I’m scheduled to go to the dentist later this week. Years ago, the Wall Street Journal wrote about a dental divide. I searched for the old link but could not find one. The divide is between aggressive dentists who perform more procedures and conservative dentists who recommend fewer treatments. As I recall, the article said that within the dental industry there is friction between the two factions, with little agreement about what constitutes honest, recommended care and what constitutes excessive treatment. Purportedly, even the American Dental Association does not want to weigh-in and take a stand on the topic. It’s up to each dentist to decide.
Category: Doctors & Hospitals
Hearing Loss (and Poverty) Correlated with Dementia
A cohort study of 573,088 people from Southern Denmark found an increased risk of dementia in those who experience hearing loss.
Saturday Links
- The case against taxing the wealthy to save Social Security.
- AEI’s budget projection: “We project that debt-to-GDP will be 135 percent in 2032 and 268 percent in 2052, compared to CBO’s 112 percent and 177 percent, respectively.
- Drugs to treat obesity and diabetes: “We estimate that net prices received by drugmakers are 48–78 percent lower than list prices… faced by some consumers.”
- Diabetes contributed roughly $296 billion to excess health care spending in 2023.
- Social Security replaces about 54 percent of the pre-retirement earnings of an average wage worker. (This is higher than what Social Security tells us.)