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The company that makes those nice machines has an average annual return of 28.9% for the last 15 years!! Can you imagine that? This has been a huge growth business and I'd say its not much of a surprise that dentists are pushing this stuff. Anyone fortuitous enough to have put $10K in the company 15 years ago now has $450K.
Actually Ted, when I was an undergraduate I used the medical school's wanna-be-dentists. They weren't perfect but they were cheap. I still have a permanent bridge they gave me in about 1970 and have never had one problem with it. The worst mistake the young trainee made was to get the placement of the shot off so that my body jerked and I temporarily fainted. We agreed not to mention it ever 'cause, gee, he was a nice guy and I was a kid too.
Using crowns is not necessary bad in dental restoration, at least you still maintain the full use of the tooth. Dental implant procedures are generally NOT cover under many dental insurances as they are considered "experimental" (i.e. too expensive).
The flip side is dentures. Don't think you want to go down that road as the previous generation. We have been fortunate to have dental insurance coverage that include two cleaning and full mouth X-ray. These preventative procedures have kept our family members healthy before more serious and expensive restoration procedures are required. Also there are alternative materials to the common gold amalgam filling.
Ok we got all the reasons for getting a crown ,But when is a crown not necessary, a regular filling will be sufficient? Had my share of crowns, Two went bad, now he wants to do implants or bridge work, for what? how many more years with new teeth? Hate the "being ripped off Feeling".... esp. from so-called medical people....
I think that is what is underlying my post. Dentist's overhead has become huge. The office size and staff size require a steady flow if income.
I really didn't want the crown and I don't have any knowledge about teeth except you floss and brush them. (I've stopped drinking coffee because of the acid.) They really put the fear into you now - they show you pictures of the tooth and show you cracks and how if the tooth splits it can't be saved so you have to go with the extraction, implant root.
The last dentist said I needed a crown I said to just fill it - that was 7 years ago and it is fine.
I really don't want to go to the dentist because they will find all this stuff that they say would be bad. I did go to one years ago and they wanted to do all this gum grafting. I said no I didn't like that idea. She came back with a much better solution - add a compound to the tooth to the receding gum. I'm much happier.
In this last visit one filling fell out - I go the crown. The second one was not a cavity but a chip in the filling - I'm leaving that one alone, I don't have any pain.
Most of my dental work was done prior to my being 25, I think, so that denstist did well by me.
>> In 2007 I developed a bad toothache and I went in. Guess what? I needed a crown. My procedure was painful. Haven't been back to a dentist since.
Try subbing in any combo of investment decisions and advice here and see how it sounds. In 2007 I lost a ton of money in stocks and went in to get advice and guess what, I needed a balanced portfolio. It was painful, and I will never seek advice again. Etc.
I've had this happen to me. First let's convince ourselves, bad characters present in every profession. Also understand that you need a paying customer keep coming back again and again.
I had this happen to me and only found out because my sister happens to be a dentist. Needless to say a good oral surgeon but not a rich one.
I went for a regular checkup to dentist. She claimed "remember 3 years back you had a root canal on the left side of the mouth? I am seeing the same kind of x-ray on the right side".
She proceeds to drill down a perfectly good tooth then goes "OopsI can't really find a problem but let me put a crown now. You have really good insurance, so don't worry." Needless to say I did have excellent dental insurance at the time. Thing is she knew that very well.
As it turned out crookedness and incompetency go hand in hand. Because of bad crown I ended up having to do root-canal on the same tooth which mean another crown. This time I didn't have good insurance. So I went from not ever needing a crown to two only because I got swindled by my dentist and at the risk of my health. I've never had any other trouble ever with my teeth. Needless to say when your elder sis is a dentist she's running after you with a stick making sure you brushed and flossed 6 times a day when you are growing up.
Crowns are where the money is made. Gives the phrase "You have been crowned" a whole new meaning. You were expecting to be treated like royalty? No. you have been royally ......
PS One of the mysteries of my life is whether I ever needed the 1st root canal on the left side of the mouth. I haven't found the answer yet and have not gone looking for it either. I hope I never find out.
and this Thread confirms my worst thoughts, it happens to everyone? rip off at the hands of a Drill...hard to say no....pay them now or pay them later (more pain)
Great thread. This is why we invest. Right? To be able to pay the bill when s*** happens.
No great knowledge on this. Just one crown which my local dentist performed because the tooth had a crack running top to bottom. Glad he could save it. They give you a choice of materials - gold and silver among them. (I should have inquired of Rono which would be better.)
