Dentists Without X-Rays: How to Find a Reasonable Dentist
| Health | 56 Comments
When I moved to the U.S. at some point, like everyone else who moves to a new place, I had to find a dentist. But this wasn’t so easy as I thought…
My dentists abroad in Europe never used an x-ray, expect one single time to locate and extract my wisdom teeth.
Let me highlight this once again: my dentists in Europe never even mentioned the word “x-ray” to me! So naturally, the last thing I expected were two dozen x-rays to fix a simple filling.
I request a simple teeth cleaning job and I’m thrown out. They sing the same song “no reasonable dentist in this country will see you without x-rays”. Well the good news is these dentists are wrong, but this issue is upsetting anyways.
So what’s going on here? My way or the highway? What is this Nazi-like attitude?
Meet the New Antisocial Industry: Dentists
In my quest to find a “reasonable” dentist here in the Baltimore, Washington D.C. area, I visited over a handful dentists here, one worse than the other.
After visiting some forums online I noticed I’m not the only one who noticed something is wrong here:
- you check in, even just for teeth cleaning, and they insist on taking x-rays. Not just one, a dozen and more!
- they send you straight back home if you refuse, even if you had a little tooth pain, for example from under a filling. I never needed x-rays to replace fillings in Europe, but here everything is different.
- they insist on regular x-rays for no reason…”just in case”. No thank you!
- and this one is the biggest one: they x-ray you after the procedure is finished, something I found out is called “defensive medicine”, just in case you are a weirdo and want to take legal action against them.
- when you refuse to take more x-rays at any stage, including even during treatment, guess what: they send you home. With a hole in your tooth that they drilled and left open. They don’t care. “My way or the highway”!
- they don’t even look at your mouth anymore, just x-rays. They might look into mouth for 30 secs and then talk for half an hour looking at x-rays. That tells me one thing: they need to sell the need for x-rays, and they are no longer skilled dentists who can just look at the tooth and see what’s going on. Again I’m talking about simple fillings, not serious root canal infections and the like.
- Now you may think “I better take my x-rays with me when I switch dentists”. Well, they already thought about that, too. They will tell you “these x-rays aren’t made of good quality, we have to take new ones” as soon as you walk in the door… Hey and that’s a great way to prevent you from switching from dentist to dentists, huh!
- I took the exact same x-rays to four dentists and received four different treatment plans with little overlap. Where one dentist said the tooth is OK, the other expected a “deep filling”. You see, dentists became fortune readers. Their fortune turns out to be your “supposedly” bad tooth with imaginary cavities!
- if you want to keep your dentist, buckle up: go twice a year and get your “full” dose of radiation. Just in case there is a bad cavity!
- Imagine your three year old getting x-rayed yearly for no justifiable medical reason.
Hence, I objected: “How come in Europe they do it without x-rays? Are they all unreasonable dentists over there? Should we send them back to school so they turn out like you?”
The best answer I got was “it sounds like a different school of thought over there”. Yes indeed. Here it appears we have the Dental Board of Little Adolfs…
Well it also appears x-rays bring in a lot of money, too, what a coincidence! I paid $450 for a simple cleaning and the “mandatory x-rays”.
Welcome to Dr. Adolf’s dentistry!
So this is how unreasonable it gets: they x-ray you when they are done so that they are able to “prove” they did a sufficiently good job, in case you come back with a lawyer.
And you pay for this in dollars as well as with an increase in your risk of developing cancer, such as thyroid cancer, see Dental X-Ray Cancer Risks, List of Scientific Studies. Yes, the radiation dose today sooo low. That’s why we now take two dozen x-rays rather than just one to do the job. Then they compare dental x-rays to background radiation, which is probably the most illogical reasoning coming from a dentist mouth ever.
You want a simple tooth cleaning? Yeah you could get this done for less than $100 elsewhere, without x-rays, but here they insist you need x-rays first. The whole mouth plus individual x-rays of each single corner, like 16 x-rays in total. For no reason. Well for $450 in my case 🙂 They want you to be “part of their practice”, not just coming for a random cleaning…. Interesting. It’s like joining a church.
Well and their attitude has a good reason: s/he needs to make some money and after all if you do happen to get cancer, who cares? Your problem! Yeah, you could have a rat under one of your teeth, wouldn’t you want to know?
Imagine if all those thyroid cancer patients had an accurate way to prove it was their dentists who gave them cancer, how many dentists would still x-ray you?
How to Find a Reasonable Dentist Who Works Without X-Rays
First of all there are empathetic and great dentists out there who work without x-rays. Do not believe this B.S. that “no one” will help you. And no, they never miss a cavity either. When you are properly trained you know how to look at teeth, not just x-rays.
