When to Call a Different Doctor

Do you go with the safer-but-less-successful treatment, or the riskier-but-maybe-better one? The answer isn't always clear-cut. Despite how it looks on House and Grey's Anatomy, medicine is as much an art as it is a science.

That's why you need more than one opinion when you're facing a big medical decision (or even a small one that you need some additional reassurance or insight about). In fact, in about a third of cases, a second opinion changes the treatment substantially. Sometimes, a second opinion can even change the diagnosis. Misdiagnoses aren't necessarily the mark of a shoddy healthcare professional; hundreds of diseases have almost exactly the same symptoms.

That makes it all the more amazing that so few people get second opinions when it comes to their health (but they'll call 10 people to weigh in on whether they should go to Paris or Buenos Aires for vacation). What's stopping you?

You're concerned you'll alienate your current doc. Second opinions are as routine as hand washing, and if your doc's not on board with it (on board with your getting an opinion; if they're not on board with hand washing well . . . run!), you should be seeing someone else, anyway.

You're worried about the money. True, some insurance companies won't pay for second opinions (although most do), but it might save your life or make you feel far more comfortable about what you'll be undergoing. Your health is worth a second or a third opinion, in our opinion.