Do you trust doctors?

John cycling said:
I don't trust any of them.



"Doctors are people who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know nothing." -- Voltaire -- French writer, historian, and philosopher 1694-1778
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And there's nothing to convince you otherwise?
 

I have known of 2 middle-aged men that were given a clean bill of health by their MDs and succumbed to heart attacks the same day.
They all seem to be very busy and don’t spend much time with patients, in my area I believe this comes from the top so to speak.
Medicine has become a business.
 
Giantsfan1954 said:
I have known of 2 middle-aged men that were given a clean bill of health by their MDs and succumbed to heart attacks the same day.
They all seem to be very busy and don’t spend much time with patients, in my area I believe this comes from the top so to speak.
Medicine has become a business.
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How do you think to distinguish medical clinics that try to lie and earn money from normal clinics? As previously expressed on the forum, there were also good clinics/doctors.
 

Aneeda72 said:
But if you’d send the dentist more often and got the cavity fixed before you needed a root canal then you could have avoided the entire issues. I don’t blame my dentist that, I didn’t see because of Covid, for my decision and subsequent loss of two teeth.
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It wasn't a cavity. It was a tooth that was already crowned. What usually happens in such cases is the dentist's lab poorly fits the crown & they don't want to redo it right because the dentist will charge them a second fee, so they fill in the gaps with cement which doesn't last long & allows bacteria to get in under the crown. That has happened 5 other times.
 
Ilya said:
I understand you. How do you now overcome the barrier of distrust in clinics? How to distinguish a good clinic/doctor from an incompetent one?
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In my experience, after reviewing your complaints, a good doctor will ask more questions and actually listen to your answers while they look at you, not their computer monitor. A good doctor will talk to you and then let you talk until s/he believes s/he understands your complaints. Then s/he will discuss your options: tests, referral to a specialist, and/or treatment . My doctor goes even further and asks me how I feel about those options.
 
We also have to be alert for greed - even with a doctor/dentist that was previously trustworthy.
I had been seeing a dentist I trusted for years & I sent my family to him. I cracked a front crown & when I saw him, he wanted to replace all 8 upper & lower front crowns. Besides being totally unnecessary, that means lots of trauma to teeth & gums. I asked him why & he said "To match the color with the rest of the teeth. Really stupid of him; he should know that I know the dentist sends a digital photo of the other teeth to the lab so they can match the color.
The real reason? $1,350.00 per crown. We can expect more of this now, with loss of income from Covid.
I let him replace that one crown, but I NEVER saw him again.
 
Giantsfan1954 said:
I have known of 2 middle-aged men that were given a clean bill of health by their MDs and succumbed to heart attacks the same day.
They all seem to be very busy and don’t spend much time with patients, in my area I believe this comes from the top so to speak.
Medicine has become a business.
Click to expand...
During a routine exam if one has no symptoms nor complaints then having a heart attack isn't necessarily something even a cardiologist would be able to predict without specific tests, and even then nothing note worthy may show up.

Because of my cardiac history I've had the opportunity to meet a wide variety of people who've had heart attacks. One in particular comes to mind. Early 50's in very good physical condition ( military pilot) was noticing some shortness of breath when he would run. It only happened for a brief period after about 20 minutes or so, then then he was fine for the duration of his workout. Had a stress test and a few other screenings, it was all good. A few weeks later had a heart attack while playing golf.
 
Murrmurr said:
In my experience, after reviewing your complaints, a good doctor will ask more questions and actually listen to your answers while they look at you, not their computer monitor. A good doctor will talk to you and then let you talk until s/he believes s/he understands your complaints. Then s/he will discuss your options: tests, referral to a specialist, and/or treatment . My doctor goes even further and asks me how I feel about those options.
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LOL - they're more interested in their computer moniter 'cuz that where they enter the billing for Medicare.
 
win231 said:
LOL - they're more interested in their computer moniter 'cuz that where they enter the billing for Medicare.
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That's true; looking up billing codes to ensure payment. My doctor sometimes does that toward the end of our time. Sometimes she'll check my history while we talk, to look at blood test results or a past complaint, whether or not a specialist made notes, etc. and if she does it while I'm talking, it's on topic, and she'll say "Hold on, let me just look at this real quick...", and I really like that.
 
Ilya said:
How do you think to distinguish medical clinics that try to lie and earn money from normal clinics? As previously expressed on the forum, there were also good clinics/doctors.
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I've found a big difference between clinics under the umbrella of an insurance company and the one I go to that operates out of a medical university. The only insurance clinic I liked was Kaiser, mainly because they were basically a one-stop shop, but they also had an excellent orthopedic/sports medicine/physical therapy department. Insurance clinics I went to previously were awful. I rarely saw an actual doctor, only medical assistants, and they didn't really listen to me - they seemed to have already decided what was wrong, and were quick to prescribe medication and send me home.
 
