[david_l_lin]

I think it's because incumbents in the space have played a huge role in preventing adoption of new technologies that actually prevent disease. Dentists make money not from preventing disease, but from performing procedures when disease has already progressed to the point of no return.

Cavities and gum disease are bacterial infections that are completely preventable. I feel the need to plug what we've been building at https://www.bristlehealth.com/. We've built an at-home test that leverages the microbes in the mouth to detect disease, and provide actionable and personalized recommendations that can reduce your risk of gum disease, cavities and persistent bad breath.

[barbazoo]

> Dentists make money not from preventing disease, but from performing procedures when disease has already progressed to the point of no return.

I find that hard to believe as dentists wouldn't be the group of people I'd imagine developing those new ideas and products. How would that work?

[yunohn]

Nobody wants to go to the dentist until it’s too late, because it’s so expensive nor covered by health insurance.

Even if it’s not intentional, dentists aren’t R&D specialists. They’re a service, at a premium price, whose livelihood depends on people going for treatments.

[barbazoo]

What lever do they have to prevent new products from being developed that help people take care of their teeth?

[wmeredith]

They don’t have one. There is no lever. This is conspiracy theory nonsense, but even if there was a lever they wouldn’t need to pull it.

I move in social circles with a lot of people from the dental care industry and I can tell you that no one is worried about running out of treatment opportunities.

I’ve met hundreds of dentists over the last 18 years and they all spend their days asking patients to brush and floss. It’s a simple thing, it's pretty cheap, and prevents almost all oral diseases regardless of diet or genetics. It's easier than changing your diet. It's a LOT easier than changing your mouth biome. It's practically a miracle cure when done regularly with decent technique.

And… the vast majority of people simply don’t brush and floss like they should. I'd guess that the group that does is about the same size as those who actually get enough exercise, which is about 23.2% in America[1]. People consume mind-boggling amounts of refined sugars and generally don’t take care of their teeth.

There is no sinister cabal keeping people in cavities and gum disease because, it’s simply not needed.

[1]https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/exercise.htm

[yunohn]

The lever is the lack of funding and motivation brought about by the previous factors. It’s not an individual choice, rather a medical industry wide systemic issue.

A popular example: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/goldman-sachs-asks-biotech-re...

[moffkalast]

This seems a pretty likely reason, especially when you see this sort of thing even for regular medicine: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/11/goldman-asks-is-curing-patie...

Dental is so much more profit oriented that it would be actually insane to think they're devoting R&D towards something like preventative medicine.