# Dentist question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 26, 2024, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dentist-question/1006271 "2024-08-26T21:18:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dentist-question/1006271/1 "2024-08-26T21:18:31Z")
After going to the same practice for 20+ years I had to change providers. The old one stopped taking insurance but that’s another story. As far back as I can remember every dentist that I ever went to had rinse/spit bowl with a little “cup filler” for the rinse cycle. The new guy has no bowl. Not for cleanings or actual dental work. They rinse and suction with hand instruments. Seems odd to me. Is this common these days? I prefer the “swish and spit” but what do I know? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dentist-question/1006271/2 "2024-08-26T21:30:12Z")
Yes, it’s the norm. I would be surprised if anybody still uses the spit bowl. They use suction, which is more sanitary and works just as well. ---
**Author:** ![peedin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peedin/32/14095_2.png) [@peedin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peedin)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dentist-question/1006271/3 "2024-08-26T21:31:55Z")
The technical name is Mr Thirsty. No dentist uses the swish and spit bowl. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dentist-question/1006271/4 "2024-08-26T22:18:12Z")
My dentist told me that the suction method started with COVID and they not wanting patients to spit, ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dentist-question/1006271/5 "2024-08-26T22:22:46Z")
Yeah my dentist does not offer swish-n-spit, but since the office has been around a few years, they still have little sinks at each station and I request it when my cleaning is completed - they gladly give me a little cup. For me, at least, they never quite get as good a rinse as I can get. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dentist-question/1006271/6 "2024-08-26T22:29:43Z")
What? I lived through COVID. My whole life it’s been suction by Mr. Thirsty. It started well before COVID. Like years. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dentist-question/1006271/7 "2024-08-26T22:55:14Z")
Yes, at least 30 years, maybe 40. ---
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dentist-question/1006271/8 "2024-08-26T23:26:24Z")
Well, I gotta tell you, I’m a bit shocked. My prior dentist was pretty progressive or so I thought. Always on the “Top X dentists in the area” list. Very popular among people I know. Doing well enough that they don’t take insurance any longer. Or maybe they can’t afford to take the (40% or whatever it was) of the normal fee the insurance company agreed to. IDK. Do your dentists have you swish with special mouthwash prior to work? I’d guess not because how would you get rid of it without the bowl? Ignorance fought, in any case. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dentist-question/1006271/9 "2024-08-26T23:37:25Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > What? I lived through COVID. > > My whole life it’s been suction by Mr. Thirsty. > > It started well before COVID. > Like years. I’m not saying all dentists were like that. I told you what my dentist said. They also gave us something special to rinse our mouths with first and spit out. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dentist-question/1006271/10 "2024-08-26T23:41:58Z")
Mine does that too. No spit bowl. Just the suction tube. I imagine the spit bowl was a pain to clean and keep sanitary. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dentist-question/1006271/11 "2024-08-26T23:42:35Z")
> [@MikeF](#): > > Do your dentists have you swish with special mouthwash prior to work? I’d guess not because how would you get rid of it without the bowl? Mine does. The hygienist gives me a Dixie cup with a tiny amount of mouthwash in it and asks me to swish it around my mouth for thirty seconds. After that I spit it out into the same cup. They started to do this during the pandemic, even though I try to make a point of brushing my teeth immediately before driving to the clinic. ---
**Author:** ![rsat3acr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dentist-question/1006271/12 "2024-08-26T23:49:31Z")
I started dental school 37 years ago. We still had the cuspidor on the dental units but had them covered so patients wouldn’t use them. Using suction has been common quite a long time. To rinse and spit one has to be sitting up but most dentists have the patient reclined now. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dentist-question/1006271/13 "2024-08-26T23:51:20Z")
BTW, why the change in dental practice from having the patient sitting upright to reclined? I noticed people are sitting upright in old movies and those set decades ago. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dentist-question/1006271/14 "2024-08-26T23:51:33Z")
I have been going to the same dentist office since 1990 (first dentist retired and now on the second one). They didn’t have the spit bowls the entire time. My childhood dentist had one who I last saw in 1982. I don’t recall what they had the few times I went to a dentist in the college years between the two. The hygienist gives me a little cup with mouthwash when I first come in. I swish and spit it into a regular sink before we start. ---
**Author:** ![Apodder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apodder/32/17727_2.png) [@Apodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apodder)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2024, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dentist-question/1006271/15 "2024-08-27T00:04:05Z")
More sanitary I can believe. Works just as well? Ugh, no. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2024, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dentist-question/1006271/16 "2024-08-27T00:23:19Z")
My dentist’s office was spit-free for the last 20+ years. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2024, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dentist-question/1006271/17 "2024-08-27T00:29:17Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > I imagine the spit bowl was a pain to clean and keep sanitary. There’s probably an older dentist reading this post and thinking, “gee, we were supposed to _clean_ the spit bowl?”. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2024, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dentist-question/1006271/18 "2024-08-27T01:04:03Z")
I haven’t seen a spit bowl used since before 1980. The last place I went that used them was my childhood dentist, in a building with one of those elevators with the inner [and outer grill doors](https://www.alamy.com/old-metal-cage-elevator-in-art-deco-building-buenos-aires-argentina-image68761194.html) you could lose a finger in. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2024, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dentist-question/1006271/19 "2024-08-27T01:24:42Z")
I used a spit bowl until recently, and i still hate the spray& suction. It doesn’t work nearly as well for actually, you know, rinsing crap out of my mouth. For a while my dentist let me go to a sink in the hallway to rinse and spit, because i whined, but that stopped with covid. She still gives me an extra rinse after she’s “done”. But now i rinse when i go home, because i really don’t like the residual taste of the toothpaste. Anyway, they all claim it’s more sanitary. I’m dubious. I never touched the bowl, and i wonder if that gross thing that sucks ever backs up. “You need to sit up” sounds more plausible, honestly. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2024, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dentist-question/1006271/20 "2024-08-27T01:44:10Z")
Huh? I have _never_ once been to a dentist that didn’t have the bowl to spit into. Sure they have the suction thing during the cleaning but afterwards they always have a small cup to rinse with and spit out into the sink. Various places in NYC. Every single one has the bowl. Very confused here. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dentist-question/1006271.md?page=2)