OK this is how I found dentists who are reasonable, empathetic, skilled, open-minded, experienced, and actually talk to patients and treat them in a way they want to be treated…..without x-rays:
- Go to bing and look for holistic dentists in your area. And perhaps visit http://holisticdental.org
- Do not call them or visit them. It’s a gigantic waste of time and you will find all this unreasonable rejection to be disappointing. Some of these holistic dentists are “fake”. They will give you the same crap the do in person about “x-rays are so safe today” and “the radiation dose is so low”. Yes, in the past the dose was higher and they took one x-ray. Now it’s lower, they take 20 x-rays for a simple filling and another 10 x-rays three months later “for check-ups”. There is a pile of scientific data out there to question the safety of dental x-rays and they neither know anything about it, nor care about your health anyways. A dentist who doesn’t back off when you tell them you don’t want something, isn’t working on your behalf. And again we’re not talking about life-threatening conditions that warrant x-rays, we’re talking about a simple teeth cleaning job or replacing a small filling.
- Write an email template where you describe what kind of dentist and service you are looking for and specifically mention that you do not want x-rays, unless there is a serious health issue that has been identified by the dentist and that clearly requires x-ray images. After all you are not unreasonable yourself. X-rays are very useful when you have a known/visible condition, such as a root abscess or the like, or severe symptoms. My post is obviously about people who have little troubles with their teeth and are yet bombarded with unnecessary radiation.
- Send at least 100 emails (simply swap out the email address and first line “dear dr. Doolittle”). You get the email addresses from the holistic dental website or the dentist’s websites. The “success rate” for me was around 2%, response rate 5%, so you need a lot of emails. By the way this process is called “reverse marketing”, where the customer markets him/herself to the provider, not the other way around, that would appear the usual route. See how bad this market has become, we have to market ourselves to them in order to get our teeth treated!
- Watch the silence 😉 and the first emails come in.
- Hint: when you get emails with the usual “no reasonable dentists in this country will do this”, do not bother answering. Remember Ali G: “Talk to the hand because the head ain’t listening…” Be prepared they will email you this stuff so be cool and ignore, don’t get upset, there are too many Adolf dentists out there unfortunately. It’s an entire army, not just a couple, and they work with collective forces against you until you budge because of your tooth pain.
- Finally, sometimes weeks later, you’ll receive the email response from the ideal dentist. I mean the reasonable good dentist who is on your side.
- Pay them cash and ditch the dental insurance. If you think about it, a lot of this exploitation started with dental insurance.
- Thank them for being human, unlike the rest who only believes in dollars and B.S. coming from the A.D.A.
Here is an example email response I received from a reasonable, awesome, experienced, and empathetic dentist:
Hi,
Yes I totally understand and will be happy to work with you and your family! I will guide all of you on how to take care of your teeth with natural and organic materials and your safety, health and beliefs are our priority. Looking forward to meeting you!
Pls call us to set up appt.
Jackpot! We found the dentist we wanted without going through disappointing, time-wasting, upsetting, and expensive office visits!
How come people go to Starbucks and get upset when they order a super complex late with 12 ingredients and something is “missing”, but at the dentist office we are supposed to shut up, get pushed around, get treatments we don’t need and don’t want, pay for it, and be treated like in a concentration camp. No thank you! And they can quote their corrupt ADA “guidelines” I don’t care.
A lot of dentists out there need a reality check: Hey open the yellow book, there are hundreds of dentists out there in every major city. No one needs you! Either you listen and serve like everyone else does, or you get replaced. No one needs an Adolf in his/her life and definitely not an Adolf dentist! No one wants higher cancer risks in exchange for x-rays showing your teeth are OK.
I sincerely hope this post will encourage you to keep looking for a good dentist who treats you with respect!
Update Nov 2017
I receive emails at least once a week with calls for help! I still recommend doing what I wrote above:
A. Leave your current dentist. There is no point wasting your energy and time. It’s like trying to make a donkey dance.
B. Go to the Holistic Dental Association’s website and look for the member directory
C. Start emailing and tell them what you want
D. Wait and you will likely get a positive answer, eventually.
E. Consider ditching your dental insurance. It’s financing these and many more scams.
Karl Marx would have summarized the action plan like this: Dental Patients of the World….UNITE!. I don’t like the term patient. We are cash customers and not necessarily ill ;-). My slogan would be: “Dentist Customers of the world….UNITE!”
Also I found an interesting article in Reader’s Digest, available here: https://www.dentistat.com/ReaderDigestArticle.pdf
Share Your Story: How Are you Being Treated at the Dentist Office?
Please use the comment section below to share your story, ideas, comments, how you feel about dental x-rays, and how you are being treated by dentists.
56 Comments
Dear Savas Papadopoulos, I was not born in the States and I feel as sensitive as you do to the dental x-rays issue. I have no time today to describe what I went through with my dental care problems in the past few years and when I was younger or a child.
At the moment a molar of mine that underwent removal of the lead filling, started to hurt and I probably need a root canal. Recently they took 5 or 6 x rays of this tooth in addition to all the other ones done in the past. I showed the last ones to 5 different dentists. Two dentists said I need a root canal, two said I do not , stating that my tooth is only traumatized because they removed the lead filling. One wanted to give me another x ray to make sure he could see the problem more clearly. None of the dentists liked the x rays taken by the previous dentists.
