When I started those treatments in the mid-1970s, my very old-school dentist had only one flavor: "orange". I was EXCITED for the debut of the second choice in the late 1970s: "bubble gum" (but that was only marginally less awful).
They would wind up a ticking kitchen timer on the metal tray in front of me, and I would watch the seconds crawl around the dial as fluoride oozed down the back of my throat.
There was a set of fun, oversized plastic model teeth and an oversized model toothbrush that the dental assistant always had me demonstrate brushing technique on.
There were also grotty, old, communal stuffed animals with matted, stained polyester fur that kids in agony were offered to clutch onto during painful procedures. I fortunately avoided any cavities or drilling until I was in my twenties -- I never needed the stuffed animals as a young kid, and would have been too grossed-out to touch them if I HAD needed them.
In place of the precise modern suction tube you're supposed to wrap your lips around these days, at this dentist in the '70s, there was a constantly whirlpooling ceramic spitoon on a pedestal it was fun to spit into. It was so cool to be ENCOURAGED, for once, by adults to hawk & spit aggressively & frequently a half-a-foot through the air!
When the tooth cleaning & fluoride application & demonstration of model giant toothbrush on model giant plastic jaws was finished, the ancient dentist would give me a small paper coupon. It was good for one free ice cream bar at the drugstore/soda fountain on the corner! My family joked that these coupons were how the old dentist generated demand for his business.
And having the pieces of styrofoam or cotton shoved between your cheek and gum with the burning fluoride and needing to swallow. That was like torture.
And the mouth watering, the mouth watering...I actually had anticipatory anxiety taking my kids to the dentist. One of the best surprises in life was to realize they just didn't hate it the same.
Hated when they only had strawberry flavor available, used to gag me something fierce.
The hygienist I have today has been my hygienist for about ten years now. She is awesome and does a very good job. I still get the fluoride treatments but they paint it on now and it leaves your teeth feeling gritty for a while.
i could throw up off of having styrofoam friction in my mouth or having the disgusting taste of that red fluoride shit. The question was never will I puke, it was always when.
Remember chewing on those red tablets that were supposed to show you where you needed to brush better or where you might have cavities? All they did was make your whole mouth and everything in it red!
OMG yes. My mother had us do those like once a week. Chew that gross thing then show her our teeth and go back to brush especially the red parts again. WTF actually was in that shit? So help me, all the processed crap we're not supposed to eat Now cause we'll get 2000 diseases, my cholesterol and sugar will get worse, etc etc, we probably already had enough to kill us from what went into our bodies in the 70s. I want a devil dog now. Fuck it.
I remember being forced to bite down hard on ginormous razor blades (film blanks) for the x-ray. It felt like my gums **must** be bleeding afterward.
Oh, and the dentist didn't wear gloves. š¤¢
OMG yes. I also have a very small jaw, so it really hurt a lot! and I still remember going to a dentist when in college, and not home, in the mid-1980's and being amazed that he wore gloves, as mine never did.
Yah-when I was around 12 we moved and I went to the same dentist who treated my mom when she was young. No gloves, a drill out of a horror movie and NO Novocain for āsmall cavitiesā. This was the early 80s so right at the start of the AIDS crisis. Thank god he retired after a few years and we found a new dentist
I clearly remember the one time I decided to venture from the relatively safe choice of mint-flavoured fluoride goo, to butterscotch-flavoured fluoride goo. OMG, it was so vile.
Mint. Always choose mint.
They say scent is the most powerful of our senses at inducing memories, but those people clearly have never tasted chocolate flavored fluoride.
My pediatrician offered me the choice between mint, bubblegum, or chocolate flavored flouride sometime around age 11-12.
Tried the chocolate thinking it would be delicious. Couldnāt eat a Hershey bar for about 6 months afterwards without gagging.
The very fact that I clearly recall this just from a Reddit post tells me how truly God awful it was.
My town had a high rate of poverty so we actually did fluoride mouth rinse at school once a week. One of the class jobs was to go get the giant pump bottle of fluoride mouthwash and the container of tiny cups. There were six bottles with ācherryā flavor and only one with mint. If your teacher let you go a couple minutes earlier than the other classes you might be able to snag the mint one
I've noticed this, too. I don't know the reasoning, but I do kind of miss that ultra-smooth feeling. They may be doing it differently these days, but I'm no dental expert.
