re: What is wrong with modern dentistry?

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I hate that our profession has lowered itself to the likes of the Groupons and Morris Bart-style billboards.

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preach

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I think it’s due to advancements in technology in the healthcare field as a whole. Having the necessary armamentarium to be considered standard of care for all procedures under the general dentistry umbrella has become unbelievably expensive. Those crown machines you reference are roughly $150,000 up front and a service fee of a few thousand per month. Specialists are able to limit the tools they need to one specific area of practice. As a practitioner, I

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this part, I get

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They need someone to pay for all their trips and lavish lifestyles.

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The dentist I went to for about 10 years married with 2 ex-wives, and three sets of kids, he worked like a mad man 12-13 hours a day, but he seemed very competent. Suddenly he was wanting to do some major work on me which seemed odd since I went for checkups every 6 months. Went to another dentist who found no issues, I think he got in a finical bind and needed to boost his income.

hey like $... you understand? just like attorneys and MD's....

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My current dentist does all of what you mentioned and is now doing implants as well.

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would almost raise a red flag for me

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Who are some good dentists in BR?

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Bowling Dental. The entire staff is super nice, and he doesn’t recommend unnecessary treatments (unlike other dentists I’ve seen). I trust him.

Maybe you should get dental work in another country and compare

If you need major dental work done just go to Costa Rica.
You get a vacation and dental work for about the same or less.

My dentist makes permanent crowns on site the same visit.

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bizarre to me that root canals and wisdom tooth extraction aren't part of what a regular dentist does

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I heard my dental surgeon while he was doing a procedure on my gums a few years ago, a procedure he was supposed to remove my last wisdom tooth, declare the air powered tools were a liability. The air pressure driven tools can in fact cause an air embolism that can kill.

He referred me to an oral/maxillo-facial/reconstructive surgeon at a hospital who did have the tools. My teeth IIII, wisdom tooth _, jawbone \, so I was essentially \_IIII and the wisdom tooth had to be cut (resectioned) into 4 pieces to be removed since the tooth was wedged in between mandible and other teeth.

So...my 1st cousin formerly head of the ADA and La. Dental Assoc., referred to oral surgeon for hereditary gum disease issues, who referred to another surgeon for single tooth extraction.

Now my cousin admits freely he just doesn't like to do, nor have any desire to do, anything except cleanings. He's rich from cleaning teeth so he can do that, or not, as the case may be.

Well first off, the profession doesnt seem to have really advanced for prob 80 years. I think they've reached a point where they are content to clean teeth and fill cavities for a generous salary. It's not worth doing the more complicated/dangerous stuff unless you make shite loads more money, so they specialize and focus just on that.