Is there a dentist or endodontist in New Mexico or in the west or South-West of the US who can do a root canal without additional x rays?
All the dentists I spoke to told me that they will have to do at least another 3 or 4 x rays for the procedure.
I just started orthodontic treatment, and I like my orthodontist, I was given only two x rays of my mouth with the promise that they will not request any additional ones, but considering these two, the other 3 or 4 already given to the tooth in question and the ones that will be needed for the root canal, the total of x rays will be definitely more that I can take, without considering all the x-rays that were given to me in the past years.
Hi Isabella
I’m not a dentist but it’s a good starting point to find contacts in the holistic dental association member directory. Regarding root canals, I personally would rather extract the tooth, but it’s your tooth and health not mine and I’m not a dentist so whatever I write here just an opinion not a recommendation 🙂
However, you may want to have a look at this
https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/dentistry/root-canal-dangers/
Naturally dentists will tell you this is outdated garbage but if you research it for a while you might notice the preponderance of evidence is on the side of the people who are critical of root canals. A large share of root canals end up seriously infected. In some cases these infections can end up being life-threatening. The interesting side is, however, what happens to the root canal tooth if it is not *visibly* infected, but nevertheless infested with bacteria. Because the tooth is essentially dead inside and has no immune system to protect its core, it could become a nest for bacteria that emit toxins into your mouth over years and years….
https://ec.europa.eu/energy/sites/ener/files/documents/136.pdf
Thanks for this reference. As you can see in the document, some EU countries x-ray 5x as much as others. Wherever the insurances pay easy money, they will scan more, obviously. If the dentists had to pay the x-ray out of their own pocket, how many x-rays would they take? I also found interesting the table where they show ‘risk of FATAL cancer’. I guess they had to exclude non-fatal cancers to improve the numbers 😉 Those are just fantasy numbers obviously. How would anyone be able to prove they got cancer from a dentist 10-20 years later? If anyone could sue their dentist for giving them cancer, the courts would be busy….and the dentists would think long and hard before turning on that x-ray machine….
And honestly I think that is probably the only way we patients will ever see an x-ray reduction: if someone finally figured out how to put the blame on the dentist, then all over sudden their guidelines will change dramatically. But it’s not gonna happen folks, more often than we would like, law and science are in the hands of $$$$….
Thank you for your post “DENTISTS WITHOUT X-RAYS: HOW TO FIND A REASONABLE DENTIST.” I have moved to a new city and was looking for advice on how to find a dentist who will respect my decision to limit x-rays. Very interesting that European dentists don’t rely on x-rays like Americans do. Your post isn’t dated. Do you have any additional advice/insight since you posted this?
The post is only a few years old and I receive emails every week at least….if anything, it’s getting worse and worse.
I say: “patients of the world, unite!”
We have had enough and we won’t be pushed around anymore. There are good dentists out there, the reasonable kind, and those are the ones that will receive our business at the end.
My advice is still the same, visit the holistic dental association website and contact as many dentists in your area as you can via email only. Hope this helps!
Dear Mr. Papadopoulos,
I just got home from a dental office where I refused X-rays for my son. The dentist did a hand check and said he saw 6 cavities and a cracked tooth but would not tell me where they were without consenting to X-rays! We left. He had just seen a different dentist over the summer who saw no cavities or crack – doubting all this developed in the last 3 months. I did a google search on dentistry without X-rays and found your accurate and humorous post. You’re right – I think the whole profession is subjective at best and a complete scam at worst.
Hi Rachel I hope you can find a holistic dentist in your area that will work without x-rays, as we did.
I like that you left the office. That’s the only way we the patients and customers, can fight back for our rights!
Good luck!
Thank you so much for your speedy response. Other than when I had braces, I managed to avoid X-rays until I was 42. The dentist said I had 15 cavities! I had just had my fourth child and thought maybe the pregnancy had hurt my teeth. I thought I would get a second opinion, but when I said this, they just sent another dentist from their practice, who, of course, concurred. They drilled out one side of my mouth, but could only do one side per day. I went to a different dentist with the X-rays, and he said, “I guess it was a judgment call, but I wouldn’t have filled any of them.”!! I am mad to this day. My older son was told he had 6 cavities before he got his braces on. I had the orthodontist look and he said he just has deep fissures in his back molars and the dentist was catching their instrument in the side of the fissure and interpreting it as a “stick”. The ortho said there was no decay present at all!
Again, thanks for your article and your help. Someone needs to do an investigative report on the whole field and put it on TV.
I totally agree and thank you for sharing your story! X-rays at the dentist office is just one way they are abusing the system and damaging our health. Physicians are no better. Go to a hospital with a simple cough and they will send you to a dozen CT and MRI scans, worth tens of thousands of dollars. As long as the insurances pay, they will use all kinds of fear tactics to push us into unnecessary and potentially harmful ‘diagnostic treatment’. In my opinion they are just filling their wallets and their records, to make sure no one can take them to court, just in case you do have something serious and it goes undetected.
