[TheHumanist]

I wonder if there is anything more to the reason that it has never gained any real traction? A lot of groups would stand to lose a lot of money if something like this become used by even half the population. This would mean a massive reduction in purchases of many dental products, visits to dentists, procedures needed by dentists, etc.

[isoprophlex]

How'd you call this lactic acid promoting cartel? Big Toothpaste? Big Plaque? Big Teeth?

[maximinus_thrax]

You're trying to make a joke here, but please do some reasearch about the dental lobbying groups. The ADA is no joke.

What OP is implying is not really tinfoil hat material. As one example, one of the reasons parroted (by democrats, actually) that we won't have universal healthcare ever, is that it's going to cause thousands of health insurance jobs to dissapear.

[beebmam]

Then why doesn't a country with a nationalized health care system do it? There are incentives in other countries that would encourage this, if it were possible.

[maximinus_thrax]

My nationalized healthcare comment is unlreated to the existence of the dental industry in its current form. It was just an example to point out that protecting jobs is something our elected leaders are worried about when lobbyists are paying up (they're not really that worried about jobs dissapearing due to automation or mergers or monolopies, etc..)

Regardless of the type of healthcare (nationalized, private, etc..) the dental health industry is still getting paid, the only diffference is who is doing it. The original statement was that a breakthrough in preventive medicine will destroy a large portion of the bread and butter of the dental health industry, which will lead to it being only a fraction of what it is today. Industries fight tooth and nail to keep growing. Guess what they do when their existence is threatened.

[zaat]

> Regardless of the type of healthcare (nationalized, private, etc..) the dental health industry is still getting paid, the only diffference is who is doing it.

No, one difference is who is doing it, another one is the sums being payed. That's why the dental industry in countries with national health care fight to stay out of the general health system. The lucrative compensation of the practitioners lead people to want to go specifically for that. If it were part of national health care it would cease to be sure path to accumulating loads of money, the incentive to become a dentist as well as the power of current practitioner will be similar to that of family doctors or orthopedic specialist. Spoiler alert: in countries with national health care their status is higher then the status of teachers in national school systems, but not by much.

[zaat]

I'm not saying there isn't such a country, but the countries with national health care that I know about don't or don't fully cover dental health (presumably because one can live in perfect health with a rotting mouth and not due to a strong dental healthcare lobby /s).

[peteradio]

How oh how did our ancestors survive without the dental lobby!? How did the children with their rotten ass teeth consume all their goodies and sodie pops with such poorly functioning teeth!? Its a complete mystery, one I'm sure is lost to the sands of the 1950s.

[zaat]

They died at young age, miserably?

[TheHumanist]

I appreciate your response. I almost didn't even make the original comment because I knew I would get 'conspiracy nut' responses, as I did lol I promise, I'm the furthest from a conspiracy nut.

[bsder]

You think that the governments of the world with much poorer people wouldn't jump on something like this? Improving dental health dramatically improves outcomes all across the board.

If something works, someone, somewhere in the world would start using it. Hell, people are willing to use stuff that is flat out harmful simply because some people on the internet said so.

The big issue with bio things is that the human organism has a lot of variation and a lot of cures sorta work for some people some of the time. Consequently, a high enough bar to get FDA clearance has to be significantly strong.

(Two good recent examples: A woman died from oxalate overload from drinking green smoothies and Vitamin C and anti-oxidants can spur cancer growth. Does that mean that everybody should stop drinking green smoothies and taking Vitamin C? Obviously no. But it shows that humans vary and that things aren't always straightforward.)

[Finnucane]

What's more likely, vast cabal conspiring against competing product, or competing product just doesn't work as well as claimed? There aren't nearly as many grand conspiracies out there as there should be.