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352 points keithly | 3 comments | | HN request time: 0.617s | source
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pandatigox ◴[] 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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mtalantikite ◴[] No.41848929[source]
I started going to a new dental office a few years back with a bunch of younger staff here in Brooklyn. They clearly spent a ton of money on the build out, and all the dentists were probably 30s/40s. They did the typical "you skipped your x-rays last checkup, you're now 1.5 years behind. You need to do those now" thing. When I asked how much it'd cost out of pocket, they told me an update was $80. I thought "oh wow, I guess these new machines are just better and cheaper, as technology tends to go". They did them and then the dentist came in, told me that there was some feint thing on one of my molars that might possibly be a cavity and they should do a filling now. The hygienist seemed surprised, so I declined and said let's keep an eye on it. Went out to pay at the front desk, and nope, it was $80 per x-ray, (so $320), plus $150 for the dentist to try and sell me a cavity filling, plus the base price of the cleaning. I got upset, since that wasn't communicated to me, and they knocked off some of the x-ray cost.

I never went back. I found an older dentist and every patient in the office was a retiree, which made me feel confident they knew what they were doing (I'm sure they've got a lot of hard cases). I asked about the possible cavity and they said they saw nothing, everything is fine.

That's all just to say that the young dentists likely have a lot of debt between school and office build outs, and I wouldn't be surprised if they're up-selling services to try and get their practice out of it. I wouldn't trust them any more to be honest about practices just because they're young.

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1. steveBK123 ◴[] No.41849595[source]
Any chance this new dental office was in Williamsburg, because I'm pretty sure I know the spot...
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2. mtalantikite ◴[] No.41849795[source]
It is, although I'm pretty sure there are a few in the neighborhood these days that I'd guess would likely do the same thing! This one is close to Domino.
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3. steveBK123 ◴[] No.41850356[source]
Oh yes, that's the place.