<p>I’m not surprised – that she didn’t get the job, and that they’re were invisible cavities.</p>
<p>Along with the need for dental work, the other Great Unknown is whether your auto mechanic is truthful too . . . .</p>
<p>How about your cardiologist? <a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/health/06stent.html?_r=1[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/health/06stent.html?_r=1</a></p>
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<p>I still have my wisdom teeth and have never had problems with them. Once when I was in my 40s I visited a new dentist. The dentist recommended that I get all my wisdom teeth pulled. I had no cavities in them, but he said that wisdom teeth are prone to cavities, and cavities in wisdom teeth are hard to fill…so much so that his office will not fill them.</p>
<p>I said, “Thanks, but no thanks” to the extraction suggestion and found another dentist.</p>
<p>Sorry – no time to read all the posts, but I did read the OP’s story. We had a similar experience when S was in elementary school. Long story, but here’s the short version. The dentist we had all been seeing, died. (Very sad – young kids, rare cancer.) His practice was taken over and we started seeing the new guy. H went for a check-up and was told he had a cavity. Pretty unusual, we thought, but he went back and had it filled. D & I went for check-ups and all was well. Then S went (for some reason we were all on different schedules) and the dentist came out to the waiting room to tell me he had 4 cavities. I was blown away! If he had told me S had 1, I would have swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. But 4??? I made an appointment with another, recommended dentist, but didn’t tell him what the first dentist had said; just that I wanted S’s teeth checked. Of course the new dentist found NO CAVITIES!!! I then told him about the first dentist, and he (new dentist) said he was getting LOTS of new patients moving from that practice. H was livid since he was convinced he was scammed on the 1 filling. Needless to say we all moved to the new dentist. I then told everyone I knew who went to the old practice, and they all switched.</p>
<p>My dentist has equipment where he can show you your teeth using a small camera and a computer so I can see what he is talking about before getting something done. I can see right then and there what he has to fix.</p>
<p>My dentist has that too. So she was able to show me the crack she found in the enamel in back of one of my teeth, and explain that that was the probably source of the toothache, before she did the filling.</p>
<p>Gosh–it seems like bad dentists are impossible to avoid at some point in your life. Worries me a lot because I DO have bad teeth–tons of cavities diagnosed by multiple dentists in two countries throughout my life, one root canal after ongoing discomfort for a year, stains on my front teeth due to uneven enamel, etc.–so it would be hard for me to tell if a dentist is recommending unnecessary treatment.</p>
<p>My old dentist–switched for insurance reasons–would always demonstrate large cavities by xray and small cavities by how the probing instrument would “stick” in the tooth’s surface. Fortunately I have naturally straight teeth, since the enamel/constant cavities are problem enough.</p>
<p>“The board does post a list of disciplinary actions on their website, and also keeps a database of corrective actions that you can ask them to search (corrective is less than disciplinary).”</p>
<p>Don’t ever trust medical/dental boards to protect you. I used to work for our State Board of Health, which oversaw the other boards. In one year, with 22,000+ physicians, there were fewer than 20 board actions against docs. They pretty much had to be convicted of rape in the office for an action to be taken.</p>
<p>The only thing that protects you in the medical/dental world is the legal system.</p>
<p>Agreed, mini, but in this case there would be no legal recourse, as no work was actually done based on the incorrect diagnosis. So the board is pretty much the only option we have. I did find it very annoying that I will not be able to see any information about the dentist’s defense on this item, where she can see all the information I provide to the board. The board person said it is a state law in our state (I asked her for the statute, as I think that might also be worth of a note to my state legislators).</p>
<p>OP - That’s great that you are following up on the dental scam.</p>
<p>It saddens me that “buyer beware” extends into the dental and medical arena.</p>
<p>OP here. The dentist called me back this morning. She said she reviewed the xrays with another dentist in the same building as her office, and he thought MORE work was needed than she did. :eek: She tried to talk me into bringing D in to see this other dentist! I declined, and let her know that because this was such a big difference of opinion, we do plan to file a complaint with the state dental board. She then shifted to, “Well, I didn’t actually DRILL”. So… D will be filling out the complaint forms this week.</p>
<p>I could potentially understand a minor difference of professional opinion over one “trouble spot” and what to do about it… but FOUR cavities that multiple other dentists, in different countries even, say don’t exist???</p>
<p>This dentist is either grossly negligent or, more likely, has just been caught red handed attempting to commit medical insurance fraud. </p>
<p>Dentists don’t make much doing cleanings and sending you home with a clean bill of health. They make most of their income fixing problems so there’s a lot of incentive to convincing you that you need lots of expensive work done. Most dentists are honest professionals and wont suggest you get treatments you don’t need, but for those that are willing to commit fraud they can make lots of $$$ filling not existent cavities and such. </p>
<p>Do you have dental insurance or some other insurance that would have covered part of the “cavity” charges? (sorry if this was already mentioned, didn’t read every single post) If so, I would certainly contact them in addition to the state’s medical/dental board. Since you have proper documentation I’m sure they, or one of their fraud investigators, would like to have a little chat with this dentist.</p>
<p>We do have dental insurance. They would have paid 50% of the fillings cost. I think I am going to wait and see what happens with the board complaint first. Unless they refuse to pay for this second set of xrays (actually her 3rd set in 4 months, but I didn’t send it a claim for the cost of the dentist in her study abroad country, as it was only 7 Euros!!).</p>
