The most frequently performed dental procedure in the U.S. is a cashectomy.

My kid moved to a major city and went for a cleaning. The dentist said he had six cavities and needed this and that. He was justifiably shocked as our family has always emphasized and practiced good dental hygiene. He came back to our hometown and the dentist who has seen him since he was a little boy and found nothing wrong. Since then, he takes time off work to come back home (even though it's a long distance) for dental visits.

Consumer's Reports did an investigation of the ethics of dentists. I'm guessing that this was maybe 20 or so years ago. They sent a person who needed about $400 of dental work done. The results were that 80% of dentists said that the person needed more work done than actually needed to be done. The worst was a dentist that claimed that more than $30,000 of work was needed.

Going to a dentist is like taking your car to the dealership for an oil change. You know you're coming out with more than just an oil change.

I am a former Registered Dental Hygienist. I move out of state with my current job and needed to find a new dentist. I did not tell them I used to be a RDH, I know how to read x-rays. The first 4 I saw presented treatment plans for thousands of dollars, none of which I needed. I am finally on my 5th dentist. She was the only honest one and very good at what she does. BTW Delta Dental insurance is very good.

Dentists have just become used car salesmen! I had one that said I had 6 cavities! That was 18 years ago. I’ve still to this day have never had a cavity!

Exact same thing happened to me 15 years ago when I moved from Florida to Atlanta. Tried to tell me I had 3 cavities. Went back to Florida to my childhood dentist who told me I didn’t need ANYTHING. Drove me nuts.

I loved the $8k estimate to improve my smile! (I'm grumpy and 66, I could care less about my smile)

When I was in my late teens my mom took me to a new dentist that I wanted to try. I had braces on my teeth at the time. He told us I had many pinpoint cavities that needed to be fixed. We got a second opinion and were told there were no cavities. Never had a problem with them. I was so happy to get that second opinion.

We need fiduciary dentists and doctors.

A couple years ago I went into a US dentist for some repairs and after my exam I was given an estimate for $12.000.00 for the repairs. However, if I gave them a check for $7000. they would the repairs right away. Since I didn't have that kind of money I had to pass. I kinda felt like I was in a back street used car dealership. I traveled to Mexico and had the necessary work done for just under $1000. The work was perfect and I enjoyed my vacation .

Had a dentist I liked, He sold the practice to a younger guy who said I suddenly had bed fillings and my teeth were rotting beneath them. Tried a new dentist who said none of it was necessary. 8 years later I still have the same fillings - did none of the work he tried to pressure me into, and no sign of issues.

Today my dentist texted me and I got this video in my feed. A few days ago a buddy phoned me and mentioned that he got poison Ivy. That day a poison ivy video appeared in my KZfaq feed. I never searched for anything related to dentistry or poison ivy on KZfaq or anywhere else. This is creepy.

I love my dentist. She has a very humble Office nothing fancy at all, but she has top-of-the-line equipment and she charges me no more than what my insurance will cover

I had a similar experience when I retired and had a Medicare supplemental and had to leave my dentist I had been with for 17 years because she didn’t take my supplemental insurance. I had to go to another dentist who did and he wanted to redo crowns and pull two teeth. I was not happy so I purchased a dental insurance plan on top of my supplemental that my old dentist was paneled with and I was able to go back after a years absence and she told me I didn’t need those procedures the “new dentist”wanted done.

Same thing happened to me when I moved to another state and had to get a new dentist. The guy said I needed all this work done and I asked a coworker if she knew him and she said she did and that he'd ruined her whole mouth with unnecessary work. Luckily I found another dentist who was awesome before the other guy could do anything.

Good information. I had a guy try that with me. Never went back.

Wallet Extraction 💰

If they say you need a deep cleaning run! Those practices that offer cheap initial visits will try to screw you. It will also put you in a constant state of peridontal maintenance having to go 3 times a year. Those dental groups are the worst I would avoild them at all costs.

I had an out of town dentist tell me two teeth needed to be filled. When I got home to my regular dentist, I had him take a close look at those teeth. He said he saw nothing wrong. Twenty years later, those teeth have never caused a problem for me.

