False claims regarding dentistry—article published by The Atlantic

[redhotchiligochu]

The Atlantic published a damning article regarding dentistry just recently:

The Truth About Dentistry

How do we survive as future dentists when public distrust is created by bad journalism, especially on a (semi) popular outlet?

Open to discussion on all sides.

Edit: grammar

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[ab117]

I didn’t have any problems with it while it was talking about this Lund guy. Obviously he’s a scamming dirtbag. But then suddenly this happened:
“A masked figure looms over your recumbent body, wielding power tools and sharp metal instruments, doing things to your mouth you cannot see, asking you questions you cannot properly answer, and judging you all the while. The experience simultaneously invokes physical danger, emotional vulnerability, and mental limpness.”

That... escalated quickly. How could you call this anything but a smear article when they’re immediately trying to prime the reader with exaggeratedly negative framing?

 

[cooliyak]

I didn’t have any problems with it while it was talking about this Lund guy. Obviously he’s a scamming dirtbag. But then suddenly this happened:
“A masked figure looms over your recumbent body, wielding power tools and sharp metal instruments, doing things to your mouth you cannot see, asking you questions you cannot properly answer, and judging you all the while. The experience simultaneously invokes physical danger, emotional vulnerability, and mental limpness.”

That... escalated quickly. How could you call this anything but a smear article when they’re immediately trying to prime the reader with exaggeratedly negative framing?

Same. I don’t have a problem with a majority of what was written. In fact, I think it was written fairly well. The over generalization was a little much, but there are dentists out there that do things like this. More than you think. And it’s true about the history of dental and medicine as well as evidence based dentistry being a relatively new thing.

 

[setdoc7]

Perspective. Every so often an article emerges like this. Readers Digest did one years ago. If you are worried that it will impact public trust in the profession, do not give it a second thought. The public distrusts everyone on a broad basis. Over the past 50 years, every pillar of good and truth has been dispelled to some extent. Your patients will trust you, if they deem you trustworthy. No area of life goes untouched by a journalist who wishes to bring the ills of an organization to light. As in life, there are good and bad people everywhere. Focus on the good. Do good for others. Detach yourself from negativity.

 

[oralcare123]

The good thing is that teeth hurt. A lot

 

[luisfigo]

It's an extrapolation of one dentist combined with a hit piece. Evidence based dentistry has been practiced much longer than the "90's," its called research. It's also a joke that dentistry has only a few journals and medicine has so many, I wonder why?....

 

[deleted547631]

I find the article to be factual and informative.

"Among other problems, dentistry’s struggle to embrace scientific inquiry has left dentists with considerable latitude to advise unnecessary procedures—whether intentionally or not."

This point above is irrefutable.

 

[drawingdentist]

Found a really great article in response to that article that was published by The Atlantic: Dentists as Clickbait - Dental Hacks

 

[DrJeff]

I find the article to be factual and informative.

"Among other problems, dentistry’s struggle to embrace scientific inquiry has left dentists with considerable latitude to advise unnecessary procedures—whether intentionally or not."

This point above is irrefutable.

"Unnecessary" and "optional" (as in often "cosmetic" procedures are) can very easily be lumped into a blurry middle ground.

Case in point, there was the report last Summer if I recall, that there is no scientific benefit to flossing. Would we as a profession start to recommend that flossing is unnecessary?

After practicing for 20+ years, if there's one thing that I have learned countless numbers of times, is that teeth and/or oral conditions don't always follow certain treatment "algorithms" that big data analytics often suggest that they essentially HAVE to

 

[2TH MVR]

Doesn't help when you see signs and ads everywhere advertising free cleanings, life time whitening, $15 dollar exams, $99 per month braces, $1000 off Invisalign, Direct Smile Club in CVS stores, etc. etc. etc. Walk into most dental offices and there's a monitor in the reception area advertising cosmetic services. Look at the dentists advertising botox, hair removal, salon dentistry, lip enlargement treatments, etc. etc.

How about all the threads and posts regarding BUSINESS and MARKETING skills needed to run a successful private practice. Unfortunately for dentistry .... your dental skills mean nothing in the real world. What matters is being on the 1st page on a google search. Top three.

Anytime you mix business with health care ..... some unethical things will come up. Think about all the different prices for services or more correctly ...COMMODITIES in dentistry.

Medicine doesn't do this .... as much. There's no negotiating the prices. Prices are set .... albeit by the insurance companies. Medicine doesn't lure patients in with free tummy liposuction with gall bladder removal surgery. Most drs in medicine are employees responsible for patient care .... not negotiating the every increasing lease on your office space.

For the very reasons .... people want to be dentists for the lifestyle, practice ownership, ..... this opens dentistry up to outside scrutiny. Same goes for the Corps. They exist to make a profit. Same for private practice. Every dental office wants to grow and make more money.

In my opinion .... dentistry was once a very trusted profession, but all the mass marketing, advertising, Corp takovers, DSC, has cheapened our profession and has subsequently brought scrutiny.

 

[luisfigo]

Can you blame the profession when costs are going up everywhere and yet dental insurance coverage has been the same $1500/year since 1979?

 

[Faefly]

I actually had bad experiences with some dentists. When they know I can't pay with insurance, they treat me badly even though I am gonna pay cash or with my card.

They don't talk to me and treat me like sub-human. I have a dental assistant double check with me if I really signed my name like that!

Instead of feeling angry about an article, feel angry about how some dentists treat patients based on their income!

