Dentists Keep Telling Me I Have Cavities. I'm Not Sure They Know What They're Doing
Do dentists know what they're doing?
A first-person account of dental care from age 17 to 26, spanning five dentists who offer contradictory diagnoses and treatments: tooth reshaping that worsened jaw pain, a splint that allegedly loosens teeth, twelve cavities that another dentist calls 'trolling for dollars,' and a night guard that misaligns teeth. The narrator questions whether dentists actually know what they're doing or are just motivated by profit.
She said I had fifteen cavities! I was so darn scared. I had her fill the first few but she drilled too deep and I got an abscess and almost freaking died. Whatever you do, don't go back to her. She's just out to milk her patients. How do you think she affords that nice office?
- tkdb
I'm surprised that there isn't more attention being paid to this question:
How does dental (or medical) care differ when the person recommending the procedure directly benefits financially from it?
I've had experiences with doctors who make exactly the same if they perform a $1,000 procedure or a $10,000 procedure, and I feel in general I'm likely to get better care in that scenario.
(In the US) I regularly scrutinize and stress over the dentist's recommendations, as they are almost always the owner of the business as well as the head dental procedure recommender.
- joshstrange
> Poor form. A good dentist should have more professional curiosity than this.
I find _very little_ "professional curiosity" exists overall. Heck, I don't even always see it within our industry where I think it's maybe more common? Maybe I'm biased.
s/dentists/doctors
I'm reading up on new tech stuff all the time and it shocks me that most of the doctors I've ever interacted with don't seem to be doing the same. It's like they are just coasting on what they learned in school. And since the vast majority of us only see 1 doctor of a given type at best once a year (maybe more for the dentist, but the same dentist) we never get any sort of "second opinion".
Think about all the people you've worked with in tech, now think about them being the sole-decider for how to architect/build something without any pushback or anyone else to push back or give advice. Yeah, that's how I imagine the whole medical field.
Sure, we'd all love to have "Dr House" and his team examining us (or insert your favorite tv doctor/team) but I have a feeling that the 5-10min I see my doctor plus another half hour at max to read my charts/respond to my messages is all the time he thinks about me for the whole year. <1hr of attention and I'm supposed to expect him to pick up on issues that aren't obvious in my blood work or other measurements he takes? It's bleak.
- tigen
In California we need "smog checks" and we have "test only" stations for this. The idea is they should be giving unbiased advice. They don't refer you to their buddies or things like that.
Claude, autocomplete this for dentistry.
- bubbluppugus
Science has successfully triggered growth of third set of dormant buds in various animals; various human trials are working their way through the process: https://dentistry.co.uk/2026/08/18/tooth-regrowth-in-adults-...
Fingers crossed we can start doing something like this and reduce overall use of gory hack and slash techniques (even still I assume not all cases will be able to avoid it).
- HarHarVeryFunny
My experience is that there is a huge difference in skill set and knowledge between different dentists. If you suspect your dentist is causing problems, or if your cleaning sessions are painful, then switch.
You'd like to think they are all equally competent trained professionals, but that is not the case.
I'm sure the same is true of doctors too.