When I was young and just a bad little kid...

[legion]

My momma noticed funny things I did
Like shootin' puppies with a B B gun

I'd poison guppies, and when I was done
I'd find a pussy cat and bash its head
That's when my momma said...

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/05/the-trouble-with-dentistry/586039/

In early 2012, Lund retired. Brendon Zeidler, a young dentist looking to expand his business, bought Lund’s practice and assumed responsibility for his patients. Within a few months, Zeidler began to suspect that something was amiss. Financial records indicated that Lund had been spectacularly successful, but Zeidler was making only 10 to 25 percent of Lund’s reported earnings each month. As Zeidler met more of Lund’s former patients, he noticed a disquieting trend: Many of them had undergone extensive dental work—a much larger proportion than he would have expected. When Zeidler told them, after routine exams or cleanings, that they didn’t need any additional procedures at that time, they tended to react with surprise and concern: Was he sure? Nothing at all? Had he checked thoroughly?

In the summer, Zeidler decided to take a closer look at Lund’s career. He gathered years’ worth of dental records and bills for Lund’s patients and began to scrutinize them, one by one. The process took him months to complete. What he uncovered was appalling.
...
The uneasy relationship between dentist and patient is further complicated by an unfortunate reality: Common dental procedures are not always as safe, effective, or durable as we are meant to believe. As a profession, dentistry has not yet applied the same level of self-scrutiny as medicine, or embraced as sweeping an emphasis on scientific evidence. “We are isolated from the larger health-care system. So when evidence-based policies are being made, dentistry is often left out of the equation,” says Jane Gillette, a dentist in Bozeman, Montana, who works closely with the American Dental Association’s Center for Evidence-Based Dentistry, which was established in 2007. “We’re kind of behind the times, but increasingly we are trying to move the needle forward.”

Consider the maxim that everyone should visit the dentist twice a year for cleanings. We hear it so often, and from such a young age, that we’ve internalized it as truth. But this supposed commandment of oral health has no scientific grounding. Scholars have traced its origins to a few potential sources, including a toothpaste advertisement from the 1930s and an illustrated pamphlet from 1849 that follows the travails of a man with a severe toothache. Today, an increasing number of dentists acknowledge that adults with good oral hygiene need to see a dentist only once every 12 to 16 months.

Many standard dental treatments—to say nothing of all the recent innovations and cosmetic extravagances—are likewise not well substantiated by research. Many have never been tested in meticulous clinical trials. And the data that are available are not always reassuring.

The Cochrane organization, a highly respected arbiter of evidence-based medicine, has conducted systematic reviews of oral-health studies since 1999. In these reviews, researchers analyze the scientific literature on a particular dental intervention, focusing on the most rigorous and well-designed studies. In some cases, the findings clearly justify a given procedure. For example, dental sealants—liquid plastics painted onto the pits and grooves of teeth like nail polish—reduce tooth decay in children and have no known risks. (Despite this, they are not widely used, possibly because they are too simple and inexpensive to earn dentists much money.) But most of the Cochrane reviews reach one of two disheartening conclusions: Either the available evidence fails to confirm the purported benefits of a given dental intervention, or there is simply not enough research to say anything substantive one way or another.

[Jeff Hail]

That's a scary read. At 53 I've had my share of dental work and sometimes have gotten second, even third opinions to make an informed decision.

When I was a teenager my Orthodontist passed away in the middle of treatment, the Doc that took over the practice essentially started over at the expense of my parents. I had metal bands on for 5 years which resulted in decay under the bands and grooved enamel around the band edges. My Dentist finally demanded the Orthodontist remove the bands for health reasons. The expense to restore was about the cost of the orthodontia.

Fortunately I have both a great dentist and an awesome Perio on my team.

[Evans, Marv]

As a kid in elementary school, my parents sent me to a dentist. He told them I needed almost all my molars filled in the centers. I looked at my teeth and told my mother I didn't see anything to which she said, He's a dentist and he knows what you need." So most of my molars got large fillings right in the centers. Decades later the teeth began to crack and the fillings had to be removed and the teeth had to be capped. I commented to my current dentist about it. She just said there were some instances where some dentists weren't always especially interested in always doing right by their patients.

[widebody911]

Originally Posted by Evans, Marv

So most of my molars got large fillings right in the centers. Decades later the teeth began to crack and the fillings had to be removed and the teeth had to be capped.

Jeeze, I went through almost the exact same thing.

[legion]

My current dentist's attitude is that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I had zero fillings until....I moved to Georgia for a year. Suddenly my mouth was a minefield of cavities. I had two fillings in one year. Then I moved back to Illinois and resumed seeing my original dentist...no fillings since.

(I have had two root canals and crowns on two teeth I broke in half as a kid, but the root canals were the direct result of pain and infection and the crowns were finally getting permanent work done my parents refused to pay for when I was a kid.)

I kind of suspect the Georgia dentist was finding problems to ensure income.

[Evans, Marv]

Originally Posted by widebody911

Jeeze, I went through almost the exact same thing.

Must be/have been a fairly common scan perpetrated on ignorant folks (as my parents were) by unethical dentists. The ones I've had since have all seemed to be straight. The only thing since was a dentist that also did cosmetic work and was always promoting that sort of thing.

[1990C4S]

I have a lot of dentists in my family, so I am biased. I think the article takes one terrible dentist and runs a long long way with it.

The people who underwent the procedures are also culpable, there were multiple warning signs that any thinking person would have clued in to.

Dentistry has changed a lot over the last twenty years. If your dentist is 'old' you might think about finding s younger person.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by Evans, Marv

As a kid in elementary school, my parents sent me to a dentist. He told them I needed almost all my molars filled in the centers. I looked at my teeth and told my mother I didn't see anything to which she said, He's a dentist and he knows what you need." So most of my molars got large fillings right in the centers. Decades later the teeth began to crack and the fillings had to be removed and the teeth had to be capped. I commented to my current dentist about it. She just said there were some instances where some dentists weren't always especially interested in always doing right by their patients.

Mee three

I had lots of fillings as a kid. Many of those have had to have crowns put on them. A dentist friend said that in the "old days" they were a lot more aggressive in tooth material removal, leaving a lot of teeth weak.