Insurances of course are all behind these schemes and established these ‘standards of care’ so that they can spend more money. Fact is they are forced to pay out by law 80% of the premiums to patient treatments and “only” 20% they can keep as profits. Obviously this implies one thing: in order to increase profits for the insurance company, they need to increase spending…and they are really good at it! As long as we let them, they will continue doing it….
I am a dentist and have been not doing well when exposed to radiation. Each x ray exposure started to cause an issue at some point and I decided to go holistic. It’s not easy for a dentist to work that way too unless the patient completely trusts you. But I am very happy to know that patients are educated about the side effects of radiation today. This helps me keep myself safe from the exposure too and use x rays only when absolutely necessary.
Dear Dr. D.
I am sad to say that I am going to have to switch to a new dentist, because the practice where I have gone for 35 years has been sold and now the ” care” they provide will mandate constant x-rays. Can you contact me jsb-at-gmavt.net and let me know where you are? I appreciate Dr. Papadopoulos for hosting this material and Dr. D for writing in with his/her perspective.
Hi John
thank you for sharing your story!
I live in the Baltimore Washington DC region. I email you earlier.
If anyone else needs a dentist recommendation, please either leave a comment here or email me at papadopoulossav at yahoo.com
Savas
Hello Dr. D,
Thanks for your comments! Where are you located? I live in Las Vegas and I can not find a dentist who does not require x-rays.
Can you refer me to anyone in Las Vegas? If not, I am willing to travel. Thanks!
I had used one dentist for a number of years when suddenly he pulled this “full mouth X-ray” and exam thing for, at that time, $135.00. I had just come through a major illness uninsured and was $60,000 in debt. I needed time to pay this off, which I did. I told the dentist I could not incur more debt and I did not want the X-rays and exam anyway and why was he insisting? He said he was “responsible” for my total oral health. I told him I was responsible for myself, etc. It all ended badly and he left work undone.
I never could understand this strong arming of patients. As a woman, my mind instantly thought, my regular doctor does not force me to have a gynecology exam plus mammogram every year. Surely my regular doctor has more interest in my total health and surely there are more deadly risks taken if a woman chooses not to have these exams. For some reason we are “allowed” to choose in regular medical practice but not in dentistry?
The dentist says the patient is not allowed to release the dentist from fault because the patient is too stupid to know what’s best. To me this is very circular reasoning. I have had many fears this sort of thing would enter the general medical practice and that what the dentists are doing is a testing ground to see how far patients’ rights can be taken under a blanket of quasi-legal blather. The dentist position is the patient has no rights because the patient is too ignorant to have rights. Just wait until this is applied to life in general!
I smell money grubbing in the forced X-rays and exam. Because all dentists in my general area force the exam, I have gone from dentist to dentist as needed. I have noted of late that no matter what is the issue, the dentist splits the procedure over two days, about $300.00 per day so the total bill comes to about $600.00.
It has been written that dentists have the highest suicide rate of all the medical professionals. Even when I was a kid in the 60’s & 70’s, many people were terrified of dentists and the pain that might ensue. Dentists were feared and hated. Then there was “painless” dentistry and a push to be patient friendly. Now we are back to a hated and feared practice which keeps people from going to the dentist.
A great many ills may be caused by dental problems that poor people cannot afford to fix. This practice of forcing an exam and X-rays will keep more poor people from accessing needed care and there will be a much higher cost in the end. If a poor person could barely afford a filling, how many more hours must he work and save to afford the forced X-rays?
If the X-ray strength is so safe, why do they drape the patient’s upper body in a lead apron while X-raying the mouth??? Good question., that.
Thank you for this article. I just want to inform everyone that dental X-rays can be very dangerous. I have had limited X-rays despite being in America, and I got oral cancer (luckily with a high survival rate) very very likely from dental radiation I had in the area 10 years ago. Do the minimum with X-rays and try not to get one area X-rayed a lot.
Hi GMH, I am very sorry you have cancer and pray for it to heal quickly. I hope your story encourages people to push for fewer x-rays and only those absolutely necessary.
Does anyone know a good dentist in the Minneapolis/st paul area that doesnt require xrays? I just took my son to a dentist who insisted on xrays and then a mercury filling. I allowed the xray (which I regret now) but I objected strongly to the mercury so he used the other type but yesterday it just fell out. Its only been 4 days ! The whole visit was a traumatic ordeal for my son. The dentist was rude and I felt very rushed. Time to find a new one!
Hi Whitney,
unfortunately these types of dentists are not just rude, they tend to be incompetent as well. If a composite filling falls out after a short period, first of all find another dentist, it was probably due to moisture and hence it didn’t bond well.
Any dentist suggesting mercury fillings should be fired (by us customers) on the spot.
