[Porsche-O-Phile]

Dentists seem to epitomize the logic of "make sure they keep coming back". Yes, I'm all for having good teeth and oral hygiene, but there's no reason to have them keep fooling about with things that have already been fooled with. I go when there's a problem - that's it. And I tell them to fix the specific/immediate problem. My "preventive care" is my own business and responsibility.

Some universities have programs for student dentists where you can get the treatments at substantially reduced cost. This is what I've done the last few times. I have no problem with a student working on me, as everything is overseen by professors/practitioners probably with more care and attention to detail than they give to their own patients (because they're acting as evaluators/critics). The only downside I've found is that the treatments take a lot longer because the students will have to do such-and-such, stop, call over a professor to take a look, get their comments, do the next part, stop, etc... It ain't all that bad though. And the last student dentist I had was a very nice (and attractive) young lady who I ended up becoming friends with (I actually adopted one of my cats from her when she had to move). Something worth looking into - I bet ASU does it.