I had to do the same thing. Went through three dentists to find one that seemed upstanding. She has mentioned there are a few potential issues in the future, but she'll just keep a watch on them for now. They have three dentists working in the office but keep you with one, the others can substitute in if needed. I'm happy with them.

University dental school within driving distance? Go there. The students are supervised and its cheap. As a kid, my brothers and i would have a cavity filled each and every time we went to the dentist - and it was very painful. That evil bastard died of a heart attack in a parking lot, getting into his customized Cadillac.

Had a great dentist for several years; then he retired. I went to the guy who replaced him. He wasn't able to identify TMJ on an X-ray. I thought "Hmmm, not the guy for me !" Then I went to another dentist....on first visit she outlined $6,000 worth of work that needed done. I went to her for a few years but didn't do even close to all the work she said I needed. We stopped going to her when my husband needed a root canal, she doesn't do them.....all she did was hand him a brochure when he stopped in her office to ask who she recommended. We got a bill for an office visit. I told them there's no way we were paying for an office visit & we didn't. They dropped the charge. I recommend checking out Dr Ellie Phillips who is a dentist w/a YT channel. She's been a dentist for over 50 years & knows more about preventing plaque build-up & so on than any dentist I've ever been to or heard of in my 76 years of life.

Consider getting your x-rays on thumb drive. It's interesting to see periodontist who still scrape teeth If you miss a cleaning to deep clean your mouth. $1,600 aside. Since laser cleaning has obsoleted the scraping just a little bit of knowledge could save you a lot of money and possible permanent gum damage.

I was overcharged several years ago by a dentist and received a small refund after complaining. Now I have dual-insurance, both with Delta Dental (Delta Dental FEDEP High and Delta Dental DDP). I’ve had to have several things done, including a few crowns but my out of pocket has been so minimal ($25 or &30). The extra insurance while working has been a huge benefit.

I'm going through something kind of similar. I've been going to the same dentist since 1996. He's very good. Well, over the years he has built up his practice and eventually hired other dentists and now he's probably close to retirement. Anyway at my last dentist visit I had a new dental hygienist and she sounded very concerned. She had my dentist come over to look and they wanted me to see their periodontist, so I did. They wanted to pull out one molar completely and in another area they wanted to open up my gum and maybe graft tissue and may several other procedures. I left that appointment in total shock. After I got home, and calmed down, I thought "No. These teeth are not hurting me at all. I'm 67 years old and everything is slowly falling apart (though I'm in good health, just getting older) and I'm not going to have anything done to my teeth unless I'm in pain or my teeth are falling out. I think they just want to rack up their billings of their patients. If they do this again, I will look for another dentist and get a second opinion. It's really hard because I like my dentist. I don't want to change dentists. But I'm not going to have unnecessary procedures at my age. I live alone and have no one to take care of me. And my teeth feel fine. I think it's total BS. I'll continue to get 2 cleanings a year and that's it.

I’m 70 years old unless I have pain I am not going to a dentist anymore😂

my second option for dental work was going to pull the wrong tooth. when he pulled the right one, he was talking to his assistant after he pulled and I was bleeding and throwing up blood. What a nightmare. When I went back to my original dentist, he put a crown on the tooth that the other dentist wanted to pull. Sticking to my first opinion dentist.

Thank you for the video. Blessings to you.

This exact same thing happened to me. I went to my usual dental office, only to find a new dentist and team. The new dentist said I had two cavities and needed filling. As someone who has never had a cavity I found my old dentist for a second opinion, who confirmed my teeth were fine. Flipping scam artists. Healthcare is so unethical in the USA.

Some Dentists are “used car salesman”.

My husband used to own a dental lab..back before crowns were made in the dentist office…I did the bookkeeping. I always wondered why 3 or 4 of the dentist customers had huge bills for crowns and partials. It was so odd…but let me tell you, NONE were my dentist!

The cost of dentistry has gone up so much!! I think the dentist should have a guarantee for their work and that guarantee should be in Writing. If I am going to pay $6000 for a bridge it should have a warranty.

