Do You Really Need Those Fillings?


There is now controversy about the way cavities are diagnosed.

Usually, the dentist sticks a poker into the enamel, and if it feels a little soft, he calls it a cavity and proceeds to drill out an enormous amount of perfectly good enamel and fills it.

More and more people are becoming skeptical about this method of diagnosing cavities. They suspect that it errs far in the direction of diagnosing cavities for the financial benefit of dentists.

I also have heard more and more news stories about dentists (even long-term friend-of-the-family dentists) telling people they need cavities when they don't. I heard a report that up to 50% of people who got a second opinion from another dentist found out that they did not need fillings at all.

I personally know people who have been going to the same dentist for years and when they heard about this, began getting second opinions and found out that their dentist was diagnosing cavities that didn't exist.

Unfortunately, even the seemingly-nicest people have a dark side, especially when they don't think there is any chance of being found out.

I always say, you know the true character of a person by what they do when nobody is looking.

I hear ya Russ. It is amazing how one little act can destroy so much of one's future.

Dentists create cavities with the "dental explorer", that sharp metal pick you have all seen in your dentist's hand. The pick is pressed into the center of your tooth, directly into the biting surface. Visualize the pressure applied, the force per square inch from a sharp needle-like metal point being pressed into the deepest grooves of the biting surface of your molar. If the pick breaks through the enamel, you now have a cavity. You NOW have a cavity that was not there before. Dentists claim this is testing for "weak spots" in your teeth.

I remember as a child, my dentist pushing down so hard that I couldn't keep my head up and my jaw was sore afterwards. Of course I left with several new mercury cavities and my parents bitching about how much it cost them and why I was irresponsible for not brushing enough.

Do doctors measure your bone strength by seeing if they can break your arm? If they weren't selling fillings would they have pressed so damn hard into the tooth? What about remineralization, especially for a young child whose teeth are growing and maturing? It is known that children's bones are softer than adult's - so maybe teeth are as well, but that wouldn't matter to a dentist, that those soft teeth would remineralize (a term foreign to many dentists) instead of be cracked by their medieval ice pick.

Maybe that's why people get most of their fillings when they are a kid - when they are caught by a predator dentist in their softer growth years, too naive about the world, too trusting of authority, and too willing to accept blame for "not brushing and flossing enough".