(Wife is a dentist.) There are a lot of immoral people out there, but "see the dentist only if there is evidence of a problem" is a bad strategy. Tooth decay

(Wife is a dentist.) There are a lot of immoral people out there, but "see the dentist only if there is evidence of a problem" is a bad strategy. Tooth decay is a slow process and the treatments slowly ramp up in invasiveness: when it's minor you can use sealant (like painting over it), if it progresses you get a filling (with some minor drilling), if that progresses you get a root canal (drilling out the whole nerve and replacing the bulk of the tooth). You may only reach the threshold of feeling pain at the point of needing a root canal when it can be preventable earlier. (I do suspect hygienists are capable of spotting most of this but my impression is they're not licensed to diagnose.)