The Free Cleaning Scam

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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

Share this episode, leave a review, and email your questions or stories to thedrillteller@protonme – you'll remain anonymous.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
What's up everyone and welcome back.
I'm the drill teller and thisis the dark side of dentistry,
the podcast where we pull backthe curtain on what really goes
down in the dental world.
I'm your host and today we'retalking about one of the biggest
scams in dentistry the freecleaning, or what you thought

(00:24):
was free.
Behind the smile there's astory, untold white coats and
lies in the chair.
You hold Decrees on the wall,but the truth runs cold.

(00:47):
Welcome to the place wheresecrets unfold.
They say open wide, but neverask why.
Price tags on pain as yourtrust goes dry.
Dark rooms, bright lights and ahollow alibi.
It's more than a tooth.
It's the game.
They ply, upsell the clean,then drill too deep.

(01:24):
You pay the price while theycount sheep.
X-rays glow, but the ethicssleep.
In this house of smiles, thelies run steep.
Ten years in, I've seen thescript Good ones caught, bad
ones equipped.
This ain't revenge.

(01:44):
This is the flip.
Pull back the curtain, let themask slip.
You're not alone, you're notcrazy.
You're finally here in the darkside of dentistry.

(02:35):
Almost every insurance planincludes two cleanings a year,
no cost to you, cost to you.
Even without insurance, a basiccleaning, or what we call a
prophy should run maybe $80 to$100 max.
But if you've been to acorporate dental office lately,
you know that's not how it playsout.

(02:56):
And here's why when you walkinto a corporate dental office,
when you walk into a corporatedental office, you're not just a
patient, you're a line item ona spreadsheet.
You see, every office hasquotas.
Every person in that office hasa number that they're chasing.

(03:20):
Dentists have what's called anADP, an adjusted daily
production.
Same goes for hygienists, eventhe front staff like me.
We're all incentivized based onhow much treatment we can get
patients to accept.
That's the business model andit's not just passive, it's

(03:40):
taught.
Step one get the patientthrough the door.
Step two get the patient in thechair.
Step three probe those gums.
Let's talk a little bit aboutprobing, about probing.

(04:03):
Probing, as you know, is whenthe dentist or you may not know
is when the dentist or thehygienist uses a thin metal
instrument to measure the pocketdepths between your teeth and
your gums.
You're going to hear them callout a bunch of numbers.
I'm sure you've heard it before.
I'll tell you one to threes.

(04:24):
That's healthy.
Four, borderline, five and up,and it's time to open up that
wallet.
But here's the dirty part.
In the corporate world, probingisn't always accurate.
It's strategic Dentists,especially new grads, who

(04:47):
corporate dentistry preys on,are drowning in debt and they
know it.
They're just trying to keeptheir 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.

(05:09):
Imagine that You're right outof dental school, you're stacked
up to your head in studentloans and suddenly you're
getting paid $600 a day.
Well, soon that daily rate goesaway, and I tell you this at
the beginning.
It's part of the contract andthe way they make their money is

(05:36):
based on the production.
So if they can hit fivemillimeters or more, they can
diagnose more gum disease andthat just unlocks more
procedures, more codes and moremoney.
I've seen it firsthand.

(05:58):
I actually have a story I wantto a moment that changed
probably everything for me.
Our office wasn't hittinghygiene goals, we were
underproducing, so corporatesent in a specialist, a doctor,
trained to boost the numbers.
Basically we had a trainingsession, a role play, and I

(06:24):
played the patient.
So the doctor probed my gums soshe can show the fellow dentist
, the associates, how to probeproperly.
When she got done probing.
She looked at me and said youhave stage 2 periodontal disease
.
I was shocked, to say the least.

(06:47):
I've been in this businessnearly a decade.
I get two, three, sometimesfour cleanings a year.
I take care of my teeth.
I brush twice a day, I flossrinse.
Periodontal disease does notrun in my family.
It's not genetic.
This couldn't be right.

