How to Avoid Getting Scammed in your First Dentist Visit

There are a lot of trustworthy and excellent dentist out there who make their clients’ interests their utmost priority. But there is also a dishonorable dentist that provides dangerous and unnecessary dental treatments and use products that are hazardous to the health to earn a lot of money from patients. Dishonest dentists have been doing this for the longest time.

For example, if you go to a dentist for a check-up, and suddenly the dentist will tell you that you need something expensive and unnecessary procedure, and it turned out that you only need a simple cleaning after you asked another dentist for a second opinion.

Some dentist will tell their patients that they need to buy expensive products like toothpaste and toothbrush that they are selling, and it turns out that you can buy them in the supermarket at a lower price, or worse, you don’t need those items. To be clear, this is straight up fraud, and it does not go well with the majority of dental practitioners.

But according to experts, and even dentists themselves can attest to this, it still happens almost every day. There is no specific number of cases that show how widespread this fraud is. These crimes are less than flash floods and more than a trickle. The majority of dental practitioners are ethical and honest. But despite that, there is still dishonest dentist that is flying under the radar and taking advantage of unsuspecting patients.

One of the biggest reasons why this is happening in the United States is that the dental industry in the U.S has almost no oversight compared to other branches of medicine. Since the dentist can operate in a small clinic and can practice alone, there is usually no one that will look over their shoulders and reprimand them in case they are committing fraud or dental malpractice. If you are curious on who regulates the dental industry, visit this site.

It is very easy to take advantage of people in this industry. People are basically like handing a blank check to these dentists. Another reason is, the industry genuinely involves a level of subjectivity in every diagnosis. A couple of honest dentists can argue whether or not a small fissure will need a tooth filling or not, and all dentists will fall on a set of philosophies, from a very conservative to ultra-aggressive in the treatment of their patients.

Some unethical and dishonest dentists abuse this uncertainty to maximize their profits. Here are some recommendations from dental experts on how to find the best and honest dentists and avoid becoming a victim of dishonest practitioners.

Beware of dental practices that offer and advertise deals

Most dental experts offered the same advice in finding an honest and trustworthy dentist – ask for recommendations from friends and families. The best way to find these good dental practitioners is to ask the people you know. If you do not have anyone to ask, the next best thing to do is to get a recommendation from your local dental society.

If you have time, you can check out dental companies like Digital Dentistry at Southpoint personally or check the company’s website. Than can give you an idea how they conduct their. You can also ask your family doctor if they know a good dentist. The one thing you should NOT do is go to a dentist because you saw in a television, radio, magazine, newspaper, or social media advertisement, especially ads that offer any free dental procedures like free cleaning or tooth whitening.

You need to remember that when it is free, there’s a big chance that there will be a catch. You should be careful about big advertisers, who put up big billboards all over the area or spends a lot of money for a TV spot. The reason for this is that a practice that depends on advertisements are sometimes used these “free deals” to attract attention and eventually clients and pressure them to accept ridiculous and expensive dental treatment plan, whether they need it or not.

There are times that they are corporate-owned dental clinics like Aspen Dental. Big chains, dental chains are dental mills. They are companies that will give you “free cleaning” or “free check-up” and tells you that you need a $5,000 procedure for a small fissure in your tooth. Realistically, a lot of dental practices that you see in an advertisement only rely on a quota-based work model. Dentists are required to perform a lot of procedures every month.

These quotas can lead dentists to force their patients to undergo certain procedures that they don’t need in the first place. You need to be more skeptical when you see a new dentist that prescribes a lot of treatment. The most common example of fraud is if a patient visited a new dentist for simple cleaning and being told that they need to have at least three or four kinds of dental procedure.

If you are going to a new dentist, and you know that you don’t need those extra work in your mouth, and all of a sudden the dentist throw in some dental jargons out of nowhere and recommends you a lot of procedures with no real basis, that is a big red flag.

Of course, if you are visiting a dentist because of tooth pain, this advice does not necessarily apply. But there are cases that an unethical and dishonest dentist will look to maximize the treatment on a new client. If you go to a new dentist for simple cleaning, and things are going smoothly, all of a sudden the dentist says you need a procedure that they can’t even adequately explain to you its purpose. That is probably just some kind of mumbo jumbo the dentist throws in the conversation to force the patients to avail their services.