If you have any mercury fillings you would want to have them removed by holistic dentist as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately I do not know any holistic dentists in your area; please use the member directory on the holistic dental association’s website: http://holisticdental.org
All the best,
Savas
What a relief to find your post. I cancelled last day my appointment with an ” holistic dentist” who was imposing me an absurd numbers of X-ray. I told them: what is the purpose to select an holistic dentist if you do not take care of my health ? X-rays damage the body and it takes more than 2 years to leave your body. I am French and I confirm, in Europe only really necessary X-Rays are taken. Thank you.
Hi Clair
thank you for sharing your story!
I have also been at a “holistic dentist” of that sort. It’s a disaster…. To some holistic dentists the word ‘holistic’ means ‘whole wallet’ (^_^)
I am pleased to hear that in France they are also more careful than here. It’s like everywhere they care more than here. Here they care about themselves, specifically their income, and no one else. In a nutshell the individualism notion is starting to cost us our health.
Well at least we can still find reasonable dentists in Europe 😉 and a few, very few, here in the U.S….
All I can say is please don’t give up and keep looking; with some sweat and after losing some hair you will find a good dentist here, eventually.
Savas
Really great post!
I have been seeing the same dentist for about 16 years now. At first I was ok getting xrays every 2 years, only 1. After A few years I asked the dentist to stop giving me routine xrays, but that I was open to having them if he felt it was necessary.
The hygienist in the room rolled her eyes like I was crazy, made me feel like shit and of course he gave me the talk about how they are safe and what not.
But he said he would respect my decision and conversation over.
2 kids later, no xrays for them either. Well, I am sure this isn’t sitting well with him now lol
Last week we went for our cleaning and he throws it in my face that because I don’t get xrays he wasn’t able to detect the cavity that I have till now.
So what! It isn’t like he could cure it, and I wasn’t having any pain either. The thing that upsets me is he said he would respect me, but he doesn’t, he used the first opportunity he could to throw it back in my face.
I am in Canada, thankfully our insurance only allows xrays every 2 years, or as needed for procedures so we would never have to deal with this at every visit.
But I just think of all the times I had xrays and nothing was detected. I had my amalgam fillings removed and there was so much decay once the fillings were out that wasn’t even seen on the xray. Makes me realise that xrays are completely useless most of time. I am trying to find a holistic dentist in my area, but it is very difficult. The one I found has a note on their website about how important xrays are. Not sure if I should even bother emailing them. Thank you for the rant haha
A dentist retired sent paper work to another dentist .l went there now they want clean teeth without x-ray .want to charge 350.00 first visit.this is bull shit.
https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2012/04/14/little-and-not-often-please
Hi,Savas! I like your articles very much!This is a place we can stay together and fight together!I just went to a dentist office yesterday.I just asked for a cleaning and there is no teeth bothers me either.They gave me more than dozens X-ray without looking my teeeth first and the bill eight hundred dollars for all the things which they thought have to be done.when I look at that X-ray,I can not see any black things .But they insist that is a cavity.I just can not understand. When I walked out the office I feel really bad. I have never ever exposed myself to so many X-ray before. I had saw lots good reviews at this office .But later I found out they bought those good reviews with free whiting teeeth. That office lost my trust! I am just afraid they can do everything they can to hurt me for looking every penny from my pocket! My question is I need a deep cleaning but I can not do more X-ray and there is no dentist would like take the X-ray from the other dentist.How can I do now?Please give me some suggestion!
Hi Annie
I’m sorry to read about that bad experience you had with your dentist.
Unfortunately this appears to be the new normal today. I paid $450 about five years back for x-rays plus a simple cleaning job.
No x-rays, no cleaning. However, now I found a good dentist so there are is no more blackmailing 🙂
I think you need to ask them for your x-rays, let them email them to you.
Then email a couple holistic dentists in your area. You can find them in the holistic dentist association’s website.
I would email them and tell them I don’t want any more x-rays and I have brand new x-rays I can bring with me.
I also almost gave up hope but after emailing dozens (simply copy & paste) I found two good dentists in my area.
Good luck!
Mr.Savas,thank you so much for understanding and taking time to give me some good suggestions! I had the X-ray paper copy in my hand now.Maybe later I will ask them to email me for better visions of the X-rays!I will look for another dentist!
Recently I bought a book which is called Cure Tooth Decay.It is a really good book.In modern sociaty,what the dentist do to treat a decay teeth is drill and pull and never think about even a teeth is a life ! Every teeth it can heal by itself if treat properly. What the dentist do is to get the teeth worse and worse. And the penny dig dentist what they need to do is to drill the teeeth to dig the pennnies .If there is anything happen,all consequences will be ours. But we are So proteclessness. There must be some kind law to control the dentists to be a crazy digger,driller and puller! In a special sense,all the bad dentist are murders.They are teeth murder with no consequences!!! The law and the god should protect us to avoid all of the evils!! Of cause there are some good dentist too. They are angels from the god!!We should find out them!
