Thursday, January 10, 2008

"Preventative" Medicine?

I just returned from my dentist, who filed down a sharp tooth for me for no charge. 5 weeks ago I had a tooth pulled by an oral surgeon who encouraged me at that time to get my wisdom tooth pulled as well. He told me all sorts of horror stories about how many problems my now exposed wisdom tooth would give me, how I wouldn't be able to keep it clean, how I'd be begging him in two months to remove it. I told my dentist this who told me the oral surgeon had a vested interest in encouraging me to get it removed and also that said surgeon believes in removal of wisdom teeth as a 'preventative' measure to avoid potential futures problems that might never occur anyway. I'm glad for my dentist, I've been going to him for over 20 years and he hasn't steered me wrong yet.

So this begs the question: At what point is preventative medicine completely unnecessary and even harmful to your health?

In a day when fear mongers fill our heads full of the potential hazards of daily living I think this is something we need to think about.

1 comment:

hamad said...

i think the question becomes a practical one. you are right that it is in his best interest to get you to get the procedure done; however, if you are one for statics, they show that it is better to get them pulled. however, that being said, if they are not bothering you why do it?

now, that being said, i do believe in some sort of preventative 'maintenance'. and that is why i do what i do, and try to do. work out. cycle. try to eat right. these are things that i do to prevent other things from happening.

so i believe it to be whose interest? mine? or someone that will profit?

[shalom...]