The Free Cleaning Scam

Corporate dental practices turn "free" insurance-covered cleanings into expensive procedures through systematic upselling techniques and profit-driven quota systems. I expose the tactics used to inflate bills, including aggressive probing to diagnose periodontal disease, expensive add-ons called "adjunctives," and unregulated screening tests designed to frighten patients into accepting unnecessary treatments.

• Corporate dental offices operate on quota systems where every staff member has production targets
• New dentists often start with daily rates before transitioning to production-based pay that incentivizes overtreatment
• Probing measurements are sometimes strategically exaggerated to diagnose periodontal disease and unlock more billing codes
• "Adjunctives" like antimicrobial irrigation ($10-27 per quadrant) add substantial costs to basic cleanings
• Non-FDA approved saliva screenings create fear to drive treatment acceptance
• Hygiene departments generate the highest profit margins in dental practices
• Patients should ask questions, request diagnosis codes, and be willing to decline treatments

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to the Dark Side of Dentistry
• 2:35 The Truth About Free Cleanings
• 3:58 Probing and Corporate Quotas Explained
• 7:49 My Eye-Opening Experience
• 9:13 Adjunctives: The Expensive Add-Ons
• 10:45 AMMP8 Saliva Screening Scam
• 12:46 How to Protect Yourself

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

What's up everyone and welcome back. I'm the drill teller and this is the dark side of dentistry, the podcast where we pull back the curtain on what really goes down in the dental world. I'm your host and today we're talking about one of the biggest scams in dentistry the free cleaning, or what you thought was free. Behind the smile there's a story, untold white coats and lies in the chair. You hold Decrees on the wall, but the truth runs cold. Welcome to the place where secrets unfold. They say open wide, but never ask why. Price tags on pain as your trust goes dry. Dark rooms, bright lights and a hollow alibi. It's more than a tooth. It's the game. They ply, upsell the clean, then drill too deep. You pay the price while they count sheep. X-rays glow, but the ethics sleep. In this house of smiles, the lies run steep. Ten years in, I've seen the script Good ones caught, bad ones equipped. This ain't revenge. This is the flip. Pull back the curtain, let the mask slip. You're not alone, you're not crazy. You're finally here in the dark side of dentistry.

Speaker 1: 2:35

Almost every insurance plan includes two cleanings a year, no cost to you, cost to you. Even without insurance, a basic cleaning, or what we call a prophy should run maybe $80 to $100 max. But if you've been to a corporate dental office lately, you know that's not how it plays out. And here's why when you walk into a corporate dental office, when you walk into a corporate dental office, you're not just a patient, you're a line item on a spreadsheet. You see, every office has quotas. Every person in that office has a number that they're chasing. Dentists have what's called an ADP, an adjusted daily production. Same goes for hygienists, even the front staff like me. We're all incentivized based on how much treatment we can get patients to accept. That's the business model and it's not just passive, it's taught. Step one get the patient through the door. Step two get the patient in the chair. Step three probe those gums.

Speaker 1: 3:59

Let's talk a little bit about probing, about probing. Probing, as you know, is when the dentist or you may not know is when the dentist or the hygienist uses a thin metal instrument to measure the pocket depths between your teeth and your gums. You're going to hear them call out a bunch of numbers. I'm sure you've heard it before. I'll tell you one to threes. That's healthy. Four, borderline, five and up, and it's time to open up that wallet.

Speaker 1: 4:34

But here's the dirty part. In the corporate world, probing isn't always accurate. It's strategic Dentists, especially new grads, who corporate dentistry preys on, are drowning in debt and they know it. They're just trying to keep their job and they're taught to probe aggressively. When they hire a new grad on, they start them at a daily rate. A nice chunk of change. Imagine that You're right out of dental school, you're stacked up to your head in student loans and suddenly you're getting paid $600 a day. Well, soon that daily rate goes away, and I tell you this at the beginning. It's part of the contract and the way they make their money is based on the production. So if they can hit five millimeters or more, they can diagnose more gum disease and that just unlocks more procedures, more codes and more money. I've seen it firsthand.