Hi Annie
It’s funny because it’s true! And then again it’s not so funny 😉
I think once you find a good dentist, make sure he/she never leaves 😉 It’s true, we are so dependent on them. At the same time they can abuse their position and make lots of money with unnecessary and potentially risk procedures. Physicians do a similar thing when they ask for never ending, useless blood tests. I don’t think 6-month teeth cleaning is necessary but now that I found a good dentist, I rather pay for it than being forced to take 20 x-rays and drill a dozen teeth each year(^_^)
I doubt the law will do anything to protect us unless a lot of people speak up. I think the law almost always sides with the rich and powerful. Dentists all team up when one of them is under attack, that’s why complaining to another dentist will not likely help (^_^)
It would be much faster if we all simply get up and leave those offices who do those rip-off practices. A lot of people don’t realize how much power they actually have. Stand up for your rights, leave the office, and find a new dentist!
We should form a support group (^_^)
Good luck!
Savas
50 years ago when my kids were young i refused Sarah’s on them without a lead vest. I was po oh-poohed, but a couple years later he had the vests. Happily i still didn’t get my kids teeth xrayed. But it’s different today. We are not free in this free country to refuse xrays. I am so frustrated and sad that I cannot get a tooth filled because of this.
Hi Carol
I feel your pain and was in the same situation.
Luckily I found a good dentist after all. Please don’t give up and keep looking for new dentist. The effort will pay off you will find a reasonable dentist somewhere. There appear to be some but not many great dentists out there, so it might take some work to find him/her.
Wishing you all the best
Savas
PS: I guess the ‘free’ bit of ‘free country’ means the dentists are completely free to do whatever they want. We are just here to pay and open our mouth, that’s the new definition of ‘free country’…. (^_^)
Because of my brain surgery in 2016 I refuse dental x-rays, and I have excellent reasons for doing this. I have had way too much radiation and any more radiation could lead to a recurrence of the lesion resected in 2016. Now my dentist absolutely refuses to treat me. I am 60 and haven’t had a cavity in at least 20 years!!! How do I find a reasonable dentist? [My last dental x-rays were in 2015. It has only been three years.]
Hi,
I have been having dentist problems my hole life, but I have been going to the dentist regularly. And x-rayed regularly. I’ve had two deep cleanings and have been still getting my teeth cleaned regularly. I am now 81 and I have 16 teeth and I sure want to have them until the end of my life. On my last cleaning the dentist said I needed ex-rays, of course I said no. Av3rything feels fine. So he told me without exrays he would not clean my teeth. So, I hav been dong lots of reading and they are now finding a connection between cacer of the brain and thyroid. The cancer doctor said, do not let them exray all your teeth, only the one that hads a problem. I’m scared, how can I get my teeth cleaned? I know that brushing with Hydrperoxide helps. I use to take care of a lady who was 83 years old AND NEVER HAD A CAVITY. i WATCHED HER BRUSH HER TEETH THREE TIMES A WEEK WITH PEROXIDE. Bit with the medical doctors coming with this newd about cancer, these dentists are doing only for the money. What can we do. I think it will be a year I havn’t been. And the tarar is building. Just for a note, my daughter died of lung cancer, . Dhe wad having her deeth traightened. The doctor was taking a lot of exrays….the cancer went to her brain, her eas were bothering her, for two years she went to this dentist. He never aww this coming, never picked up one symptom…he retired the day he was told she died. We must fight these dentists, what they are doing to little children who now go to the dentist at 3 years old. More cancer to fill their little bodies.
I recently sold my dental practice but would love to discover how to reinvent myself as a NO x-rays practice in the state of Georgia. It is exactly write that dentists are taught to tell patients how low the dosage of digital radiography is without being taught more about how to read dosimeters. Insurance companies run the industry. I have gotten x-rays, FMS, & frequent panos as part of ortho and not, from my earliest memories and now it’s catching up with me in middle age with additional “recommended” medical testing and questionable symptoms that, alas, you can’t exactly prove came from the dentist’ office. Radiation is cumulative and in most cases unnecessary, in my opinion. Note how the recommendations for routine mammographies has changed every few years, like it’s guess work.
Every doctor is taught to cover themselves, lest they miss something or worse, didn’t provide the industry test standard. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If preventive care is begun at an early age the incidence of caries declines tremendously, as typically do cavities after the age of 16. I provided my patients with disclaimers/rejection letters to sign if they felt strongly about not taking x-rays, knowing there could be consequences. I would love a practice that focuses solely on prevention with referral to a community dentist if follow-up is desired, just don’t want any struggles with the board (whom I contacted about the idea & am still waiting for a response from for consideration). I saw on youtube where a guy started POLISHED Dental Spa a few years ago with that concept in mind but have since closed with no further information. If any of my Holistic community friends have ideas on the matter, do share.
Too bad Savas Papadopoulos didn’t respond to your post. I also saw (sadly) that the holisticdental.org link that is provided in this article is no longer valid/working.
