What an experience

Okay, so I posted on here in about February about how I hadn't been to the dentist in three years. Finally put my big girl pants on and went. Well, it was to a new dentist that I hadn't heard anything about and didn't know anything about her either. So my first appointment was horrible. The hygienist was pretty nice... but the dentist just... well there just seemed like there was something about her that I did not like. But I didn't say anything. So while she's looking at my teeth, she's saying about how I've ruined my teeth with pop and I have soooo many cavities and that she may not be able to save a couple of my teeth. The hygienist made a remark sometime during this about how my mom wanted to come back so she could hear what all was wrong and the dentist replied, "no she can't come back here. Well, of course, she does because she's going to be the one paying for all of this right?" Red flag #1
So fast forward to the treatment plan. It had on there that I had 17 cavities. Needed two crowns and needed to have my wisdom teeth extracted, and my very back molars next to my wisdom teeth extracted too. 7000 dollars in dental work. About 1000 of insurance coverage.
So needless to say I had many sleepless nights. So I chose to do the crowns first because the cavity was on my front tooth and very noticeable and deep. So I get there for the appointment and the first thing the receptionist says to me as I walk in the door is, "you're mom didn't come? Did she give you a check??"
Now mind you this is about the third time that I've felt all they are worried about is the money. Red flag #3.
So I get my crowns done. During the crown prep, the dentist keeps saying, "you need to get all these cavities filled or you're going to loose the teeth and need more crowns."
After the crown prep, I asked her to prioritize what cavities needed filled first and she said "no, they all need filled." A dentist not prioritizing? Really??? So I called about two or three times after that to try to get appointments for fillings set up and they just kept telling me I had to wait for my insurance to send back the bill for my permanent crowns to see how much insurance I had left. THEY WOULDN'T EVEN LET ME JUST PAY THE FULL AMOUNT OUT OF POCKET. Meanwhile, the dentist is constantly nagging me about how I need to get them filled. Makes sense right?

My grandma used to work for a dentist and so for my whole life my family got free dental. Lucky right? Well she retired. And that dentist does not accept as much insurance as some others. So we stopped going there. Well at this point in my whole experience, I'm ready to go back to him and just pay more. So at the appointment to get my permanent crowns on, I ask for my x-rays so I can give them to my new dentist. Their reply was, "There's a $25 fee." Are you ***** kidding me? The insurance already paid for those and they are MY property. So I decided to do what any grown adult would do... stick my mom on them anyways long story short she just gave in and paid the $25 so we could get the heck out of there.
Fast forward about a week. We go to my old dentist. He looks at my x-rays "which he said were blurry. You can imagine how irritated I was about that." and checks out my teeth. He says, "Well you have 5 cavities. 1 is kind of deep. But the others aren't too bad."
Oh.my.God. Can you imagine what that felt like? It was like a HUGE relief off my shoulders. And kind of made me angry at the same time.
So anyways here's where I get to the success part. I am heading for my final two fillings on Wednesday. I just recently had my top two wisdom teeth extracted last week. My dentist was able to do those ones because they were already through. I'll have to see an oral surgeon for the bottom two, to get them cut out.
While I am very thankful to the first dentist for my two front teeth permanent crowns, I just had to get this story out here so others can see it. If you feel as though you're being taken advantage of or the dentist is just in it for the money, PLEASE seek other opinions. It could save you THOUSANDS like it did for me! This is a before and after of my teeth. Pleeeeeeasse. Anyone who fears the dentist... just make the call. It is SOOOOOO worth it in the long run. Even after an experience like this. I'm 100% happier.

While a happy ending it is a sad story. As USA dental schools pump out more and more dentists with very little demand some of them formulate these aggressive treatment plans. Some of these treatment plans even include treatment that isn't needed. Many of them include over diagnosis of gum disease and include use of locally injected antibiotics.
Dentistry is following the path of attorneys where so many of them were produced that they started making their own work and costs went way up.
My personal practice has always been to do what is best for the patient that I'm seeing. While that sounds great in practice that can be very complicated. Example: If a patient comes to me with rampant caries many dentists give a treatment plan that will include multiple crowns. It makes sense as the caries may be extensive but I see it differently. I will usually place multiple large fillings and then work with the patient on diet, fluoride use and home care then later place crowns. Ideally the patient is now taking better care of their health and the crowns will last much longer.