[xyclos]

When I was 12, I was scheduled by my regular dentist to have two cavities filled. It was the first time I had anything negative in a dental checkup. We were very poor, so my dad was pissed that it was going to be almost $400 to get them filled. He found a different dentist that was supposed to be a bit cheaper, and I went to that one instead. He was shocked to hear that I had been scheduled for two fillings. Since I was a new patient, he did x-rays, which showed zero decay. The dentist that lied about me having cavities is still in practice today more than 20 years later, and has 4.5 stars on Google.

I fear there's not really a good way to vet Dentists effectively since most people probably never find out that they've been scammed for years. I'd love to learn some new strategies though.

[lupusreal]

> I fear there's not really a good way to vet Dentists effectively since most people probably never find out that they've been scammed for years. I'd love to learn some new strategies though.

It's something the government should be doing; running sting operations against dentists with compliants against them. Unfortunately, dentists and prosecutors are in the same social circles.

[krisoft]

I like the idea of that proposal, but I'm not sure how it would work in practice.

The problem is that the crooked dentist will argue that the "bait" patient has in fact have cavities. And then if the prosecutor finds somehow convincing evidence that the patient does not actually have cavities the crooked dentist can change tactic and say it was a honest mistake on their part.

With other crimes where "sting operations" work the situation is much more clear cut. The target of the drug sting is either selling drugs or not selling drugs. If you find drugs you can easily prosecute them. With the dental scam even if you manage to catch them red handed once, it is still a long and complicated process to prove it was a scam and not a mistake.

Or alternatively we can legislate to make making mistakes with dental diagnosis illegal the same way having large batches of drugs is illegal. That will make the prosecution easier, but will have all kind of other negative consequences.

[triceratops]

> dentists and prosecutors are in the same social circles

What? Are there dentist/prosecutor cocktail parties us software grunts are missing out on?

[foobarian]

I wonder if there is room for a service that just performs X-rays and passes them through some kind of AI model as a kind of a "dental fizz-buzz." Surely they wouldn't have any perverse incentives in that case.

[mandmandam]

Oh man. I would dearly love to see scumbag dentists lose their ability to easily scam vulnerable people, often desperate and in pain.

That said - I'm sure they have tight regulations on who is allowed to X-ray teeth, and diverse ways to keep their own in line should they threaten the apple cart.

Ever heard of nano silver fluoride? ... Exactly. (Unless you saw the HN story on it here recently [0].)

0 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41474080

[deepfriedchokes]

You’d think they were breaking a law or something, recommending unnecessary medical procedures.