I too dislike the dentist. My blood pressure always goes up. My last visit I was told I need a $700 night guard and two wisdom teeth pulled. (I’m 58) not looking forward to that. Needless to say to say I can’t stand the night guard. Always feels like a 💰 trap. Thank goodness we have dental insurance.

The thing is--dentists do MORE THAN QUITE WELL by just taking care of your teeth and doing their job. It's just GREED. Fortunately, my dentist's son bought the practice when his father retired. Went to the father for over 50 years. Hopefully, I'll get another 50 with his son! 🤣

I wish I had got a second opinion before I had a root canal done.... in hindsight there was nothing wrong with the tooth and I shouldn't have done it.

Dentists and Veternairians seem to be qualified to work at car lots. They like Add-ons. A second opinion from the same profession may be moneytarilly the same. They know about Buck Teeth as in how to get their teeth in your bucks.

Go to the Dental School ❤

How to keep your teeth: Floss within 20 minutes after EVERY meal, and EVERY snack, and rinse your mouth thoroughly after every time you don't brush. When you do brush, spit but don't rinse for about 10 minutes, so that the fluoride really has a chance to do its work. Keep your toothbrush stored outside the bathroom in a dry area. Drench it with HOT water immediately before you brush. Also, any packaged and processed food that has more than 5g added sugar per serving should be considered candy and not consumed on a regular basis. Foods that do have added sugar within those limits should have a similar amount of fiber and a significant amount of nutrients to be considered worth eating.

I think it is important to teach your kids how to floss properly (it is a lot easier when you don't have a bunch of fillings,crowns,and bridges as a result of not having flossed in early years) and to use a dentist who does preventive dentistry such as proactive fluoride treatments and perhaps "sealants" also might be desirable for kids to use fluoride rinse daily after the bedtime brushing and flossing as long as the kid is old enough not to swallow the rinse solution I suspect that sometimes Dr. Poorwork might be as bad as no dentist at all

After some time I got ransacked by the dentist who removed all but 7 teeth that had bloomed from root canals. At the time I was young around 35 and I had been taking my kids there.. well, this guy showed up at my son’s friends house and from that point on I never wanted to take my kids back there. The last dentist wanted 2200 for immediate dentures so I’ve been without teeth since. They didn’t want to create them unless I allowed them to also do the extraction and filing down the bone, $325 each .. Mom always said “Ignore your teeth and they will go away”…

Good info..Thanks! Also...did your friend Sherry watch "Little Shop Of Horrors" dentist scenes?..ha

A 2nd opinion will not only let you know better IF you need something done, they will likely have a different idea of HOW it can be done. Much of dental care is an artform. And you want to find a good artist.

Pretty hard finding a dentist to do only a second opinion.....when most are not accepting new customers.

From doing tech support at the hospital the doctors are told that they must find every single code they can bill against. . So that dentist is probably in a similar situation.

Ask the dentist, how can they drill for dollars and sleep at night?😮

Common sense stuff. Thanks!

This is aggressive dental vs conservative dental practice.

My second opinion cost me $600 because of the around the head X-ray which they now have to tell me the same thing.

3:05 true

Honesty is very hard to find …. My Dentist is soooo greedy! He told me to get UNNECESSARY ROOT CANAL! I SAID NO! I hate these devils

My last visit to a new dentist I left with a $2500 estimate of what they were wanting to do. I have not been back. Was 2 years ago. I'm 67 years old and my teeth ain't gonna last forever. I don't care what they do. Both my parents lost all there teeth at old age.

I have been following this Dr Ellie procedure on KZfaq and the thing works, check it out

I have spent over $20,000 on dental care over my lifetime (bridges, crowns, and such)

My 84 year old mother was told by a new dentist that he wanted to remove a bridge to inspect it to see if she needs it replaced. She isn’t experiencing any problems with that area of her mouth.

Dental HMO insurance is notorious for low pay to dentists. Because of this most reputable dentists won't even accept it. Those that do will typically try to pad the bill with "deep cleanings" or attempts to sell a lot of cosmetic work. I've always told them that when I land my first Hollywood movie I'll give them a call.

