I have spoken with a few dentists and hygienists who have worked for the dental corporations, and have been told repeatedly that once the doctor does his/her exam and treatment planning, before it is presented to the patient, a "treatment coordinator " who is typically a high school graduate with no dental education, adds the treatments that the corporate bosses insist go on any treatment plan. These procedures have been carefully chosen as procedures that fall in the gaps of insurance coverages, so that insurance maximum fees are skirted. These procedures are, of course, high return procedures for the corporation.
I am a retired dentist myself, and for years I would see disgruntled patients from the corporation practices, and see their treatment plans, and as far as I could tell, they had very little to do with clinical findings.
Very often, in almost every case in fact, if there were a few fillings that needed to be done, because those were low profit items under the insurance plan, the corporate practice would refuse to do that work unless the entire treatment plan was approved and paid for in advance.
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