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I have found that dental clinics in the US can be some of the shadiest health related businesses you have to deal with. There are few independent clinics aroun

by elteto 5y ago

I have found that dental clinics in the US can be some of the shadiest health related businesses you have to deal with. There are few independent clinics around. Most of them belong to huge corporate conglomerates that push down shady treatments like this, or offer predatory financing for these “treatments”. I’ve had only two instances of a health professional outright lying to me and telling me I had a health condition that I didn’t have, and both times were dentists. One of those times was also about periodontal disease, so it seems like this is a common thing. A good heuristic is that if the treatment isn’t covered at all by insurance it very well might be worthless.

asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
One thing I've found is that many doctors are willing to share the rationale for their decisions and recommendations if you question them on the state of the research. Some have even gone as far as to send me papers after we've met. Doctors in many cases are human body-nerds and are willing to talk with interested patients about their subject. Doctors who won't justify themselves can often be avoided at least in medium-sized and larger urban areas. The main observation is that in medicine you need to be your own advocate. The doctor is used to people who just want an answer or a cure. They're not going to break out the journals for every patient because most patients don't want that. This also goes for dentistry.
chrisdhal 5y ago
Maybe that's regional? In my area (Minneapolis/St. Paul metro), there are tons of independent dentists and few conglomerates (at least that I know of). In my little-ish suburb (25k people) there are no corporate ones but about 6 independent ones. I go to an independent office (2 dentists) and I've never felt pressured by them and they've even said things like, "It looks like that may turn into a cavity, but we can wait and see what happens." Obviously I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but like anything, it's not everywhere.

by elteto 5y ago

asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago

One thing I've found is that many doctors are willing to share the rationale for their decisions and recommendations if you question them on the state of the research. Some have even gone as far as to send me papers after we've met. Doctors in many cases are human body-nerds and are willing to talk with interested patients about their subject. Doctors who won't justify themselves can often be avoided at least in medium-sized and larger urban areas. The main observation is that in medicine you need to be your own advocate. The doctor is used to people who just want an answer or a cure. They're not going to break out the journals for every patient because most patients don't want that. This also goes for dentistry.

chrisdhal 5y ago

Maybe that's regional? In my area (Minneapolis/St. Paul metro), there are tons of independent dentists and few conglomerates (at least that I know of). In my little-ish suburb (25k people) there are no corporate ones but about 6 independent ones. I go to an independent office (2 dentists) and I've never felt pressured by them and they've even said things like, "It looks like that may turn into a cavity, but we can wait and see what happens." Obviously I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but like anything, it's not everywhere.