(07:08):
I was kind of freaking out.
A few hours later my hygienistwho is one of the most honest
people I've ever met near anddear to my heart, pulled me
aside and looked me in the eyesand said don't worry, your gums
are fine.
That's just part of thetraining.
And she knew it was wrong.
I could see it in her face.

(07:29):
She looked disgusted.
This was my aha moment.
That's when I knew that thiswasn't about care, it was about
sales, and that's the day that Idecided to start this podcast.

(07:49):
But the tactics don't stop atthe probing.
Let's talk about adjunctives.
I don't know if you've heardthis word or not, but
adjunctives are a it's a fancyword basically for expensive
add-ons that you probably don'tneed.
Like, for instance,antimicrobial irrigation Sounds
pretty high-tech, right.
All it is is a squirt ofchlorhexidine, which is a

(08:15):
medicated rinse after yourcleaning.
Insurance rarely covers it.
So you end up paying out ofpocket $10 to $27 per quadrant,
and remember, you have fourquadrants in your mouth.
And then there's also that oralcancer screening.

(08:38):
They slip in there 30 bucks fora flashlight in your mouth, oh,
and not to mention bacterialdecontamination, or localized
antibiotics or laser therapy.
The list goes on and on and on.
They stack procedures until afree cleaning becomes a $500

(09:01):
charge, and that's if you haveinsurance, and if you don't,
you're paying $1,000 or more.
I remember once I financed acleaning.
That's right.
I financed a cleaning for agentleman who paid over $3,000.

(09:22):
He didn't have it done by aspecialist, he had it done by a
hygienist.
This was a past corporate DSO Iworked for.
And you know, just when youthink that they've maxed the
scare tactics out, they've justrolled out this new one and I

(09:44):
want you to be aware of this.
It's called AMMP8 salivascreening.
They tell you it's just ascreening, it's free.
They have you swish a solution,spit it in a tube and then they
run it through a device and youget a number.

(10:04):
You get a score.
The higher the number, the moreat risk you are.
Quote, unquote it soundsscientific right?
Well, it's not.
These screenings aren't FDAapproved.
They're not meant to diagnoseanything, but they use them like

(10:25):
they are.
They show you this high numberand tell you that it can mean
early gum disease and suddenlyyou're agreeing to deep
cleanings and adjunctives andeverything else they can bill.
Now could a high number meansomething else?
Sure, it could mean diabetes,high blood pressure, a lot of
other medical stuff, but they'renot following up on that.

(10:47):
They don't care about that.
All they care about is that yousee 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 timesI've heard a patient say that I
guess I got to get it done.
They're using it to pushtreatment because hygiene is
where the money's at.

(11:07):
Let me break that down.
Every month in my position, Iget to see something called a
profit and loss statement andI'll tell you that hygiene is
the most profitable part of adental office.
Hygienists are paid hourly,they're tools, they're reused

(11:30):
and sanitized.
Pro-fi paste to polish, thatcosts pennies and you, you come
back every six months, maybeevery three months.
It's easy profit, so theyinflate it.
Here's the kicker.
We tested the ammp8 fancymachine just with the solution

(11:54):
no saliva, just the rinse, andit gave us a score a 12.
Explain that you can't, becauseit's not about the science, guys
, it's about the psychology,it's about the fear.
That's what corporate dentistryruns on Fear, quotas, making

(12:17):
sure no patient leaves withoutsaying yes to something
expensive.
They prey on the weak, theyprey on the people in pain, they
prey on the people with nomoney.
That's why they offer sevendifferent types of financing.

(12:38):
But here's the good news Onceyou 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'sabout before you agree to it,
and don't be afraid to say no.
Thanks, because the real powerin that office is in your hands.

(12:58):
I promise you that this hasbeen the drill teller.
I'm your host and if thisepisode opened your eyes, do me
a favor.
Share it, drop it, review, tella friend and email me at
thedrillteller at protonme, withany questions, comments,

(13:19):
stories.
You will remain anonymous.
I promise you that let's keepexposing this system, one drill
at a time.
See you next time.