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True. I'm in the Army, so I typically see Army dentists. That means that they're on salary (edited to add: in a rigidly seniority-based promotion system, workin

True. I'm in the Army, so I typically see Army dentists. That means that they're on salary (edited to add: in a rigidly seniority-based promotion system, working in a clinic that isn't concerned with profit and loss), not getting paid under a fee-for-service model. It also means that I see a different dentist every time I go in, due to them working interchangeably on a team and all of us moving every 1-3 years. Anyway, despite them having no obvious incentive to influence their work one way or the other, I get told different things every time I go in. One dentist found a cavity during my annual exam, and when I showed up for my appointment to do the filling, the next dentist couldn't find the cavity. So, yeah, I think it's more art than science.

lolinder 2y ago
> One dentist found a cavity during my annual exam, and when I showed up for my appointment to do the filling, the next dentist couldn't find the cavity. I'm also suspicious that our teeth aren't as completely incapable of self-healing as we have long been taught. I haven't looked at the research that led people to the non-healing conclusion, but I've heard many anecdotes like yours, and I don't think it can all be attributed to fraud or mistakes. Intuitively it also just seems odd that we would have one part of our body—and a frequently abused one no less!—that is uniquely incapable of repairing itself.