Like everyone, I loathe going to the dentist. It’s a universal thing, I suppose. They do great good for the world and clean teeth are of course essential. But, well, you know what I mean. No one wants to be in that chair surrounded by people who are scraping around in your mouth and sticking in electric things and looking for flaws that could require other terrible things to take place like the unspeakable root canal.
This is why I practically have to be shamed into go, and the people at my dentist office have figured this out, so they pester me with every manner of method to make an appointment and stick to it. So I get calls and pings to my phone and reminders. They do everything but send a car to pick me up. If I am determined to miss an appointment, I have to shut off all forms of communication. I’ve only pulled this off one time.
In any case, a dentist in my town seems to have picked up on this problem. And so the entire office has reinvented itself as a spa. A spa! Yes, you can get a tan. You can get a massage. You can get botox. It is all part of general life enhancement. I’ve not availed myself to any of these services but just knowing that they are going on does take some of the edge off.
I was telling Lew Rockwell about this and he quickly pointed out that dentists are far more free market than regular doctors. Apart from the restrictions on who gets to call himself a dentist, they mostly have to get by through providing services that actual people pay for. So prices are posted, for example. You get to choose what level of service you want. There is no long wait to get in. It is a kind of proxy for what things would be like in a market.
And so of course dentists are free to reinvent themselves too, whereas regular doctors face far more restrictions. It amuses me to realize that this reinvention is much closer to the 19th century idea of what a dentist did. As we learn from Rossini, the dentist also cut your hair, gave you a shave, did other medical services, and even set up romances.
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There are dentists in my area that proudly advertise that they “cater to cowards”, which usually means liberal use of sedation. I expect they do a very brisk business. Just google for “dentist for cowards” for examples.
“Apart from the restrictions on who gets to call himself a dentist, they mostly have to get by through providing services that actual people pay for. So prices are posted, for example. You get to choose what level of service you want. There is no long wait to get in. It is a kind of proxy for what things would be like in a market”
Please visit central Europe… Dentist market? Far from it. As long as there is no compulsory social security system in the USA there can be competition.
There is a franchise dental business named “Affordable Dentures,” that specializes in dentures at less than half what most dentist charge. It is a no-frills, assembly-line-like operation many of whose clients are elderly and poor. I went to the AD in Winston-Salem, NC, a decade or so back after being raked over the financial coals for rather poor quality dentures from two different dentists. I found this low-cost alternative to be excellent. It makes sense. Because of their aggressive pricing they make so many dentures they know more from experience about denture making and fitting than the average dentist would be able to learn in a life time of practice. (Note: I am not a troll. I have no stake in AD whatsoever. Just recognizing an example of laissez-faire at work.))
Just fyi, that isn’t a trolling comment.
A trolling comment would be – Dentists are evil capitalists, they need to be regulated like everyone else. Or else it isn’t fair! blah blah blah
We have both a dental spa and another dentist who advertises “sedation dentistry” for the coward types. I’ve never tried either, but must admit the spa thing was tempting. I could get a massage and maybe a haircut while having my teeth cleaned. What a time saver.
Dental Spa… well that is a real novel idea.. thanks for the info.