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by ocWavean 1466 days ago
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.

2 comments

> 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.

>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.