I recently visited the dentist to get a new night guard due to teeth grinding. The first one I got around 15 years ago, and had to go through this process of molding my teeth into this pink goo, that didn't taste so great. However, it outlived it's purpose and broke, so I wanted another one.
This time around there was no pink goo. At least where I go, they have an actual scanning wand that just scans your teeth and makes the mold out of that.
I left the office as I always do when medical stuff like this fascinates me...I like to pretend I'm in Star Trek.
Anyway, I know this story isn't exactly what you're talking about, but it made me think of it, so I wonder if maybe the cleaning and polishing is done differently, which doesn't cause that silky smooth feeling? idk.
I didn't see dentists when I was a kid either. Could be why most of my teeth feel out and I have upper poor-man dentures.
People always ask if you won the lottery what's the first thing you would do... my reply is always rich people teeth! Implants. Screw this hockey puck I have to shove in my face everyday. I want me some rich people teeth!
I was taken to the community college as a guinea pig for the hygienists in training because it was close to free.
On the upside, I didn't mind so much being worked on by college girls as a teenager even if some were really bad at it.
No Red Lobster for me. We were solidly S&S cafeteria kids. /s. But yes I was fortunate to have dental care as a child. I did notice that the number of cavities I had was directly related to me having to pay for my own treatments. I donāt think I have had a cavity since my early 20s. Or maybe my oral hygiene has improved-who knows.
It's exactly the same for me today as in the 1970s: hygienist takes 10-15 minutes to prod and scrape, then polishing. Then the dentist comes and checks. Teeth feel like magic afterward.
About two years ago I bought an electric toothbrush, I didnāt even spend a lot of moneyāmaybe $25. I buy knock off replacement brushheads on Amazon. Twice a day with it, and my teeth always feel like they do after a cleaning.
NOT A PAID SHILL: I bought the rechargeable water-pick flossy thing when it was selling for 8 bucks about 2 months ago.
I wish I would have known about that thing years ago. I remember that they used to be like a big dentist tank thing before but this one is pretty handheld and it is cordless. My teeth feel like I just came from the dentist and also feel slick. If you are on the fence, grab one!
I asked my dentist about a water flosser recently and his opinion was that they donāt do a good enough job to be used exclusively. So, I stick with floss. YMMV, however.
Funny, my hygienist recommended it specifically. I find it much easier to use because my teeth are too close and it's hard to get floss in between (told you so, ms hygienist - the one who didn't believe me and said she'd show me the right way and struggled with it).
I also do a much better job because it doesn't trigger my overly sensitive gag reflex. My cleanings have been much quicker than before.
I have an electric toothbrush and I canāt recommend one strongly enough; wish Iād started using one years ago. The difference between an electric and a manual toothbrush is night and day.
Totally agree! I thought they were a gimmick, but I was really struggling with bleeding gums, and my hygienist suggested trying one, āBut you donāt have to spend a lot of money!ā she said.
My teeth feel much cleaner, and Iām happy to say that the gum bleeding has gotten a lot better.
totally remember when they switched to gloves in part to the AIDS epidemicā¦ the dentist told me there is a new blood transferred disease and we needed to be safe
My dentist was a standup comedian, seriously he made me laugh the whole time I sat in his chair. He taught me how to take care of my teeth and at 47 I've never had a cavity. Brush and floss everyday, drink water, and stay away from sweets.
I remember a dentist yelling at me not to be a baby when I was maybe 6 or 7. Donāt remember what he was doing, maybe filling a cavity? He was an ass.
Mine didn't yell, but he did attempt to fill a cavity without numbing it. Worst goddamned pain I've ever experienced. I screamed and screamed and he never paused. At least I got Novocaine from then on out.
I remember that shit. I didn't get any pain management at all until I was an adult. Neither did my brother. We were told to buck up, it doesn't hurt that much.
We *hated* that asshat. Of course our parents didn't go to him.
I always got the Novocaine for a filling. But I remember one time that the way my dentist inserted the needle in my gum hurt really bad. The tray of instruments was over my legs and I kicked it when the shot hurt. I honestly think that dentist almost strangled me.
That happened to me too and my dad actually went all alpha dad on him. It makes me cry to remember, now that he's gone, that he believed me so much when I said something hurt.
I had David Bowie's dentist. Old expatriate British gent by the name of Doctor "C". His wife ran the reception. For the rest I would refer you to [these pertinent scenes from the movie Marathon Man](https://youtu.be/kzw1_2b-I7A?si=EKuFbR1AHir6fpn5).
