I remember reading this article (or a very similar one) as well. It sent me down a path of looking for evidence based dentists, which are quite hard to find. I couldn't end up finding one that seemed to fit that bill in my local area. I talked to a recent dental school graduate friend who described some evidence that school debt is highly correlated to over-treating.
I ended up going the direction of looking for dentists unlikely to have debt and found a former army dentist and have been thrilled with how much less "well, let's do it all just in case" she is than my previous dentist (who had a TVs on the ceiling of every room and a new piece of major equipment every time I went).
An interesting approach could be to visit at least a few, 3 to 5, and get an idea of the scope and work they want to do on you (or your bank account), and then go with the one you like most, out of those wanting to do the LEAST work on you.
I ended up going the direction of looking for dentists unlikely to have debt and found a former army dentist and have been thrilled with how much less "well, let's do it all just in case" she is than my previous dentist (who had a TVs on the ceiling of every room and a new piece of major equipment every time I went).