Socialist Choppers

Dental work is something you don’t want people selling you unnecessarily. It’s painful and expensive. My dentist back home has been telling me this: “We really need to replace a bunch of those fillings. Maybe you should consider getting a crown on that one tooth.”

I dumped my previous dentist because he kept trying to get my wisdom teeth. “Why?” I asked. “Is there something wrong with them?” “Nope. they’re fine. It’s just that we’ve seen what can go wrong if you don’t care for them.” Huh? What? “You’ll leave them RIGHT where they are,” I told him.

Yesterday, the dentist told me this: “Everything looks great. Your fillings are fine, I don’t see any signs that they’re failing, the roots look good, it’s all fine. Your teeth are fine.”

I can’t help but think that my dentists at home have been trying to sell me work needlessly. Maybe when everyone is paying the same price for care, folks become more motivated by what the patient needs and less by how much money they can make? My Austrian dentist could be wrong, but my instinct is to trust him because he’s a friend of the husband. If there was something wrong, I think he would have wanted to fix it.

I wanted a second opinion, but I didn’t think it would be so far from the first one I got.

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