[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?

[klipt]

Most of our ancestors just ate much less refined sugar, so probably had less need for dental care in the first place.

[zaat]

> ...there was never yet philosopher that could endure the toothache patiently (shakespeare)

Why defer to a baseless "probably" when you can easily check what is known about the past? Wikipedia doesn't put the blame on refined sugar but rather point to farming as to what correlated with dental issues. Are you familiar with the barber's pole? that's the sign for the location where our ancestors went to be relived from owning teeth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barber%27s_pole

[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.