A cleaning, xrays and exam just cost me $415. Is that normal? Also they used to tell me to floss and brush every day but as I retired I now do it every 4 days. I have not had any increase in problems in years since I switched.

Yeah, I made the mistake of letting a dentist talk me into filing down my front teeth on both top and bottom and cap them all. Since then, the venirs fall off sometimes, so gotta go back. Ugh. My expensive mistake. 🤦

Once they know you have insurance, they want to stick it to you. They told me I should get two new crowns because the insurance will pay before the end of the year. Not that I really needed new crowns.

I wish I saw this vid or something similar a yr & a half ago bcuz I got an implant that I might not have needed. Although my bill was much cheaper bcuz I went to a "dental school" (I have insurance) and not a regular dentist office, I could've avoided the implant altogether if I found out I truly didn't need it. It's a sad world when we have to second guess the "dentist office".

A dentist in my area who actually used to own my home is now in prison for insurance fraud

I had similar experience, paid for 2 cleanings, xrays, checkup ahead. Got check up and dentist said all had to go....never got my cleaning, chalked it up to Karma will return to her

Pro tip for “blood pressure” checkers.. check your own 3x per week and log it on paper or in your apple health app or corresponding app for another phone, 3x/ week and take 3 measurements and log the lowest.. do that for a year and whatever “reading” they give you, your meticulously logged checked and averaged will never compete.. they stopped testing me , thought was.. why bother..

Great Expressions is good at doing this. You're out of pocket every visit. I miss my private dentist from yrs ago.

Money

When I was a child I had a dentist who would fill kid’s teeth’s with no cavities. So, all my teeth got filled. Ruined my teeth.

How do you recover from a unethical dentist. I got those Fast Braces and they didn't work. I was told they would do it again if needed but when my teeth started going crooked again, I just got brushed off. When the dentist announced he was retiring I mentioned it again and got ignored again. He moved off to CO and bought a house for over 1 Million. I wrote him for a refund and still got ignored. Wonder what else he did wrong. We are at their mercy. How do we get justice.

Flossing is the biggest thing you can do, every single night. Obviously so is brushing but people skip the other. 😂

This is a very sugar coated version of how I would have presented this video. Than you though for bringing this topic up. I have at least 3 times been hit up for fillings and crowns that did not exist and found out by just saying no and going to another dentist

So is the second opinion covered by insurance?

I live south of Tucson and I use an English-speaking dentist on the Mexican side of the border. That said, people close to Mexico should remember there are charlatans there too who will recommend unnecessary treatments. My dentist is conservative with treatment suggestions and doesn't advocate over-treatment.

I didn't go to the dentist for 15 years because of a bad experience. I took good care of my teeth during those 15 years but I then I got to the age of 54 years old and decided I should probably get exams since I was getting older. The first dentist I went to after 15 years told me I had a cavity without showing my x-rays to me that her dental tech had just taken. I didn't believe I had a cavity where she told me I had a cavity so I waited about 6 months for the next calendar year and went to a different dentist. He showed my x-rays to me. I didn't have a cavity where the previous dentist said I had a cavity. Dentists LIE.

Buy a set of dental picks online to scrape off tartar, and a water pic.

Next week same situation dentist 30 years retired well seee what next!

Go to the Smiles dental clinic in Bangkok. DO not ever go to a dentist in Phoenix!

Don't let a few bad eggs ruin it for all.

If you ever get a new dentist who graduated from USC dental school ... RUN! They are the absolute worst scammers.

What do you do when the dentist is good......but you have issues with the supporting staff? Disagreements with the staff about what should be done - staff making decisions about procedures vs the dentist?

Be afraid. Be very afraid. Especially with a new loaded with student and dental school debt younger DDS. Your mouth is a potential gold mine. I suspect the dental profession is less scrutinized and regulated than the regular medical profession. Out and out this profession is probably no more trustworthy than the car repair profession. Finding a good/honest dentist is probably comparable to finding a good/honest mechanic. If you are lucky enough to find one it is worthwhile to follow them.

you are so talented