It does read a little bit like astroturfing, but as someone who had a (different) lifelong debilitating condition that has been almost entirely solved by a few doctor's appointments, I can say that nothing turns you into an advocate for something faster than this sort of experience. For me it was almost spiritual in the end. It was also oddly upsetting in some way, thinking about all the years I had wasted when essentially two hour-long appointments were all I needed. You gain this almost overwhelming need to help other people avoid the same morass you were in.

Hmm - this is really a deep issue here. How should we learn about these new treatments? Shouldn't we wait for the dentist to learn about it and evaluate - wouldn't someone with more background information be more suitable for that and maybe save us from traps? On average I would agree with that - but there are cracks in the bureaucracy mainstream medicine machine: https://equilibriabook.com/, and also I believe that communities like HN can be somehow trusted - it is possible to be better than the average: https://zby.medium.com/rational-patient-community-6d3617dffc...

Yeah, I don't doubt this happens. If it didn't, astroturfing wouldn't work! Betting on whether a specific comment is legit would still be interesting.