OT: Why do dentists ask your occupation when you register?

mike

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Oct 5, 2011, 2:02:37 PM10/5/11

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Occupation seems to be a standard question when you register with a
new dental practice. Why? Surely the treatment's the same. Or are
they trying to weed out potential clients who might get their teeth
knocked out during the course of their work (like boxers and...
errr...).

Presumably there's an obvious answer I'm overlooking but at the moment
the only thing I can think of is a recollection that agents dropped
into occupied Europe during the war had their fillings redone to match
the continental style so they couldn't be ID'd as British if picked up
by the Gestapo.

Frank Erskine

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Oct 5, 2011, 3:08:55 PM10/5/11

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On Wed, 5 Oct 2011 11:02:37 -0700 (PDT), mike <mike...@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>Occupation seems to be a standard question when you register with a
>new dental practice. Why?

It's to get an idea of how much they can charge you for treatment.

:-)

--
Frank Erskine

Owain

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Oct 5, 2011, 3:15:48 PM10/5/11

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On Oct 5, 7:02 pm, mike wrote:
> Occupation seems to be a standard question when you register with a
> new dental practice. Why? Surely the treatment's the same. Or are
> they trying to weed out potential clients who might get their teeth
> knocked out during the course of their work (like boxers and...
> errr...).
> Presumably there's an obvious answer I'm overlooking

There are many occupations that can affect dental health in the same
way as general health can be occupation-related. And there are
occupations you probably shouldn't do under the influence of some
dental drugs.

Occupational diseases in teeth - Gupta
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2263081

Wear of teeth due to occupational exposure to airborne olivine dust
http://www.jokstad.no/olivin.pdf

Occupational dental wear in ceramic factory workers
http://typographicsplus.com/journals/index.php/JIDA/article/view/986/985

That's for the NHS.

If you're going private they want to estimate how much to load the
bill :-)

Owain

tin...@isbd.co.uk

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Oct 5, 2011, 3:14:30 PM10/5/11

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Presumably, among other things, it can be fed into statistics software
which will spot connections between occupations and (in the dentist
case) the things that go wrong with your teeth.

--
Chris Green

Andy Dingley

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Oct 5, 2011, 3:20:48 PM10/5/11

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On Oct 5, 7:02 pm, mike <miken...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Occupation seems to be a standard question when you register with a
> new dental practice. Why?

Because you've already got a big chair, pointy scrapey things, a flesh-
cutting laser and so you'll want to know when you've caught an estate
agent or financial services consultant.

Andy Burns

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Oct 5, 2011, 4:12:30 PM10/5/11

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mike wrote:

> are they trying to weed out potential clients who might get their
> teeth knocked out during the course of their work (like boxers
> and...

cheeky sparkies?

<grabs coat>

Jules Richardson

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Oct 5, 2011, 4:26:34 PM10/5/11

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On Wed, 05 Oct 2011 12:20:48 -0700, Andy Dingley wrote:
> Because you've already got a big chair, pointy scrapey things, a flesh-
> cutting laser and so you'll want to know when you've caught an estate
> agent or financial services consultant.

... is the right answer.

:-)

David in Normandy

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Oct 5, 2011, 5:03:09 PM10/5/11

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That is probably true! Even my French dentist asked my profession when I
registered. They just want to know how many crowns and other expensive
treatment they can claim you need.

--
David in Normandy. Davidin...@yahoo.fr
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