Dentists are pulling ‘healthy’ and treatable teeth to profit from implants, experts warn

kffhealthnews.org Dentists Are Pulling ‘Healthy’ and Treatable Teeth To Profit From Implants, Experts Warn - KFF Health News

Americans are getting dental implants more than ever — and at costs reaching tens of thousands of dollars. Experts worry some dentists have lost sight of the soul of dentistry: preserving and fixing teeth.

Summary

Fueled by profit-driven private equity, the booming dental implant industry is facing fierce criticism for what some call reckless and horrendous practices that leave patients in pain. Experts like Harvard’s William Giannobile and periodontist Luiz Gonzaga warn that clinics are pressuring patients into costly and unnecessary implants, often removing healthy teeth that could be saved.

Becky Carroll’s experience with ClearChoice was a nightmare. She alleges that during her $31,000 implant surgery, her anesthesia wore off, leaving her conscious and in agony, while the misaligned implants rendered her unable to chew. Nationwide, lawsuits recount similar ordeals, yet companies like ClearChoice and Aspen Dental deny any wrongdoing.

3 comments

This is the same shit that happened with braces when I was a kid. It makes me so angry. My parents, luckily, were too poor at the time for any of us to get braces. And then dentists inevitably told them we all need braces, my mom did some digging and decided it wasn't necessary. She originally did so to determine if they would need to come up with the money or not, but in doing so, found out it's unnecessary in most cases. Skip to today and my teeth are perfectly fine while my husband has all kinds of issues with his retainer leftover from when he has braces that I'm guessing he didn't need. While I'm not a doctor, my recommendation in regards to dentists will always be to get your regular cleanings done and fillings if necessary, but anything else, and you should get a second opinion.
- My wife had industry articles written about her mouth, and it was a battle just to get her mounts switched out for white ones and the metal removed for our wedding day, six years after she had braces put on.
  Having seen photos of what her teeth looked like before braces, I would have still asked that girl out and eventually married her, although I see why she may have been even more self-conscious then than she was afterword(although I have my doubts anything was helped on that front too).
  My own mouth is crowded with teeth I begged them to remove, now getting damaged by pressure from neighboring teeth and extremely difficult to clean between.
  They don't seem to care what we actually need or don't need. Meanwhile, none of our kids have needed braces.

Thats horrific! Dentists need to be regulated.