[m_ke]

A few years ago I went for an initial screening to 3 different dentists and was shocked by the gap in suggested treatments. One wanted to do major work on like 11-12 teeth, another just fillings on 2. It made me lose all trust in American dentistry and I ended up going to get work done at a dental school instead because I knew it would be supervised by professors who are not optimizing for their bottom line.

[IvanaSays]

I have a very expensive surgery coming up on Wednesday next week. My original dentist didn't even see anything wrong with the tooth. New dentist saw a deep canal but did a deep cleaning (f-ing painful!), and told me to wait a few months to see if it heals. I insisted on seeing a periodontist sooner. Tooth must come out. Sought 2nd opinion - she is convicned two teeth must come out. Then changed her mind. Now telling me bone graft material in the US is superior and I'd better get it done here than originally planned in a few months in Europe (thus saving a few thousand dollars and postponing some suffering so I can go on a vacation). Getting a third opinion the night before the surgery and literally don't know what I am going to do with it. What even the F.

[ocWavean]

Similar story.

When I moved to the States (Oregon) for a few years, I had to hunt for a number of services, with dentistry being one of them. I worked for a pretty large SaaS private (at the time) company, so the perks were plentiful, but most importantly, private insurance was up there in terms of quality.

Now, I'm originally from Canada, and without getting into the differences in healthcare between the two countries, but the amount of discrepancies I also received, let alone front-desk saying "oh my goodness, your insurance is incredibly good!", usually always resulted in the dentist informing me that I have 12 cavities.

The sad thing was in shopping around, and going to a number of different places to try them out, all ranged between 12 and 6 cavities, some even suggesting major dental work (2 crowns) required. I even went to 'work colleagues' recommended ones. All gave shocking details about my teeth.

Depressed, and annoyed, I went back to Canada, saw my dentist (and got a second opinion from a 3rd-party as an A/B test), and had 0 cavities to report. The second opinion stated I also had 0 (with maybe 1 on the way, and if I wanted, could opt to have it addressed now, but not the end of the world).

In the end it was cheaper (in almost every way, sadly) to see the Dentist on trips back to Canada, instead of opting for what would effectively have been the decimation of my teeth in the States.

[Scoundreller]

> I'm originally from Canada, and without getting into the differences in healthcare between the two countries

I mean, on paper, there isn’t much of a difference between the two countries when it comes to dentistry.

[itsoktocry]

>Depressed, and annoyed, I went back to Canada

Dentistry is private in Canada, the same as it is in the US. Coverage is via private plans, and dentists will goose insurance charges just the same.

[kalleboo]

I remember a Swedish consumer advocacy show on public TV (Plus with Sverker Olofsson for all the Swedes out there) did this test some time in the early 00's, sending the same person to like 10 different dentists, including also public health care ones that don't have a profit motive, and they all had different results.

[synergy20]

This. I brought my kid to check for his open-bite problem, seen 6 different orthodontists and oral surgeons, everyone has a different opinion: from removing 7 teeth then do a jaw surgery(a 70K expense) to using some rubber bands to pull down the front teeth and observe what happens next($4000), each one has a different opinion.

All dentists running practice are suggesting way more expensive approaches, the last and cheapest one is actually from a dentistry university, where the professor seems more interested in studying the case instead of doing a quick surgery with huge costs.