Re: Differing dental reports



figgy wrote: 
Ok, forgetting my comment about reporting to the dental board ( from
your comments, it would be pointless in any event ). At what point good
doctors, does one cross the line between "art" and "overtreatment"? I
could bring a car into a shop, if one mechanic says a tuneup's all
that's needed, and the other says it  needs a major overhaul, do I just
say, "ok, I understand, I could see where they both could be right". Is
it really that fuzzy? In this case my wife's a new patient in both
offices, has a prophy done, and Xrays evaluated, and two radically
different diagnoses are offered. And the patient is supposed to nod and
say "amen". If this kind of stuff happened in a car repair shop, the
state regulators would be all over it to bust the perpetrators. It's
not right, and it doesn't help the dental profession that this is
condoned. Feel free to tell me how off base I am.

Jeff

Overtreatment is unethical--period. Leaving aside the gray areas where different dentists would honestly disagree, it is difficult in any one case to tell if it is indeed overtreatment (though I'm inclined to, given just one side of the story).
I once bought a dental practice from a former classmate who was relocating. Ordinarily there is a dropoff in business immediately after a dentist changes, but I found that all the patients that routinely got 6 cavities every 6 months suddenly got none. It is possible everyone's teeth suddenly got better but...you get the picture.

Steve




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Cut the nonsense to reply

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