Dental survey

Nava I’m moving to Spain! I hate flossing. The dentists here advise that it’s probably more important than brushing!

I’m uninsured, so the smiling but clumsy young folks at the dental school do it all. Actually, I’ve had pretty good experiences at the dental school- it’s the only time someone’s career is on the line during a teeth cleaning. The downside is that my student is a bit of an over achiever and can get a little over zealous at times.

I live just outside of Boise and go to a dentist who runs his own small clinic in my not-so-little town (more of a suburb of Boise). I just had my teeth cleaned yesterday. The hygienist did the work. She’s probably in her 40’s, the dentist is about the same age, maybe a little older. Next month I need to have a tooth capped. Last month I had to go in to have a filling replaced. At the rate things are going my dentist will be able to retire in a couple years just off of what he’s getting from me for fixing my lousy teeth.

Bay Area, and the hygenist does the cleaning. When I was a kid 40 years ago in Queens, the hygenist did it also.

My dentist has a new cleaning tool, that doesn’t involve painful scraping. Much better.

I see my dentist annually- and he does everything. It’s a 15 minute appointment, so I’d be a bit miffed if he fobbed me off on a dental nurse- the least he can do for his money is clean my teeth. Since I have only 1 filling, and that was put in 6 years ago, it’s not like I’m exactly a cash cow for his practice :slight_smile:

The hygenist cleans my teeth and then the dentist comes and has a look around to make sure everything in my mouth is A-OK. It’s been that way since I was a kid.
Most hygenists I’ve had were pretty good, but I’ve had a few who didn’t last long.

There was one old lady when I was a kid, where if you twitched while she was examining you, she’d bark, “Keep still!” I was terrified of her, as were the other child patients.

One ham-handed hygenist painfully carved up my gums when she cleaned my teeth, then commented afterwards, “I noticed while I was cleaning that your gums were bleeding. You need to brush better.” I wanted to jam those instruments up her nose.