tl;dr: A personal essay recounting the author's 16-year odyssey through dentists who gave wildly contradictory advice about his jaw, cavities, night guards, and gum recession—ranging from a $150K jaw surgery recommendation to simple Invisalign for the same condition. Each specialist contradicts the last, often disparaging prior providers while upselling their own treatments, leaving the author questioning whether dentistry is more sales operation than science.