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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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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. robocat ◴[15 Oct 24 12:07 UTC] No.41847679[source]▶
My dentist in New Zealand is about USD200 every six months for the gold plated option. The x-ray is free. Dentists are relatively well paid in New Zealand. Looks like helping hygienist gets USD25-USD30 per hour. Minimum wage in NZ is about USD14/hr for unskilled labour or poorly paying food service jobs.

My friend is getting an implant and the total cost is about USD8000. The government is covering most of it because it was an accident (sporting).