4 ms·

Oi, that sure was lengthy. Summary: Some hospital in Pennsylvania tries to make money by doing unnecessary procedures on patients with good health insurance and

by andreyf 17y ago

Oi, that sure was lengthy. Summary: Some hospital in Pennsylvania tries to make money by doing unnecessary procedures on patients with good health insurance and went to great lengths to keep this lady from seeking a second opinion regarding her injury. IMO, this is the incentive of nearly all doctors in America - the dentists I've had span the entire spectrum of opinions about my wisdom teeth. From "if we don't take them out, you can die from a gum infection" to "do they hurt? no? do you eat meat? then you should keep them, they'll makes it easier to chew".

davidw 17y ago
About 15 years ago, the dentist I went to said dire things about the immense pain my wisdom teeth were going to cause in my immediate future. I told him I'd make an appointment right away when that happened, even though his advice was to intervene as soon as possible to 'avoid any future problems'. I still have all of them and aside from the occasional twinge, they are just fine.
- pyre 17y ago
  It's not necessarily about money though. To my knowledge, most people have problems with their wisdom teeth coming in wrong and screwing up their other teeth. If this is the majority case, then going on the offensive and taking care of them early can make sense rather than waiting to have issues. Sometimes these cases end up sounding to me like the people who try to decry the state laws requiring you to wear a seatbelt by pointing out the relatively few cases where not wearing a seatbelt did save (or could have saved) someone's life. They completely ignore the overwhelming number of cases where seatbelts do save people's lives. It's just a case of people trying to make the facts fit a conclusion that they've already come to and don't want to change.
  - zargon 17y ago
    That comparison is like saying that when someone gets diagnosed with diabetes, they should preemptively amputate their feet so as to avoid trouble with them later.
    - pyre 17y ago
      So you are saying that removal of wisdom teeth gives you a disability similar to removal of feet?
      - zargon 17y ago
        Point taken. How about giving everyone an appendicectomy, just in case?
        pyre 17y ago
        So far as I know appendix removal is move invasive of a surgery with more risk than removal of wisdom teeth is. Other than that, I would want to see the numbers on '% of people that need appendix removal' vs '% of people that need wisdom teeth removal.' My suspicion is that the latter is much higher than the former, but I could be wrong.
  - davidw 17y ago
    You'd have to go to statistics to make any sort of real determination, of course (anecdotes, data, etc...), but it's definitely not something where I'm trying to make the facts fit a conclusion - it happened that way and it made me suspicious of at least one dentist.

by andreyf 17y ago

davidw 17y ago

About 15 years ago, the dentist I went to said dire things about the immense pain my wisdom teeth were going to cause in my immediate future. I told him I'd make an appointment right away when that happened, even though his advice was to intervene as soon as possible to 'avoid any future problems'. I still have all of them and aside from the occasional twinge, they are just fine.

pyre 17y ago
It's not necessarily about money though. To my knowledge, most people have problems with their wisdom teeth coming in wrong and screwing up their other teeth. If this is the majority case, then going on the offensive and taking care of them early can make sense rather than waiting to have issues. Sometimes these cases end up sounding to me like the people who try to decry the state laws requiring you to wear a seatbelt by pointing out the relatively few cases where not wearing a seatbelt did save (or could have saved) someone's life. They completely ignore the overwhelming number of cases where seatbelts do save people's lives. It's just a case of people trying to make the facts fit a conclusion that they've already come to and don't want to change.
- zargon 17y ago
  That comparison is like saying that when someone gets diagnosed with diabetes, they should preemptively amputate their feet so as to avoid trouble with them later.
  - pyre 17y ago
    So you are saying that removal of wisdom teeth gives you a disability similar to removal of feet?
    - zargon 17y ago
      Point taken. How about giving everyone an appendicectomy, just in case?
      - pyre 17y ago
        So far as I know appendix removal is move invasive of a surgery with more risk than removal of wisdom teeth is. Other than that, I would want to see the numbers on '% of people that need appendix removal' vs '% of people that need wisdom teeth removal.' My suspicion is that the latter is much higher than the former, but I could be wrong.
- davidw 17y ago
  You'd have to go to statistics to make any sort of real determination, of course (anecdotes, data, etc...), but it's definitely not something where I'm trying to make the facts fit a conclusion - it happened that way and it made me suspicious of at least one dentist.