Routine dental X-rays are not backed by evidence

You might be surprised that treatment recommendations vary dramatically from one dentist office to the next. [1] I am glad to know this about X-rays as well- it’s probably a useful indicator that if X-rays are not overprescribed the dentist will more likely not over treat. And if they react defensively to being told you want to follow the ADA guidelines that’s probably a sign they don’t think about whether they are over treating.

[1] https://www.rd.com/article/how-honest-are-dentists/

Two stories.

1) Just yesterday I went to a an acclaimed dental school (UNC) for low cost dental care. They not only gave me a panoramic x ray but also a full set of bite-wing x rays. I read this and I want to break the world apart this morning.

2) When I was a child I kep needing root canals. It turned out our dentist was making these all up and was later found passed out from laughing gas in his office.

I strongly suspect my dentist is making shit up, too. I had to refuse a couple of expensive treatments. The main goal seems to be to “use up” my dental insurance more than anything.

My dad has been a dentist for 30+ years and retired a few years ago.

Recently he did some 3-month contract work for a very large dental chain, let’s call it Penass.

I’ve never seen him so depressed in my live. He said that Penass’s business model was all about running up insurance and selling loans for large operations. He was directly encouraged to do extra, not necessary work to run up the bill.

He came out of retirement after that and started another practice out of, what I can only guess, was frustration and guilt.

A lot of these large dental chains absolutely tack on extra work and do a shitty job to keep people coming back.

In the US, I highly recommend looking for independent “boutique” dentists. Even if they are out of your insurance network, a lot of them will give better rates if you pay in cash.