[HN Gopher] Do you need a dentist visit every 6 months? That fil...
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       Do you need a dentist visit every 6 months? That filling? The data
       is weak
        
       Author : jerlam
       Score  : 33 points
       Date   : 2024-05-07 19:28 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (arstechnica.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (arstechnica.com)
        
       | sydbarrett74 wrote:
       | My dentist said that the purpose of semiannual visits is to bug
       | patients on a regular basis to brush and floss properly. People
       | will treat oral hygiene like going to the gym: they'll be all
       | pumped up for a bit and then slack off eventually. The six-month
       | mark is about when most people need that kick in the arse to get
       | back on track.
       | 
       | Scientists have been learning how crucial and vital good oral
       | health is, because it affects the health of every other organ
       | system in the body. Periodontal disease is a direct cause of both
       | diabetes and heart disease. They even recently learned that poor
       | gum health is a causal factor in colorectal cancer _.
       | 
       | _ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5159274/
        
         | the_real_cher wrote:
         | > periodontal disease is a direct cause of both diabetes and
         | heart disease.
         | 
         | I thought that diabetes was glucose processing dysfunction?
        
         | sigmonsays wrote:
         | it seems hard to swallow this connection. How can oral health
         | cause diabetes?
        
         | tharkun__ wrote:
         | And flossing has ... not been shown to improve anything at all
         | really. Which is why I truthfully tell every dentist that asks:
         | No I did not floss a single time since the last time you told
         | me to.
         | 
         | Also: My dad never really brushed his teeth much if at all. No
         | fillings ever. No teeth removed. He used toothpicks
         | "relentlessly" (in the XP sense) like while on the couch, while
         | thinking through some chess moves etc. Turns out that's how our
         | (smart) ancestors "brushed": with sticks.
        
           | JumpCrisscross wrote:
           | > _Turns out that 's how our (smart) ancestors "brushed":
           | with sticks_
           | 
           | If you're eating the diet our prehistoric ancestors ate, are
           | at their level of physique and generally okay with their life
           | expectancy, this is fine advice. For everyone else, there is
           | limited evidence it helps prevent gum disease and halitosis
           | [1].
           | 
           | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_floss#Evidence
        
       | duffpkg wrote:
       | Former hospital system executive, wrote hacking healthcare for
       | O'Reilly, created the open source ClearHealth/HealthCloud EMR...
       | 
       | One of the few times in managing hospital systems I was actually
       | shocked at unethical behavior was when we took over management of
       | a system that through accidents of history included a series of
       | dentistry clinics. Dentists do not have any equivalent to a
       | hippocratic oath, they have no professional obligation to be
       | honest with their "patients". The overriding operational theme of
       | the clinics was how to defraud "patients" with completely
       | unecessary work to maximize profits and borderline defraud dental
       | insurance. I understand that people have a dim view of ethics in
       | american healthcare but this was what I would consider criminal
       | behavior in a medical setting but as further experiences taught
       | me, is the norm in american dentistry. Suffice it to say that we
       | divested from the dentistry clinics asap.
       | 
       | Here is one swiss study showing that 30% of dentists committed
       | fraud in the studed visits or were so incompetent that their
       | behavior constituted fraud. I would guess that american dentistry
       | is closer to 50%.
       | 
       | Have you had your wisdom teeth out? You are very likely to be the
       | victim of dental fraud.
       | 
       | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3135372/
       | https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3036573
        
       | Waterluvian wrote:
       | The part that really engenders distrust of the dental industry is
       | that I'll get three very different opinions from three dentists.
       | 
       | I should write a long post because any time the topic comes up I
       | have a lot to say, but don't want to wear my thumbs out on my
       | phone. What they did and then further tried to do to my children
       | made me violently livid and completely disenchanted with the
       | industry.
       | 
       | Never thought I'd be a conspiracy theorist type person about
       | anything but I do not trust dentists.
        
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       (page generated 2024-05-07 23:02 UTC)