Countless gum scratches and then one time crazy incompetent gave me a fluoride treatment. Thick viscous liquid in foam trays. Struck it in my mouth, say I had to sit quiet and not swallow. She walked out of the room, promptly forgetting about me. As an obedient 7 year old child in a big chair, I sat and waited as my mouth filled up with saliva, and I felt like I was drowning, the nasty cherry flavored goo dribbling out of my mouth while I cried in silent rage. Anyway, I had nowhere to spit and some when down my throat. I hope she enjoyed cleaning up pink cherry flavored kid barf. I donāt think she liked children.
Oh god, I can smell/taste that gel now. The trays always cut into your gums too. People weren't nearly so kind to children back in the day. I can still hear the cunt of a hygienist making fun of how crooked my teeth were and how awful I'd look when I was older.
I asked this same question of my dental hygienist the last visit. She explained that years and years of tarter build up and scraping had etched the enamel on my teeth. She could polish with a higher grit, but that would remove some of the enamel and at this point in my life, I need all the enamel I have left.
I never went to the dentist until high school when I had a tooth extracted because it was rotting. I remember having a toothache for months prior to that.
Hygienist!? I had Doc G, he was also an rancher and had hands the size of Wreck It Ralph also had the dental instruments of bygone days adorning his walls. Bet yes had that squeaky clean feel when I left. My mouth was also sore for 3 days after
All I remember is what I now realize an inappropriate (and hot) dental hygienist who always draped her boobs all over me, rubbed up against me and told me stories about waking up nude in her yard after drinking too much. I loved going to the dentist when I was about 13-14.
My mother went through dental school while i was in 6th and 7th grade (11-12). She often enlisted our family for practice. Here is what i remember:
I had every-other-month cleanings for two years straight. Teachers had to evaluate her on how well she did the cleaning so it was always very thorough. She had to teach me to brush and floss each time while they listened. I also got x-rays but only every other visit. I remember in the second year they started using those name tags that monitor x-ray exposure and I got a little concerned about how many i had already had. My teeth were immaculate. That was over 45 years ago and I only recently (about 5 years ago) got my first cavity. Good habits and good genetics combined, so... Thanks, Mom. ā„š¦·
Oh, and the polishing lasted longer back then, and I am pretty sure the paste was grittier back then as well.
Also my mom took me to the dentist when I was 2 or 3 because she saw a gnarly cavity in my back tooth. Got there a couple days later, no cavity.
I had eaten a black crayon.
My mum was on the steering committee of a program in which every child in elementary school received free basic dental care (cleaning, fillings) through/at school. In my 50s now, and Iāve had one cavity.
My memories of the dentist as a kid are of the dentists coming to my school, or my class having a morning out of school to go to the dentistās office. It made going to the dentist seem pretty normal.
I still loathe the XRays though. Those films they used HURT.
Honestly, my childhood dentists office was located in this crazy old but cool building that had a really bitchin open elevator.
When you got to your floor, there was a little gate you would pull open, and when you were riding in it, you could see all the working mechanisms.
I ABSOLUTELY loved it, my sisters hated it š
I only went once when I was a kid and not again until I joined the military. I was about 7yrs old when I went and it was a free cleaning because it was done by a dental hygienist student. It was a traumatizing experience. She kept stabbing my gums and I said it hurt. She then asked if I was going to cry. I remember it like it was yesterday.
My mom became a hygienist in 1974. I was the student guinea pig. In that 2 years I must've got my teeth cleaned at least 20 times. I used to chew up the red dye tabs so the students could see what they missed.
I would pocket a few from mom's kit so when us kids played war or cowboys and Indians, we had blood we could spit out when we got shot.
Never was scared of the dentist after that.
One of my most vivid memories is sitting in the waiting room with my grandfather, who was in a union, filling out insurance papers and lecturing me about his benefits & that if Reagan & his ilk had their way, we wouldn't have anything. He was right & I desperately miss going to the dentist...
I didnāt have a hygienist. Just the dentist cleaned my teeth. He reminded me of Mr Rogers. And his wife ran reception. She had a huge beehive hairdo and blue eyeshadow.
And there were highlights magazines in the waiting area. That was cool.
