Growing up I had two molars removed to make room for my teeth to move backward with braces. The orthodontist said my teeth were too big for my mouth and that I needed the extra space. Literally every dentist I’ve been to over the 30 years since then has asked why I didn’t have those molars. I always tell them, and they always say it doesn’t make sense. I’m guessing my family got “up-sold.”
Yes, and mechanics are “fixing” perfectly fine cars out there. AC technicians are telling people they need to replace their entire system when a $30 capacitor blows. Lawyers are charging people for many hours they didn’t work.
Welcome to the wonderful world of getting ripped off!
PS: have you ever played Eve Online? You’ll never get ripped off there. Never.
This has been going on for awhile. My wife was estatic with my familys dentist because he was so honestly concerned about oral health over profit. He retired this year though :(
Honestly, unless this tooth repair gel thing works and becomes available soon, I’d rather have some of my teeth replaced with implants.
I’ve asked my dentist “can we just skip the endless filling replacements, caps, crowns, and eventual implants and just go right to implants?”
They always say no, and I ask is there a reason why “natural teeth” with fillings/caps/crowns are better than implants - they reply with “But it’s your teeth! They’ll last a long time before needing implants!”
Yeah, so I’ll need implants eventually, can’t I just get them now before I put more fillings, caps, crowns, and eventual implants? Ain’t nobody got time for that.
“but your natural teeth will last a long time!”
Yeah, but they ain’t so natural after 5 procedures, and I’d rather avoid the ha$$le and just get the implants now instead of implants and a lifetime of repairs.
They always say no, and it’s probably because they make way more money fixing bad teeth than replacing it with something permanent
Implants aren’t nearly as good as real teeth from a sensation perspective. If you can keep as much of the real ones as you can, do.
Implants go bad too. What do you do after an implant goes bad? I bet your options would be very limited then.
I was under the impression swapping out an implant was far easier than installing the system.
And I’m also talking about teeth that have been repeatedly drilled, capped, crowns etc - not a normal, healthy tooth.
These teeth are basically anchors for crowns, at what point is a new implant better than a chiseled out tooth?
Implants can fail at the implant/bone interface. You have limited amounts of bone in the jaw.
I’m not a dentist or surgeon, but I have an education in biomedical engineering. With knee and hip implants, for example, a major consideration is the health and longevity of the underlying bone.