Everyone wants to be well, so where do you go but to a doctor for assurance. We trust them until we find a reason not to, or it might be we don't like what we are told even if they might be right. "Trust but verify" as Ronald Reagan said, and with the internet I do it regularly. I have no reason to distrust mine. As for scheduled checkups, any problems can be dealt with before it's too far gone. A former neighbor of mine died of cancer, so I asked his widow about when he went for checkups and she said annually. If he went semi-annually, it might have been detected earlier and his life might have been saved, and if they missed something doing an annual checkup, it could be 2 years before it was detected.
 
Murrmurr said:
I've found a big difference between clinics under the umbrella of an insurance company and the one I go to that operates out of a medical university. The only insurance clinic I liked was Kaiser, mainly because they were basically a one-stop shop, but they also had an excellent orthopedic/sports medicine/physical therapy department. Insurance clinics I went to previously were awful. I rarely saw an actual doctor, only medical assistants, and they didn't really listen to me - they seemed to have already decided what was wrong, and were quick to prescribe medication and send me home.
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I have the opposite situation, because they try to detain me all the time. Why was it important for you to be heard by the medical assistants?
 
Ilya said:
I have the opposite situation, because they try to detain me all the time. Why was it important for you to be heard by the medical assistants?
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I had a long history of back problems, having sustained severe injuries from a 60ft fall when I was in my late 30s, and also having a congenital deformity. I was very informed about the nerve damage, and I knew some of my symptoms were associated with it. I refused to be dismissed with the old "It's just age" or "probably arthritis" bs, or to *solve* the problem with strong pain medication. I'm fortunate to have moved to this area, near a medical university. I was in a wheelchair when I got here a little over 5 years ago. I had extensive spinal surgery in 2017 and I don't even need a walker or a cane now.
 
Murrmurr said:
I had a long history of back problems, having sustained severe injuries from a 60ft fall when I was in my late 30s, and also having a congenital deformity. I was very informed about the nerve damage, and I knew some of my symptoms were associated with it. I refused to be dismissed with the old "It's just age" or "probably arthritis" bs, or to *solve* the problem with strong pain medication. I'm fortunate to have moved to this area, near a medical university. I was in a wheelchair when I got here a little over 5 years ago. I had extensive spinal surgery in 2017 and I don't even need a walker or a cane now.
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Basically, I'm saying that I know my body. That's why I want to be heard as well as told/informed.
 
win231 said:
It wasn't a cavity. It was a tooth that was already crowned. What usually happens in such cases is the dentist's lab poorly fits the crown & they don't want to redo it right because the dentist will charge them a second fee, so they fill in the gaps with cement which doesn't last long & allows bacteria to get in under the crown. That has happened 5 other times.
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Yup, this happened to me recently, tooth was extracted
 
One of my dentists who became a family friend revealed some interesting things dentists do to increase profits.
They'll use just a dab of cement when installing a crown. The crown won't last longer than the usual guarantee in the dental industry - 5 years.
When it comes off, the whole procedure has to be repeated - whatever the current cost of a crown is, including another lab fee.
That happened to 4 of my crowns. I told my new dentist that I was already aware of that tactic, so don't try it. He didn't. He was well aware of it & he said "Sometimes, I'm ashamed of my colleagues; I know what they do." He also showed me the tiny drop of cement left on each crown. Those 4 crowns he replaced are now 25 years old & still good.
 
win231 said:
One of my dentists who became a family friend revealed some interesting things dentists do to increase profits.
They'll use just a dab of cement when installing a crown. The crown won't last longer than the usual guarantee in the dental industry - 5 years.
When it comes off, the whole procedure has to be repeated - whatever the current cost of a crown is, including another lab fee.
That happened to 4 of my crowns. I told my new dentist that I was already aware of that tactic, so don't try it. He didn't. He was well aware of it & he said "Sometimes, I'm ashamed of my colleagues; I know what they do." He also showed me the tiny drop of cement left on each crown. Those 4 crowns he replaced are now 25 years old & still good.
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My crowns are nearly 20 and look like new. They've outlived the dentist who installed them.
 
When you have a good doctor you hope that they will always be available, I was so sad to see Dr Frankenstein leave our surgery. :)
 
Oris Borloff said:
During a routine exam if one has no symptoms nor complaints then having a heart attack isn't necessarily something even a cardiologist would be able to predict without specific tests, and even then nothing note worthy may show up.

Because of my cardiac history I've had the opportunity to meet a wide variety of people who've had heart attacks. One in particular comes to mind. Early 50's in very good physical condition ( military pilot) was noticing some shortness of breath when he would run. It only happened for a brief period after about 20 minutes or so, then then he was fine for the duration of his workout. Had a stress test and a few other screenings, it was all good. A few weeks later had a heart attack while playing golf.
Click to expand...
I was having chest pains jaw pain and shortness of breath, Dr did a stress test and said it looked fine. 3 months later I had a heart attack and had a 5 way bypass ad
 
Have you found that since you are older, you are treated any differently than before? I moved and have had to start over finding new doctor, audiologist, dermatologist, periodontist, eye doctor.
 

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