NO SUCH THING Are dentists scamming us? We investigate
Mar 11, 2026
AJ Jacobs, journalist and New York Times bestselling author, gives a brisk history of dentistry. Lilly Kaplan, licensed therapist and newsletter writer, brings candid takes on dental anxiety and patient experience. They probe insurance limits, uncover a real overtreatment scandal, explore membership clinic models, and debate whether problems are rogue bad actors or systemic incentives.
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One Fall Led To Recurring Thousands In Dental Costs
- Noah chipped several teeth falling while granny bowling and later paid thousands for crowns and replacements, learning replacements require periodic rework.
- He discovered cosmetic replacement timelines mean paying thousands every ~10 years, with dentists often pushing full-mouth updates.
How Modern Dentistry Emerged From Gruesome Origins
- Dentistry evolved from barber-surgeons and traveling tooth-pullers into a science slowly after inventions like nitrous oxide and germ theory.
- AJ Jacobs highlights gruesome 18th–19th century practices like Waterloo teeth and George Washington's dentures made from ivory and enslaved people’s teeth.
Why Dental Insurance Feels Useless
- Dental insurance functions more like a coupon with annual maximums that haven't risen with inflation, reducing real coverage over decades.
- Dr. Sarah Stuefen explains loss ratios can be very low and there's no federal rule forcing dental insurers to spend most premiums on care like medical plans do.