I have a reminder from a dentist to go see him so he can check his handiwork putting a cap on one of my teeth. From memory this took four visits and cost several thousand dollars. He seems like a good dentist. Anyway, I’m sure he’s following good practice in sending me the reminder. I’m not suspicious that he’s a nasty profiteering dentist – he’s an expensive one. But I’d like some independent and reasonably informed advice about the benefits of doing the checkup and the costs or risks of not doing so. There ought to be a website where I can pay a dental student to spend an hour or so if necessary checking out the literature and advising me.
I think I’ve made this observation at least once before on this blog in the last ten years. But I think I didn’t get anywhere that time. And I also think that perhaps now, in the age of platforms for everything, such a platform might exist now.
Can anyone tell me – and if so point me to it?
Nicholas,
I showed your post to my dear partner who, now nearly 69, has had a lot of trouble with her teeth, and a great deal of dental attention (costing many thousands of dollars over 20 or so years) and she made these points;
1. $thousands for a cap (or crown) ? Is he (ie you) sure he didn’t also have a difficult root canal (which can cost quite a bit) in the process ?
2. In all that time, she’s never been called back for a post cap inspection, but she has had to have caps replaced after some years (which is not altogether uncommon, apparently, so there may be some justification for a post cap inspection, especially if a few years have passed).
But as to a site, I’d strongly suggest that any dental research should begin with the group of sites centred on the Australian Dental Association ( http://www.ada.org.au/ ). As well as the main site, there are various state-centric sites.
Google on “Australia Dental Association” will find most (if not all) of them.
Best of luck. Teeth can be a major hassle.
Thanks GB – yes it involved root canal work. Still that involved a couple of visits of an hour. Can’t see why that should end up costing something a little South of $4,000 but there you go.
I’m afraid I’m unexcited about seeking the advice of the official Australian Dental Association. They’ll parrot back industry standards to me without I expect treating the question on its merits.
Nicholas
I have,unfortunately, had quite a few root canals and caps done over the years, from memory, none of them required more than two visits. It does sound like your one was not a simple procedure. Do you know what ,reasonably exactly ,was the problem?
Also, some dentists now have the new system where the crown is measured, made and fitted in a single sitting, at a fraction of the old price. A 3D scanner works out the shape and a ceramic mill carves the crown on the spot – all thoroughly automated. It has to be a major deskiller.
Though GrueBleen is right – it’s often the prior work, such as a root canal, that’s the biggest source of pain (both physical and financial). If you’ve had a root canal your dentist will want to follow up that anyway.
Yes, perhaps the root canal work warrants the follow up. It seemed quite a tricky business. Anyway in the absence of better advice I’ll go.
Nicholas,
The root canal work should be ok (unless an infection has managed to creep in somehow), but caps/crowns don’t seem to last forever these days (maybe it’s the ultra clever technology “they” are using as outlined by Derrida Derider) so going for the inspection does seem best.
You may be right about the ADA site, but it seemed quite informative to me about treatments and costs etc. the one time I seriously consulted it.
Though the purpose of this post was not really to make that decision, but to sound people out about whether there’s a platform somewhere where you can get people to do practical research to improve your life!
Still no takers on that score :(
I guess the issue is primarily one of credibility and trust. Why would you trust some student’s research relative to some random blogger’s? Ultimately you would have to read the ‘evidence’ yourself, unless you see the role of the student/contractor more as sourcing and compiling information for you, rather than interpreting them.
Aren’t there already sites where you can pay for university level assignments to be written for you? Couldn’t you frame your query as an “assignment” and see what information you get back?
I expect you could, but it would be framed as a term essay which, like a journal article isn’t concerned with offering useful information, but with conforming to a certain style designed to demonstrate a degree of intelligence.