• Chronicon [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    21 days ago

    I have become incredibly skeptical of american dentistry. They can’t seem to get their act together on what’s actual necessary care and what’s just some shit they can charge out the nose for. I’ve drawn my personal line at wisdom teeth, which they will usually try to extract surgically regardless of whether it’s causing any problem or not. After the number of times I’ve had “no surgery is without risk” reinforced from both experience and medical doctors, that seems incredibly foolish. See also: Lasik

    Capitalism ruins everything

    • Shinji_Ikari [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      21 days ago

      I had a dental surgeon tell me with a straight face that a non-problematic wisdom tooth with nerves wrapped around it should be taken out, and there was a very real possibility I’d lose feeling in my jaw for an indeterminate amount of time.

      I told him leave it there and he was full surprised-pika

      • Chronicon [they/them]@hexbear.net
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        21 days ago

        I know people who permanently lost feeling in parts of their face because of dental surgery (and that’s after a longish painful recovery) Risking that just to remove a non-painful, not even impacted tooth, is insane to me

        • Shinji_Ikari [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          21 days ago

          I just remembered the second part of this story.

          Originally I had just 1 top one removed, I wanted to do top and bottom separately.

          By the time I got around to the bottom one, it righted itself and was no longer dangerous to rip out. I cant even remember which ones I got out at this point, I know I only pulled 3/4. That’s how unproblematic the fourth was. I only got the other pulled because they were getting cavities from their bastard positioning.

          The dental surgeons looked at me with disdain when I didn’t fund their car payment on unneeded work. Simply waiting made it go from “very risky” to non-issue and not a single dentist/surgeon thought of it as a possibility for me.

    • DragonBallZinn [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      21 days ago

      I remember hearing some people in California just have dentists in Mexico because of how utterly untrustworthy American dentistry is, idk about Canada however.

      • Chronicon [they/them]@hexbear.net
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        21 days ago

        its also much cheaper to go abroad yeah. Canada I have no idea how quackish their dentists are but I believe they’re in the “teeth are luxury bones and therefore not covered” school of universal healthcare

      • Bnova [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        21 days ago

        That’s literally how Southern California operates, if you’re lower “middle” class you go to Mexico for your medication, dental, hearing, and eye. Usually things not covered by medical insurance.

  • 2Password2Remember [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    21 days ago

    there is nothing in this country that isnt a scam. every time you interact with another person through the market, you are being scammed in some way or another

    Death to America

  • Belly_Beanis [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    21 days ago

    We just left a practice because of this. Dentist wanted to pull out my mom’s teeth and give her implants, then got pissed when she said no. New dentist says all she needed is some crowns and fillings. A full replacement is just excessive and unnecessary.

  • kleeon [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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    21 days ago

    It really sucks how we haven’t evolved the ability to grow teeth back. We wouldn’t have to deal with these dentist assholes as much if we did

  • Luna [she/her, love/loves]@hexbear.net
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    21 days ago

    Something like this happened to my sister. She had a dentist drill and fill her teeth where there were supposedly cavities, and it turns out that those cavities never existed. She was supposed to go back for a follow up, ended up not going back after finding that out.

  • Fox [any, she/her]@vegantheoryclub.org
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    21 days ago

    This is what happened to me a couple years ago and I don’t even live in the US. I ended up with a bad cavity and my dentist extracted the tooth. I found out not long after that the tooth could have easily been saved. Thankfully it’s only one of my back teeth so no one even realises I’m missing one.

  • glimmer_twin [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    21 days ago

    No shit. Dentistry is a racket. I’ve been like twice in the last decade and I’m fine. Just brush your teeth lol. Last time I went was before corona hit and the guy did x rays and said I needed to get my bottom wisdom teeth out. I couldn’t afford that shit so nearly five years later they’re still in there and I’m fine.