<p>When we first arrived in the town where we are living, DH went to see a new dentist who told him that almost all his fillings were lose and needed to be replaced. He said he only used real gold for fillings and he gave us a quote in the thousands. DH went to another dentist for a second opinion and now 34 years later, his old fillings are still fine and no one else suggested replacing them.</p>
<p>Same story here. Dentist bills himself as very proactive and practicing preventative medicine. Not a bad thing but in order to operate like that one needs very expensive, modern equipment that will detect the tiniest of suspicious areas that “might” turn into cavities. One daughter was advised to “catch” about 11 of these spots. This from a girl who never had not one cavity. Same prognosis for another daughter. One of them would have had to give up a semester’s tuition if treatment was completed as advised. New dentist is much more in the wait and see camp. If it turns into a cavity we’ll fill it then. 4 years later no cavities. I don’t think it’s actually dishonest or unethical he just is using the results that his advanced tools can provide. We just can’t afford that kind of treatment. In most situations it is better to treat before the problem becomes too large…i.e. car rust. But in this situation we are taking his word that there is a problem and it most likely will get worse. I would need some solid research and statistics to back this up.</p>
<p>Hi All,
I feel compelled to respond. My H is a dentist and had been in practice for over 20 years. We have a very small practice where we know each of our patients and treat them like family. H has a policy that he won’t do anything on a patient unless he would do it for his own family. His patients love him. We do hear horror stories like the OP posted, but I want to stress that not ALL dentists are just out to purchase a boat or a Mercedes. There are many out there that are very honest and wouldn’t dream of over treating thier patients. It is VERY important that you trust your healthcare providers. If you don’t, then you need to find someone eles. We also have an intraoral camera in our office. H takes pictures for his patients and puts them on the screen. I will say that if the cavities are in between the teeth and not on the biting surface, they will not be visible on the camera. They will only be visible on the x-rays. If you are not trained to read dental x-rays, you will mostly likely not know what you are looking at.</p>
<p>I think where some of this is coming from is that some dentists are very conservative and will not jump to treat every little “lesion” unless it gets larger/worse ( my H). Others will want to treat lesions preventatively before they get worse. You just need to determine what you are comfortable with. They are there to provide a service for you and trust me, if you have an absessed tooth or are in severe pain, you will be so grateful to have a good dentist. If in doubt,always get a second opinion!</p>
<p>I love my current dentist. He has been through thick and thin with us and we trust him implicitly. He’s the kind of doc who, when he found out how bad our dental insurance was, agreed to let us pay off major work in installments over 6 months time. He will take your call in the evening at his home and will call in prescriptions for emergency pain relief. And he doesn’t push treatments on us. He just celebrated his 25th year of service in our small town. </p>
<p>The only suggestion he made that I didn’t follow was to have my wisdom teeth removed, and he wouldn’t have even been the one to do it. He refers that work out to an oral surgeon. I’m 52 years old and my wisdom teeth have not caused me a lick of trouble, so they will remain right where they are. We did have the kids’ wisdom teeth removed the summer before college, as that seems to be the norm these days.</p>
<p>The only teeth that have caused me trouble are the many that an unscrupulous dentist filled when I was in grade school. I can still remember the black FLAIR pen in my mouth that he used to point out the cavities. Needless to say, it was doing more than pointing.</p>
<p>Our entire family went to this doc and he evidently saw major $$$, and he filled numerous teeth for me and my 4 siblings. But never my mom or dad. My mom got smart, though, when she took my youngest brother in and the dentist said he had 4 cavities. When my mom informed him that my brother had a heart condition that would require special precautions, suddenly the dentist said he couldn’t do the work. My bro would need to go to a specialist. Well, my mom took him to another local dentist, whom she did not tell about the alleged 4 cavities. That doc found nothing, and my mother switched all 5 kids and herself to the new guy. My dad was stubborn and still goes to the first guy to this very day, although he always gets a clean bill of health.</p>
<p>Of course, all of those fillings lead to a weakening of those teeth and cracks eventually developed. About every other year for as long as I can remember one cracks to the point of causing pain and I wind up with another root canal and crown. Of all the things that I’d like to spend money on, my mouth is not one of them!</p>
<p>OP here. D heard back from the state board of dentistry today on her complaint. The letter described their process, and said, “Based on the review process, the Committee has decided not to pursue disciplinary or corrective action against Dr. “X” and the case is now considered closed. Please know that your complaint will be retained in the Board’s nonpublic file and will be reviewed if the Board receives further complaints.” :(</p>
<p>My guess is because it was their first complaint about this dentist, they decided to do nothing. Too bad, but I think these boards often lean toward protecting their own. D says they need external oversight…</p>
<p>OP - Good for you for filing the complaint. Now when more come in, there will be more chance of action. Or… better yet… .maybe the dentist will be shaken up enough to not cheat other patients.</p>
<p>Some states pursue hardly any actions against professionals under their jurisdiction. The LA Times had a series of stories last year or so showing how low the percentage of doctors disciplined as a percentage of total doctors vs. a much higher percentage for nurses. Might be something similar at play here.</p>