for equipment and staff. How can it be so cheap in Norway?

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1. matsemann ◴[15 Oct 24 09:02 UTC] No.41846533[source]▶
I'd say they're in the upper percentiles here in Norway when it comes to making money. Especially if they're having a small privat clinic instead of "renting a chair". So maybe not too much when converted USD, but they're often well off here.

I've had the dentist themselves always do most of the work. The assistant is often shared between multiple dentists in the same office in my experience.