Dentist 1:
It’s all designed to fool the taxpayer. Politian's get into trouble for overspending. They cut services, in this case Medicaid reimbursement fees for dental treatment. To keep the special interest happy, they agree to cover another procedure, everyone’s happy.
I work in an office (corporate mill) that takes Medicaid- MassHealth-in my state. which covers sealants on primary molars. In my opinion, I think sealants on second primary molars (first primary, very rare) are beneficial in only a small percentage of cases; high risk, deep grooves, ability to obtain good isolation, etc.
Here's what I find troublesome and wasteful from a taxpayers point of view.
- We routinely seal all primary molars up to the age of 8, even on low risk patients with shallow grooves
- 90% of the time dental assistants place them alone with poor isolation.
I only do sealants when I have good isolation. 95% of the time I use my Isolite.
With my criteria, I rarely seal primary molars.
The dentists who do treatment plan sealants on a 3 year old, that will not even remain still for an exam or cleaning are wasting tax dollars in my opinion. I do see pressure for assistants to do them from the corporate headquarters. Corporate heads want a “sealant” report daily. That irks the hell out of me. It irks me even more when the dentist is not busy at all and still let's the assistant do them alone!
