I’ve had 3 dentists (well, 3 practices, 4 dentists, one for a very short time) in my life. I’ve never had a cavity in my adult teeth. Neither has my dad.
Dentist 1: Children’s dentist, general cleanings, I have a dim memory (mostly the weird taste of what he was ‘squeezing’ into my tooth) of the dentist filling a cavity at age 9 or 10 or nearly 11 (definitely before we moved homes). But I suspect (and my mom does too) that whatever the dentist did was unnecessary because that tooth fell out a few months after the procedure as the adult tooth under it pushed out.
Dentist 2: Once I was old enough, I went to my dad’s dentist that he had used since he had immigrated to the USA in the early 50’s. This guy was terrific. We used him until the late 90s when he semi-retired only took his “long-term” patients. Then he came down with Parkinson’s and stopped practicing altogether. My dad was still in touch with him periodically until his death a few years later. I even used him while I lived 5000+ miles away, every few months I had a business trip to the USA and would make a point to stop in the NY area for a day so I could go to my dentist (among other things).
Dentist 3: This was a local practice, a new young dentist working for an older one. The young dentist did my care for 2 years, but then moved away. Then the older dentist took over (1999 I think) and switched to using dental hygienists for almost everything. This was a good thing, because in my experience, dental hygienists (at least all the ones I’ve used in the ensuing 25 years) do a much better job cleaning than the dentist ever did. They take more time and also seem to have a steadier hand. This dentist is tricky though, he tries to “upsell” me whenever possible, and I’m ashamed to say that sometimes it works. For example, every 2 years they upsell me into a “deep cleaning”, that’s where they really dig deep under the gums and make a bloody mess. The insurance covers most of it, but I still have to pay a few hundred bucks. I don’t mind the deep cleaning because it seems to keep the gum line cleaner for longer, though for some reason my mouth develops huge amounts of plaque. Don’t know why, but the dental hygienist recommends that I come for a cleaning every 4 months. Another upsell that was successful was adding a veneer of some sort to two molars that he (the dentist) said were looking “worn down”. He painted something on the teeth and then cured it with some sort of uv light I think. I can still feel the front of those two teeth feel different than all my other teeth. Another upsell, just a month ago was some sort of oral cancer screening for $39 extra. I did it, but really shouldn’t have bothered. Another upsell that he tries every few years is to convince me to allow him to drill some of my molars and fill them, that’s because my molars have a few thin dark lines on their tops (the chewing surfaces). But I will never agree to that unless he can show me that there is a true cavity formed. That’s because those black lines have been there since at least 1999. I know it was 1999 because it was the new young dentist that told me about them, and told me not to worry about them unless they become true cavities. They also try to upsell on X-rays, but I only allow them every few years because not much is changing anymore and because my teeth were always a little crooked (I could have used a little orthodontic work as a kid, but we couldn’t afford such things at the time), so I don’t really care if stuff moves around a bit more at this point.
But I stay with this dentist because I am used to him, and I really like the dental hygienists that he has working for him. He has one right now that’s been with him for over 10 years and she does my cleanings every time except once (she was out on maternity leave) over those 10 years. She’s really good. I don’t know if hygienists are allowed to start their own practices, but if she did, I would follow her there. She does all my cleanings, and my deep cleanings every 2 years or so. The dentist comes in at the end for a minute or two to look around and pronounce “everything looks okay” and do his upsell routine. There have been all sorts of other upsells that I can remember over the years. Another one just from last month was this weird antibiotic rinse that they sold me and I used for 10 days. And they once sold me a water flosser many years ago. And they keep trying to sell me a fancy vibrating toothbrush for $149, but instead I got my last one from Amazon for $11.49. My hygienist asked me to bring my electric toothbrush in so she could inspect it and see if it’s any good, so I brought it last appointment and she looked it over and said it is a good one (I think I got it on sale at amazon for $15 a year or two ago) and had me brush with it and showed me some pointers how to brush better with it. I was brushing mostly side to side and she said to brush mostly up and down the teeth instead.