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Routine dental X-rays are not backed by evidence

(arstechnica.com)
352 points keithly | 2 comments | 14 Oct 24 21:37 UTC | HN request time: 0.576s | source
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pandatigox ◴[15 Oct 24 05:59 UTC] No.41845382[source]▶
Current final year dental student pitching in here. While dentists of the past may push for unnecessary annual radiographs, the curriculum in dental school has changed to favour evidence-based dentistry. Annual bitewings are only indicated if you're a high caries risk, and, as the article mentions, 2-3 years if you're low caries risk. So your younger/newer dentist will be following much better protocols (and hopefully not scamming you)!
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1. EasyMark ◴[15 Oct 24 15:03 UTC] No.41849355[source]▶
Kind of off topic, I had a dentist say “that needs to come out” for a wisdom tooth. I was of the opinion “it doesn’t hurt and it’s not even sensitive, so it stays in”, it was the only cavity I’d had in a very long time and I haven’t had any since. So we argued for 10 years over it to the point it became a joke between us. Well finally it became sensitive (not painful, but sugar and cold would set off a little pain) and I then had it pulled, my dentist was like “I told you” and I responded with “yeah for 10 years” . Is that a fairly typical situation?
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2. zwieback ◴[15 Oct 24 15:09 UTC] No.41849438[source]▶
I had the same thing with my dentist about one of my remaining wisdom teeth, we went back and forth for five years but it finally got bad enough to do something. I opted for a crown though and it's been good and not too bad out of pocket.