To think going to the dental hygienist is worse than having your eyes lasered?

[Lochroy]

I've just been for the first time. It was horrible. It felt like a prolonged attack with an angle grinder, a vacuum cleaner and a spear on my mouth. I wanted to cry. At least when I had my eyes done it was over in less than two minutes!

YABU - the clean feeling on your teeth is amazing!

Maybe try a different hygienist next time

TOTALLY agree....... unfortunately. On the plus though, I am never letting my teeth get into that state ever again.

I’ve never had my eyes lasered but getting my teeth scaled and polished is awful. Agree with @Snoop though, there are good ones and less good ones. I always hate it but some are better!

My coping strategy is to close my eyes and breathe deeply. Buggered either way as at the hygienist you can close your eyes but not breathe, and during Lasix you can breathe deeply but not close your eyes. I preferred eye surgery and that was brutal. Also the hygienist always wants to talk and always seems to enjoy the discomfort.

Oh no I wish I hadn’t read this! I was planning to go for the first time soon but I have a terrible gag reflex to the extent that the dentist had to give me an injection to fit a crown recently just so I stopped gagging every time they used the suction machine.
It’s so embarrassing but I just seem to have a super sensitive tongue

My dh always asks to be numb first. I don't love going but it needs done so 10 minutes discomfort is bearable. Though the freezing cold water, no thank you, I'd rather a mouthful of crap thanks, thankfully my friends the assistant so doesn't use the water or vacuum on me unless absolutely necessary.

It’s horrific if you haven’t been for a while, but if you go every six months and do what they say in between it’s much more pleasant. Far better to have this every 6 months than filings/dentures/implants/root canal or worse etc

You can ask to be numbed ! Is this injection or gel thingy. Im due to go and am terrified, my gums always bleed as well.

My hygienist will numb my mouth when doing a deep clean with the water jet thing. Normally it's an injection but sometimes the numbing gel works ok. With the injection they can only numb one side at a time with the lower teeth so I had to have 2 separate visits for that. The upper teeth they can numb the whole lot on the one visit.

There is a huge difference between hygienists though!!! I’ve found one I love and have been seeing her for years but on the down side she is v popular and appointments can be difficult. She’s very gentle while being thorough. One time she wasn’t available so had to have someone else. Painful, uncomfortable and didn’t seem like she knew what she was doing. Never again!

I hate it. Makes my toes curl but I do have mega sensitive teeth!

I despise having my teeth cleaned, I find it painful. So now there’s a note on my records saying that I’m to have local anaesthetic gel and it’s much better.

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YABU

Yes I am with you! Have had my eyes lasered and I hate the hygienist! Especially hate gobbing out stringy bits of gum at the end, ugh

I agree 100%. I have mine done every three months and absolutely dread it, and hate it while it's happening. I had a root canal recently, and preferred that ....

On top of that I always get a lecture about using dental floss, mouth wash, inter dental brushes etc etc .... If my hygienist had her way, I think I'd spend my entire waking day messing about with my teeth.

I’ve had it done by different dentists over the years and some seriously barely hurt at all. My current dentist left my gums sore for a week, they felt like someone had stabbed them all over and they were all bruised and battered. Horrible.

I ended up with a dentist phobia after visiting one particularly sadistic hygienist.

Yes I hate going. She only works on a Friday and with the pandemic it has been 3 years. Am seeing mine in a couple of weeks. I know she will bang on and on about my gums and insist I now visit her 4 times yearly but Fridays is inconvenient as it is and my dental plan only covers me twice a year.

Besides the financial cost (think it is over £50 these days) who can endure it more than every 6 months!

I am very pain sensitive and I dont like her much as a person either.

I love the hygienist! Am I really that weird?

I love it, but whilst it's being done it is horrible. Afterwards my mouth tastes like blood, but it is nice to feel my clean teeth :)

My hygienist is fabulous. She is really gentle. I went yesterday, and I decided that I prefer that to the hairdresser

I haven’t had laser so I can’t compare but I had one hygienist when I was heavily pregnant with my first child. Oh my goodness, it was absolutely horrendous. I genuinely thought I’d have no gums left.

It has never, ever hurt as much before or since, but she was absolutely vicious.

She kept saying she’d have to go down ‘under the guns’, even the imagery of that was horrendous.

Don't love it but used to it now.

The thing that makes it bearable is a water flossed to keep up the routine between visits.

https://www.waterpik.co.uk

Daily floss with tape, then water floss and d finally brush. Disclosing tablets to g check ohh are doing it all right.

Game changer.

under the gums*

I have advanced gum disease (no particular reason for it, likely a genetic predisposition). I have an appointment in March for a really deep clean with the dentist. I'm booking in for two hours, and they are planning to use local anaesthetic as it will likely be so painful. I'm dreading it.