4/25    Is it common for dentists to recommend getting unnecessary dental
        work? I think I just had a filling done yesterday that I didn't need.
        \_ All the time.  Did they also tell you that you need to whiten
           your teeth?  ALL doctors are businessmen that want you to be
           sick (or have bad teeth) so that they can make money treating you.
           Imagine what would happen if everybody took control of their
           health and stop getting sick.  Most would go out of business
           and only emergency room doctors would be in demand.  In summary,
           doctors wants you to be fat and chronically sick so they can get
           repeat business.  It's a survival instinct for them.
           \_ Your dentist sucks.  Mine rocks.  And no I'm not telling you who
              he is.  It's already too hard to get an appointment.
           \_ I've heard a lot of stories of extra services being listed
              on invoices.  Ain't insurance fraud grand!
              \_ Did you know that most doctors are opposed to any and all
                 health care reform?  They milk billions of dollars
                 out of medicare and medicaid every year. They want the
                 status quo because the status quo has made them rich.
                 They don't want any change that put in incentives for people
                 to be pro-actively healthy.  Because healthy people ==
                 less money for them.  IMHO, they're worse than lawyers because
                 lawyers don't hide behind this bullshit about saving lives
                 and are pretty straight-forward with you that they're in it
                 for the money.
                 \_ Call your State Senator and tell him to support SB26,
                    the first real health insurance reform bill to come
                    down the pike. -ausman
        \_ How'd you know you didn't need to get a filling done? Last year,
           my dentist said I needed to get mine replaced since they were
           wearing down (it had been 13 years since they were filled). He
           even showed me X-Rays, but the scans were mysterious to me, so I
           went for them. Oh well, insurance covered it, and besides, I got
           white fillings instead of the normal silver ones this time.
                \_ Heh, I switched dentists two years ago because the same
                   happened to me. And now my current dentist gave me a
                   filling I didn't even need. I just don't trust any dentists
                   anymore. If you want to know why I think I didn't need
                   the filling email me. -chrchan (OP)
                   \_ One could argue that if the filling is at 75% and 10
                      years old, it justifies replacing it with a new
                      hi-tech filling.
                      \_ Too true.  I don't know what's up with these dumb
                         bastards who think they know better than their
                         dentists if their 5 year-life fillings are still good
                         8 years after they should've been replaced.  Do their
                         dentists stand behind them and correct typos in their
                         code?  I suspect not.
                         \_ personally, my knowledge of dentists scaming
                            comes from going to a second dentist who
                            said i had no cavities, after the first said I had
                            three.  my wife was told by the first dentist
                            she had *seven* cavities, and the second said that
                            she also had no cavities.  beware the big  chain
                            places.  It was an Aspen dental that gave the
                            bad advice.
                            \_ The problem is that you don't know which
                               dentist was right. You need a third opinion.
                               Perhaps the one that said nothing is wrong
                               is hoping your teeth deteriorate so that you
                               need crowns instead of fillings. I've been
                               in this same situation. Get more opinions. --dim
                         \_ Well, I think it's always good to question and be
                            at least a tad skeptical. The dentist showing me
                            the X-Rays and explaining what was happening to
                            my fillings was good enough for me. -!OP