Thank you! I’m trying your recommendation in Oregon, I haven’t been for a cleaning in over a decade due to this practice.
I am a dentist in Taiwan,happy to see this. Now I am near 60. For recent yrs I seldom x ray. For interproximal caries,experienced dentist can see it. Some initial caries detected by x ray may let it be,because it may remineralize by itself,and if U want to fill it,U still must reduce a lot of tooth structure. For periodontal problem, I use probe to know pocket depth,this will know bone level without x ray. For root canal Tx, all dentist know the average tooth length,and if the file go over root tip,p’t feel pain or experienced dentist can feel with fingers.So in most cases any dentist can do these basic Tx without x ray
Thank you Enjoe TSAI for chiming in, I really appreciate you sharing this with us!
Savas
Hi Dr Tsai, I’d like to know more info about your practise or your contact information to find out if it’s viable for me to travel there for dental work. I’m from mainland China but currently residing overseas. I have a cousin in Taiwan I’ve been meaning to visit some time in the near future. I haven’t been to a dentist for years after learning the dangers of x-rays and failing to find a dentist who would work without them.
Great post. I am a healthcare attorney so when they pull this “it’s the law” business, I always show them the ADA/FDA guidelines that show an increased risk of brain cancer with annual x-rays. Not that it helps. These dentists care nothing about a patient’s health when they require the x-rays.
Further, as a healthcare attorney, I am well aware that x-ray machines are the profit-making part of a dental business.
We need to form an organization to fight this abuse.
Hi Jose
thank you very much for your input and confirming the risks of x-rays. I agree it’s a total abuse at the expense of our health, and it goes far beyond dentistry as well.
How do you think we could stop this abuse, what steps would be necessary or what path would you suggest?
Are there any legal defenses for patients?
My feeling is, unless doctors fear legal ramifications for excessive x-raying, nothing will happen….
Savas
I have been looking for this article for years!!! You’ve addressed all my thoughts and concerns. My husband and I have been fighting dentists for years regarding x rays and our 3 young children. They’ve only managed to get a few out of us, but I ALWAYS regretted it and it NEVER changed treatment or showed anything drastic….now I’m worn out trying to just get my kids a cleaning and they’re refusing that unless they get their x-rays. We want to support a no x-ray dentist and am working on my mass emailing, but, does anyone know of one in the Sacramento/Stockton/Bay Area?? Or, even one in California? We are willing to drive, pay cash, etc. Great article, thank you!!!
Me too Iam very carefull with xrays. Last week I made an apt with a dentist for Carivu screaning , a new type of non radiation dental instrument that can detect caries, But as I went in the office with my daughter, this dental hygienist insisted of having a xrays, so I walked out right away. another thing my daughter is going to need braces, and I shop orthodontiast and most of the requires 3 pano and 3 Cephalometric xrays. But thank God thru continuous shopping and researching I, I manage to find an orthodontist that will only total of 2 pano xrays instead o 6 for entire treatments. We really need to shop the least xrays dentist .
Awww yes just left a Gentle Dental here in the area know as Oregon
The dentist and hygienist looked perplexed as I protested X-Rays
I simply asked her to be the surety for any harm committed to my person for the requirement of said procedures .
She gasped and said I will not!
Then I must refuse X-Rays
The dentist said she refused to even examine me without X-Rays I told her she should be ashamed of yourself.
Found a new dentist that same day that agreeded on no X-Rays ?.
Researching the motion to bring a legal Claim against Gental Dental and attending dentist ?. Thanks for your post good day
Hi Michael sorry to hear about your experience, but unfortunately it’s typical. I already examined the legal route. Unfortunately due to the legal situation in America, a doctor can refuse to treat at free will, even if you have a life threatening condition and need help immediately. You could drop dead in front of them and they could refuse to help (in fact anyone can do this without legal repercussions), even refuse to call 911. There have been several cases in the news where people noticed a woman was being raped and didn’t call the police. I believe here the legal concept is called ‘duty of care’. In other countries people would be fined heavily for not taking action… But I always get in trouble comparing countries, so I stop here 😉
I’m happy to hear you found another dentist who is more reasonable and is willing to treat you without x-rays.
Savas
No kidding. I just switched to another dentist because my previous wanted to do x-ray in order to take me in. I am very conscious about ionizing radiation. Sure the probability of developing cancer due to dental x-ray is low, but when you have it, it is 100%. So I would like to avoid it as long as possible. It is very hard to find a dentist in the US who does not do x-ray on routine visit. ADA needs to change the rules. Cavity does not kill you, cancer may! So let’s avoid ionizing radiation as much as possible.
Hi Derek
I’m glad you found a reasonable dentist after all. By the way, the ADA doesn’t have rules or any legal authority. It looks like they only exist to make ‘recommendations’ on the ‘standard of care’ that translates directly to dollars. I am not aware of any ADA policy that actually costs the dentists money. It’s all somehow offloaded to the patient.
