Thousands of people have been cheated out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by dentists who recommend unnecessary dental surgeries.
Patients seeking advice from their dentists for crooked, chipped, or stained teeth may hear from fake doctors who need extensive replacement implants.
This could cost them up to $65,000 for teeth that could have possibly been saved with more routine (and affordable) procedures like root canals or fillings.
Oral surgeons have described the trend of recommending unnecessary dental work as a “horror show” and report seeing five or more clients each month seeking second opinions.
However, providers who tell patients they need teeth extracted and replaced have a considerable financial incentive. Implants are generally not covered by insurance, and dentists can make tens of thousands of dollars per patient.
And with a shortage of qualified oral surgeons in thousands of clinics across the United States, a large proportion of doctors who perform unnecessary procedures are not adequately trained to perform them correctly.
Implant surgery involves removing teeth and replacing them with a metal post anchored in the jaw. The post is then topped with a dental prosthesis, often a porcelain crown.
For those who need more extensive replacements, options such as “full arch” or “All in 4” implants allow replacing the entire top or bottom row of teeth or, in more extensive cases, replacing all 32 of the patient’s teeth.
Implant surgery involves removing a single tooth and replacing it with a metal post anchored in the jaw. The post is then topped with a dental prosthesis, often a porcelain crown.
Implanted teeth can become infected but many people think they are foolproof. This, dentists say, is a fallacy.
In 10 interviews with ProPublica, dentists and surgeons with implant experience said they had given second opinions to patients who had previously been told they needed implants.
However, dentists said they ultimately determined that the implants were not necessary.
Each dental specialist said they had seen many patients for whom other dentists had recommended full-arch implants even though their teeth were treatable with conventional dentistry.
Becky Carroll, of New Jersey, was hoping to undergo a full upper arch procedure, replacing 16 teeth.
The 52-year-old man had some teeth missing and others stained.
She smiled with her mouth closed, embarrassed by her mediocre smile, and was told that the only way to improve her smile was with implants.
He saved and borrowed $31,000 for a procedure to implant new artificial teeth at a ClearChoice Dental Implant Center in New Jersey in 2021, after seeing an ad promoting getting a new smile in just one day.
But his procedure was the beginning of a years-long journey to remedy failed implants. ProPublica and CBS revealed reports.
Ms. Carroll woke up during her procedure and felt all the pain that comes with having screws drilled into her jaw and cheekbones.
Then, when the procedure was finished, Carroll’s prosthetic teeth were so misaligned that he couldn’t chew for more than two years until he could afford corrective surgery at another clinic, according to an affidavit in his lawsuit against ClearChoice.
Despite their cost, implants have become increasingly popular. Sales have increased more than six percent annually since 2010
She said: ‘I thought implants would be easier and all at once, so you wouldn’t have to go back to the dentist again and again. But I should have asked more questions… like, can you save these teeth?’
Thousands of lawsuits have been filed across the country that, like Carroll’s, allege that implant patients have experienced painful complications that have required expensive, time-consuming and painful corrective surgery.
Other lawsuits allege that dentists at some implant clinics have persuaded, pressured or forced patients to unnecessarily extract teeth.
William Giannobile, dean of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, said: “There are many cases where teeth that are perfectly fine are extracted unnecessarily.”
“I really hate to say it, but many of them do it because these procedures, from a monetary standpoint, are much more beneficial to the practitioner.”
He had seen “dozens” of patients seeking second opinions after being recommended unnecessary implants.
He added: “Now I see a lot of these patients who come in and say, ‘They’ve seen me and they’re telling me to pull out all my dentures, all my teeth.’ And then I’ll take a look at them and tell them we can keep most of them.” his teeth.
Despite their cost, implants have become increasingly popular. Sales have grown more than six percent annually since 2010, reaching more than 3.7 million implants sold in the U.S. in 2022, according to a 2023 report from iData Research, a healthcare market analysis firm. medical.
While implants have been around for half a century and can be life-changing for people with missing teeth, many see them as a quick fix — a fallacy, doctors say.
Paul Rosen, a Pennsylvania periodontist who has worked with implants for more than 30 years, said: “You can’t just put an implant in and ride off into the sunset.
“In many cases, they need more care than teeth because they are not teeth.”
Aside from the monetary damage from unnecessary implants, the procedure carries a number of risks, including infection in the root around the gum and bone around the implants.
George Mandelaris, a Chicago-area periodontist and member of the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Periodontology, said, “Just because someone can afford implants does not necessarily mean they are a good candidate.”
“When an implant has an infection, or when an implant has bone loss, the implant dies much faster than the teeth.”