Monday woe! -- and dentistry

[undyingking]

I wa laid up all weekend with a stinking cold, meaning that I missed a friend's 40th do on Saturday. As if that wasn't bad enough I've got to go to the dentist this afternoon. I bit down too hard on something a while back (curse you home-made bread!), and managed to crack one of my molars, and now they're going to drill out that whole cusp to prevent the crack spreading further.

Last time I had something done on my teeth was wisdom removal around ten years ago, so I guess it's about time maybe, but it's still kind of galling and I'm really not looking forward to it. Hopefully sweet anaesthetic will ease the pain...

This got me thinking about dental insurance. In general I'm not a great believer in specialized insurance like this. I figure that they wouldn't be running it if they didn't expect to make a profit, so unless you're particularly risk-averse (eg. you don't have any way of covering a possible layout) you're better off just saving the money.

However it struck me that dental insurance is a bit different, because with a dentist it's effectively up to them what treatment you have. If you don't have insurance but just pay on a job basis, it's in the dentist's interest to recommend excessive or unnecessary treatment, because that's how they make their profit. (I'm sure most of them wouldn't do so, but that's always going to be at the back of your mind, isn't it?) Whereas if they're also providing your dental insurance, it's actually not in their interest to recommend treatment unless it would prevent more expensive and unavoidable treatment later. Of course if you take this too far they would never give you any treatment at all, just keep raking in the premiums, but in practice under our particular plan we do have to pay some money towards the fillings etc, so presumably that covers their costs at least. (Please tell me that adamsmithjr's already done an Under the Covers Economist on this...)

This does make me think though that dentistry is a dream business provided you don't mind having to bend over people's fetid breath all day long. But that's quite a big proviso, isn't it?

Edit: Had the filling done now, and it wasn't too bad -- seems to have come on quite a way since the last one I had, which must have been upwards of 20 years ago now.

Comments

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I'm sure most of them wouldn't do so

<cough> Dental hygienists <cough>

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Mm, indeed.

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

Sound reasoning, but it only works that way if the dentist is taking the financial risks themself rather than having it underwritten by some unsuspecting mug Lloyd's syndicate. If the latter then you could potentially end up having enormous amounts of unnecessary treatment as neither the (unscrupulous by hypothesis) dentist or your finances would act as a restraining influence.
If the dentist bears the risk themselves then you might end up eith a treatment which is suboptimal but cheap of course.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Mm, I was assuming any such underwriter would be savvy enough to come down hard on those guilty of such, but maybe that's a rash faith!

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

You sweet trusting fool. They would work it out ... eventually (say 3 years) and then the broker would repackage the deal and move on to the next set of mugs. If you're desperate enough for premium then you can always convince yourself to believe the broker's spin.

[ar-gemlad.livejournal.com]

I'll always be a cynic when it comes to dentists, unless they change the system of paying dentists for the work they do (someone tell me they already have, please!)

My dad: had most of his teeth filled, and was told 20 years later by the same, forgetful, dentist that it had been a waste of time (Dentist: "Who filled all your teeth?!" Dad: "You did" Dentist: "Ah.")

My friend's dad: had all of his teeth removed at the age of 22!!

Me: erm, really ought to go to the dentist soon, dum de dum...

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I think I've heard that in "the old days" a nice all-round extraction was a relatively common and much-appreciated wedding present. No more of that troublesome brushing, etc.