The crown was easy. Unfortunately, a root canal had to be performed first at a dental surgeon's office. Not much pain, but you feel like you're gagging for hours while they work. Worst of it was that the root canal used up all of my insurance benefit for that year, so that I ended up paying close to one K for the crown. (Came with a 3 year warranty - no kidding).
I started with a new dentist late last year. Because the previous dentist did not accept the public Medicaid plan I had moved to. Scum...... The new dentist found a filling getting worn out. Solution? Crown, at $1,200.00. And if I wanted it, he would do the work right then and there. But the cheaper alternative was to re-do the filling. Suddenly, there was a 2-week wait to get it done. Slime bucket.
Comments
The company that makes those nice machines has an average annual return of 28.9% for the last 15 years!! Can you imagine that? This has been a huge growth business and I'd say its not much of a surprise that dentists are pushing this stuff. Anyone fortuitous enough to have put $10K in the company 15 years ago now has $450K.
The flip side is dentures. Don't think you want to go down that road as the previous generation. We have been fortunate to have dental insurance coverage that include two cleaning and full mouth X-ray. These preventative procedures have kept our family members healthy before more serious and expensive restoration procedures are required. Also there are alternative materials to the common gold amalgam filling.
I keep thinking How much I would have to make to be in someone's grimy mouth all day, Drilling teeth....No Thanks
I really didn't want the crown and I don't have any knowledge about teeth except you floss and brush them. (I've stopped drinking coffee because of the acid.) They really put the fear into you now - they show you pictures of the tooth and show you cracks and how if the tooth splits it can't be saved so you have to go with the extraction, implant root.
The last dentist said I needed a crown I said to just fill it - that was 7 years ago and it is fine.
I really don't want to go to the dentist because they will find all this stuff that they say would be bad. I did go to one years ago and they wanted to do all this gum grafting. I said no I didn't like that idea. She came back with a much better solution - add a compound to the tooth to the receding gum. I'm much happier.
In this last visit one filling fell out - I go the crown. The second one was not a cavity but a chip in the filling - I'm leaving that one alone, I don't have any pain.
Most of my dental work was done prior to my being 25, I think, so that denstist did well by me.
>> In 2007 I developed a bad toothache and I went in. Guess what? I needed a crown. My procedure was painful. Haven't been back to a dentist since.
Try subbing in any combo of investment decisions and advice here and see how it sounds. In 2007 I lost a ton of money in stocks and went in to get advice and guess what, I needed a balanced portfolio. It was painful, and I will never seek advice again. Etc.
First let's convince ourselves, bad characters present in every profession.
Also understand that you need a paying customer keep coming back again and again.
I had this happen to me and only found out because my sister happens to be a dentist. Needless to say a good oral surgeon but not a rich one.
I went for a regular checkup to dentist. She claimed "remember 3 years back you had a root canal on the left side of the mouth? I am seeing the same kind of x-ray on the right side".
She proceeds to drill down a perfectly good tooth then goes "OopsI can't really find a problem but let me put a crown now. You have really good insurance, so don't worry." Needless to say I did have excellent dental insurance at the time. Thing is she knew that very well.
As it turned out crookedness and incompetency go hand in hand. Because of bad crown I ended up having to do root-canal on the same tooth which mean another crown. This time I didn't have good insurance. So I went from not ever needing a crown to two only because I got swindled by my dentist and at the risk of my health. I've never had any other trouble ever with my teeth. Needless to say when your elder sis is a dentist she's running after you with a stick making sure you brushed and flossed 6 times a day when you are growing up.
Crowns are where the money is made. Gives the phrase "You have been crowned" a whole new meaning. You were expecting to be treated like royalty? No. you have been royally ......
PS One of the mysteries of my life is whether I ever needed the 1st root canal on the left side of the mouth. I haven't found the answer yet and have not gone looking for it either. I hope I never find out.
No great knowledge on this. Just one crown which my local dentist performed because the tooth had a crack running top to bottom. Glad he could save it. They give you a choice of materials - gold and silver among them. (I should have inquired of Rono which would be better.)
The crown was easy. Unfortunately, a root canal had to be performed first at a dental surgeon's office. Not much pain, but you feel like you're gagging for hours while they work. Worst of it was that the root canal used up all of my insurance benefit for that year, so that I ended up paying close to one K for the crown. (Came with a 3 year warranty - no kidding).