Another note, I don’t like the term ‘patient’. I like the term customer. I don’t see myself being sick like ‘a patient’ when I request teeth cleaning…
And as customers we should have rights and ‘purchasing power’, shouldn’t we? Well at the very least we have the power to walk away and we should use this power more often I think
All the best and thank you for sharing your story!
Savas
Does anyone have a referral to a reasonable dentist in Sonoma County, California? All of this is insane and frustrating.
Went to a dentist with a Groupon (4.9 rating with Groupon and Google) knowing a had a bad cavity but which felt like a like a hole in one of my teeth. After the cleaning and x-ray, the dentist walked in and without even a hello (bad sign) began probing inside my. NEVER looked at my x-rays. Said I had a cavity in between my front two teeth. NOT the one in the back where I had the pain. I asked her to show (I meant on the x-rays) where it was and she held up a mirror lol. I made an appointment and never went back. Will be filing a complaint with the Board o Dentistry
Thank you for your help with trying to find a dentist who does not require x rays! In the past, I was able to sign a waiver for no x rays. The dentist no longer accepts this. I was told that I was to have 18 x rays during the one visit, because it had been at least five years since full mouth x rays. I refused. I had even asked if I could split 9 and 9 on another visit. She said no because the x rays need to have the same date. That seems ridiculous to me. I live in Rhode Island and am hoping to find an honest dentist that respects my wishes. Thanks again!
I hope you find one soon, good luck!
Most likely there won’t be any issues anyways
Savas
Thank you so much! I am American but I have been through the ringer with US dentists. Every time they do an X-Ray they find a cavity that doesn’t exist. The level of dishonesty is truly unbelievable. I have had 7 different occasions where an American dentist told me I had a cavity then drove to MX and they couldn’t find any cavities. It’s a huge scam and the ADA an embarrassment for this country.
I agree, it’s a complete disaster! We need to get up and leave more often and show them who’s the boss! 🙂
I wish I could drive to Mexico from here but it’s a little far, I’m stuck (^_^) but luckily I found a good holistic dentist after all. Let’s pray she doesn’t move away
Savas
Thank you for this. Here are two links with 100% scientific data about how dangerous x-rays truly are. I’m left without a dentist because I refuse x-rays,…
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6341170/
https://healthcare-in-europe.com/en/news/dental-x-rays-may-increase-ca
ncer-risk.html
We simply cannot see decay just apical to the contact point between teeth without an x-ray, where about half of all cavities occur. We also can’t see the root tip where infections are without an x-ray either. A single x-ray is taken after a crown to check for an open margin. The ADA recommends bitewing xrays every 1-3 years to look between the teeth. You can request to do a minimum of x-rays just about anywhere. It is bad dentistry to either under or over use x-rays. This article is not balanced!!
Hi Patricia
thank you for your perspective. The article I wrote is a response to the unbalanced standpoint of the ADA, which by the way is just a dentist “club” with no legal authority whatsoever.
The ADA, just like many other national organizations, is just a club where a profession makes up its own rules, it’s like kids at school grading each other’s homework. How clever is that? I leave that to the readers to decide.
Most readers who read this article agree with me that things have gotten out of control here with x-rays. We are all well aware of the sales pitch that you have been told in dentist school but in international comparison it becomes evident that x-rays are being abused in the U.S. and other countries as well. This is for profit and nothing but profit, “dressed up” as a phony medical justification.
The major point here is that x-rays are not like taking pictures. There is radiation involved, to the head and thyroid and potentially other parts of the body. Think of all these little kids who go twice a year to the dentist and get x-rayed unnecessarily.
Do you really believe x-rays have no long-term impact on health? I bet you do because you have been told “a dental x-ray is like a day at the beach”. It’s not quite the same thing and there are no studies that examine long-term health outcomes, so the idea that the radiation does is ‘minimal’ has not much of an actual meaning and nothing to back it up.
If someone develops thyroid cancer 20 years later, will he be able to sue your office and prove he got the cancer from your x-ray machine?
No, so that’s convenient for dentists. They can take all x-rays they want and there are no possible repercussions whatsoever.
Now imagine this made-up scenario: If someone invented a process one day that clearly identifies your x-ray machine as the cause of a patient’s cancer, how many x-rays would you keep taking then? I bet x-ray machines would disappear from dentist offices really quickly….
But for now the benefit of the doubt is in your favor…and patients are likely paying for it with their health.
I don’t think having good (looking) teeth in exchange for cancer is a great bargain.
If you want a balanced perspective of how dentistry could be done, you could visit a couple offices in Europe and you will be surprised how much can be done, and done properly, without the use of x-rays. Naturally, if patients with severe problems should take x-rays as needed, no one here said x-rays should be abolished. But refusing to clean teeth if a dozen x-rays aren’t agreed to, that’s not medicine, that’s organizational blackmail.
Savas
Any recommendations for dentists in Scottsdale, Phoenix area that will clean with out X-raying?