So, yup, clean up your act and treat people impartially and nobody will write a bad article about you.

 

[ab117]

I actually had bad experiences with some dentists. When they know I can't pay with insurance, they treat me badly even though I am gonna pay cash or with my card.

They don't talk to me and treat me like sub-human. I have a dental assistant double check with me if I really signed my name like that!

Instead of feeling angry about an article, feel angry about how some dentists treat patients based on their income!

So, yup, clean up your act and treat people impartially and nobody will write a bad article about you.

I mean, I think everyone in here agrees that there are bad dentists and I'm sure you're not the only one who's personally had a bad experience. The problem is that this article strongly implies that this sort of thing is the norm whereas in reality it's almost certainly the exception. So despite making some valid claims, it's extremely misleading and at least slightly malicious.

 

[Faefly]

I mean, I think everyone in here agrees that there are bad dentists and I'm sure you're not the only one who's personally had a bad experience. The problem is that this article strongly implies that this sort of thing is the norm whereas in reality it's almost certainly the exception. So despite making some valid claims, it's extremely misleading and at least slightly malicious.

Not many people read the Atlantic, their English is very sophisticated for the regular public. Actually, we could just ignore it and not many will even notice. The more we bring it up, the more it draws attention and next thing we know, we have me two movements about dentists!
There was a documentary that linked root canal to cancer the other day on Netflix, now that is something can be malicious and have a harmful affect that lasts for years which the regular public will see and believe right away as conspiracy theories sell and the fact that it was pulled from Netflix make the public believe it even more.

 

[P7898]

They hate us because they aint us.

True talk, there are people like this in every profession.

 

[Cold Front]

Media is publishing all types of stories that make controversial claims about anything. Usually, the opportunity to counter the claims is not given - so in a way, the readers (for lack of better words) who are mostly not sophisticated take those claims as a common knowledge and true. Case in point, Fox News, MSNBC and the likes. Just like these are for profit corporations, The Atlantic is not immune to the way media to this model of business that makes shock claims. and a proof that we are still living in a world of fake news that is growing to be more widespread and goes beyond the boundaries of politics and entertainment. Journalism is losing it’s way and this is another example of it.

Ultimately, and it’s my worry, that unsubstantiated information could slowly and potentially change the perception of patients towards dentistry and oral health in general. The public already has beliefs that prevents them from seeing their dentists, and fueling them with more crazy information is doing public health and oral health injustice. The ADA should have a media arm that addresses and comments on these type of articles, just like the ACLU, or the AMA, or the NRA stand for their associations.

Dentistry is slowly being chipped away by corporations, insurances, schools, suppliers and inflationary pressures that are not helping dentists and the profession provide services the public needs. In the long run, it could have a serious effects on the standard of care and everything the profession stands for.

 

[2TH MVR]

This just occurred to me. Is it possible that negative press on dentistry will hurt private practice more than the Corps? I'm not saying Corps are angels, because .... they aren't. But my feeling is that patients now and probably into the future MAY FEEL more protected having treatment at a Corp. Why? Because large Corps are always under the scrutiny of states/feds/whistleblowers/etc. Private practice dentists work in a very isolated situation. The point is that a private practive dentist could probably get away with "over-diagnosing dentistry" more so than a Corp dentist could. If a Corp patient questions their dentist's treatment .... well .... the complaint goes to the business manager. Then it escalates to the regional manager .... on to the Corp manager ..... then to the legal team at Corp. The situation is dealt with many levels of EYES examining that dental tx, possible negative reviews and malpractice. In a private practice? No one but the dentist really knows.

Whose going to know? Staff does not know. When people sue. They usually sue only those that have MONEY. Sure .... dentists have money, but a CORP has much deeper pockets.

A Corp is responsible for their employees (read: dentists). A dentist F's up. Corp is on the hook. Therefore .... Corps monitor and make sure their dentists are producing, but in "legal" way. No such oversight in a small private GP office.

Are patients in the future going to feel "safer" in a large Corp with PERCEIVED greater tx oversight?

 

[321931]

I doubt it. There are bad apples in private practice and corporate. This guy in the Atlantic was a bad dentist simple as that. He would of done the same in corporate or private practice.

Regardless, I do think that when you work for someone- you have to produce. Simple as that. Last Thursday I did 3 fillings and 18 exams. My total production was 1200 which is pathetic. But I still ended up in the green for the day because I run a very low overhead practice and the sole shareholder is- me. When you answer to yourself, you can say whatever, I'll just take 5 weeks off this year, but when you work for someone- you have to answer to someone else and they aren't employing you for fun- they are employing you to make profit.

 

[Cold Front]

But my feeling is that patients now and probably into the future MAY FEEL more protected having treatment at a Corp. Why? Because large Corps are always under the scrutiny of states/feds/whistleblowers/etc. Private practice dentists work in a very isolated situation.

Yes and No. Insurances have metrics for all their providers. If a provider is submitting more claims for multi-surface restorations or an outlier for other procedures, they will red flag it and send you a letter (usually the PPO’s) to tell you about it. Doesn’t mean you did something wrong, but it’s a heads-up notice. Corporations have more whistleblowers now, and whistleblower laws rewards the people who alerted the insurances, specially Medicaid. It recently happened to a DSO, Immediadent, and the whistleblower was a dentist who worked for the corporation.

https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2018/11/08/immediadent-samson-dental-partners-doj-settlment.amp.html