Speaker 1: 5:58

I actually have a story I want to a moment that changed probably everything for me. Our office wasn't hitting hygiene goals, we were underproducing, so corporate sent in a specialist, a doctor, trained to boost the numbers. Basically we had a training session, a role play, and I played the patient. So the doctor probed my gums so she can show the fellow dentist, the associates, how to probe properly. When she got done probing. She looked at me and said you have stage 2 periodontal disease. I was shocked, to say the least. I've been in this business nearly a decade. I get two, three, sometimes four cleanings a year. I take care of my teeth. I brush twice a day, I floss rinse. Periodontal disease does not run in my family. It's not genetic. This couldn't be right. I was kind of freaking out. A few hours later my hygienist who is one of the most honest people I've ever met near and dear to my heart, pulled me aside and looked me in the eyes and said don't worry, your gums are fine. That's just part of the training. And she knew it was wrong. I could see it in her face. She looked disgusted. This was my aha moment. That's when I knew that this wasn't about care, it was about sales, and that's the day that I decided to start this podcast.

Speaker 1: 7:49

But the tactics don't stop at the probing. Let's talk about adjunctives. I don't know if you've heard this word or not, but adjunctives are a it's a fancy word basically for expensive add-ons that you probably don't need. Like, for instance, antimicrobial irrigation Sounds pretty high-tech, right. All it is is a squirt of chlorhexidine, which is a medicated rinse after your cleaning. Insurance rarely covers it. So you end up paying out of pocket $10 to $27 per quadrant, and remember, you have four quadrants in your mouth. And then there's also that oral cancer screening. They slip in there 30 bucks for a flashlight in your mouth, oh, and not to mention bacterial decontamination, or localized antibiotics or laser therapy. The list goes on and on and on. They stack procedures until a free cleaning becomes a $500 charge, and that's if you have insurance, and if you don't, you're paying $1,000 or more.

Speaker 1: 9:12

I remember once I financed a cleaning. That's right. I financed a cleaning for a gentleman who paid over $3,000. He didn't have it done by a specialist, he had it done by a hygienist. This was a past corporate DSO I worked for.

Speaker 1: 9:36

And you know, just when you think that they've maxed the scare tactics out, they've just rolled out this new one and I want you to be aware of this. It's called AMMP8 saliva screening. They tell you it's just a screening, it's free. They have you swish a solution, spit it in a tube and then they run it through a device and you get a number. You get a score. The higher the number, the more at risk you are. Quote, unquote it sounds scientific right? Well, it's not.

Speaker 1: 10:18

These screenings aren't FDA approved. They're not meant to diagnose anything, but they use them like they are. They show you this high number and tell you that it can mean early gum disease and suddenly you're agreeing to deep cleanings and adjunctives and everything else they can bill. Now could a high number mean something else? Sure, it could mean diabetes, high blood pressure, a lot of other medical stuff, but they're not following up on that. They don't care about that. All they care about is that you see that high number and you get scared and you say go ahead, do what you need to do. I guess I got to get it done. I can't tell you how many times I've heard a patient say that I guess I got to get it done.

Speaker 1: 11:03

They're using it to push treatment because hygiene is where the money's at. Let me break that down. Every month in my position, I get to see something called a profit and loss statement and I'll tell you that hygiene is the most profitable part of a dental office. Hygienists are paid hourly, they're tools, they're reused and sanitized. Pro-fi paste to polish, that costs pennies and you, you come back every six months, maybe every three months. It's easy profit, so they inflate it. Here's the kicker. We tested the ammp8 fancy machine just with the solution no saliva, just the rinse, and it gave us a score a 12.

Speaker 1: 12:02

Explain that you can't, because it's not about the science, guys, it's about the psychology, it's about the fear. That's what corporate dentistry runs on Fear, quotas, making sure no patient leaves without saying yes to something expensive. They prey on the weak, they prey on the people in pain, they prey on the people with no money. That's why they offer seven different types of financing. But here's the good news Once you see the game, you can beat it, and that's what I'm here for. I urge you ask questions, questions, ask for diagnosis codes, ask what something's about before you agree to it, and don't be afraid to say no. Thanks, because the real power in that office is in your hands. I promise you that this has been the drill teller. I'm your host and if this episode opened your eyes, do me a favor. Share it, drop it, review, tell a friend and email me at thedrillteller at protonme, with any questions, comments, stories. You will remain anonymous. I promise you that let's keep exposing this system, one drill at a time. See you next time.