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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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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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tomcam ◴[15 Oct 24 14:19 UTC] No.41848894[source]▶
Sorry to hijack this, but have you heard of people on whom no local anesthesia works? I have to be put under general anesthesia (yes, requiring an actual anesthetist at an extra $8,000 or so). The pain is not endurable otherwise.
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1. Doxin ◴[21 Oct 24 13:46 UTC] No.41904116[source]▶
Hi! The local anesthesia works poorly on me. To the point of the dentist using enough to where I can't feel my eyebrow. It's bearable but very much not fun. I've been largely just bearing down,but then recently I had a root canal done by a specialist.

I dunno what exactly he did, but him applying the anesthetic sucked way worse, but I didn't feel anything whatsoever during the root canal itself. So I'm definitely asking my regular dentist next time if he knows of any anesthetic methods that involve injecting it really slowly and it hurting, and if not if he could maybe have some conversations with his colleague about that.

So I guess nothing super helpful, other than the knowledge that the way the anesthetic is done has a LOT of influence on how well it works.