Regardless of the financial and administrative issues, dentistry is still far more an art than a science. Go to 10 different dentists for any serious condition and you'll likely receive 10 different treatment plans. In most cases they're making good faith recommendations but there's a huge amount of subjectivity and personal bias involved.

Physicians have recently started embracing evidence-based medicine with documented best practice treatment guidelines so hopefully a similar cultural change will come to dentistry in time.