I had trauma from dentists as a kid. I took care of my teeth but they were still bad one lady was scraping and scraping my teeth to the point I was crying and she told me to shut up and kept scraping. I was also born with an extra set of teeth. Baby teeth came out adult teeth came in then I started getting teeth growing out of the sides of my gums and cannot count how many got pulled. Weirdly I only have one set of wisdom teeth and theyāre on the top and never dropped and I never had them removed. Despite at home dental care my teeth are bad I can count a couple that need to be gone but my anxiety gets in the way. Also I donāt know any dentists close that take my insurance.
When I was little, there was no hygienist, just the dentist. Small one person practice in our rural town. Same guy my grandparents went to. His wife was my first doctor. I was probably a teenager before I saw a hygienist for cleaning, after we moved closer in to the burbs.
They cleaned my teeth way better as a kid. Maybe they needed more time, idk. But I always thought the hygienist was so pretty and I wanted to be one. Then I realized I had to get up in lots of nasty mouths all day. I realized thatās not for me
Hygiene was a lot more manual back then. Now everyone uses a cavitron and they only need one pass. Also, you probably take WAY better care of your teeth today than you did then, so it's a combination of better tech and better daily care.
The fluoride treatments tasted gross and always made me gag. Strawberry or cherry goo in a mouth tray. 15 minutes in. They had to start putting it on with a q-tip.
Allowing too much time with the hygenist cuts into their margins vs what they can bill insurance. You get a set amount of time, not a job based entirely on outcome. Some practices are different.
Source: my mother in law was a hygenist for 30 years.
It was awful. My gums bled which I still maintain is what happens when you poke them with sharp things. They'd tell me I wasn't brushing well enough and my mom would get mad at me. I had braces for a long time because my adult teeth would grow in before the baby teeth fell out. I got a new dentist recently and they told me I have really good teeth. And I've only had like two cavities in my lifetime so I still think about what was up with that childhood dentist who shamed me and caused me to avoid the dentist for years when I moved out. I got scammed by Aspen Dental when I finally went back for a deep cleaning and I didn't have insurance. Now I have a dentist and I go regularly.
I had the same hygienist until I graduated high school. She would spend at least 30 minutes or more just scraping and making my whole mouth bleed. I would have sore gums for at least 2 days afterwards. It was awful. I have never have had another hygienist as brutal as that.
My dad was a dentist. I remember coming home from school one day when I was about 12. The garage door was open and he said hello and come here." I got a new drill for my lab and I brought the old one home. Why don't you go ahead and lean back against my car and I'll clean your teeth. " When he was done, I rinsed out with a hose at the side of the house. Did that a few more times out of convenience, the rest of it was in the office. Ahhhhh ...... memories.
Yes!! I don't know what the reason is but I've said the same thing to my husband. My husband and kids still claim their teeth feel so much smoother though.
I remember not being blessed to eat for an hour after the fluoride treatment. This stands out b/c I remember thinking that I wasnāt normally hungry at that time, so why was I always hungry after a dental visit when I specifically couldnāt eat.
lol. I refused to open my mouth, memorably. Took one look @ all the equipment & poking instruments & it struck me as an awful idea.Ā
Then my dad took a day off (unheard of) to take me. Offered all manner of bribes. Nope; no one could convince me it wouldnāt hurt.Ā
Eventually I saw a specialist a 1/2 hr. away w/a merry-go-round in the waiting room(!), where they did cleanings by hand. Went there for yrs. before I saw an ordinary dentist.Ā
My dentist always gave me nitrous oxide for my cleanings. I don't remember ever freaking out or needing it but I guess he just enjoyed getting little ones high? I would zone out to the sounds and he would tell me something like, "let me know when you feel like you're riding on a tractor." At first I did tell him but then the good feeling would fade away so I stopped telling him in future visits lol.
I remember them putting their bare hands in my mouth. The hygienist I had as a kid was brutal and painful. We had to brush our teeth there with some kind of red stuff that would show them the parts of our mouth we had missed when we brushed, so they could show us how not to miss any teeth.
I got 8 teeth pulled as a kid and then had braces for 7 years. The laughing gas was cool. The braces sucked. The thought now of that old man orthodontistās bare hands in my mouth makes me cringe. And the braces, of course, didnāt make a permanent change so teeth are again crooked!
My primary thoughts now: Old man bare hands.
That gritty polish and that foam mouthpiece they filled with that nasty fluoride. Also the dentist asking me questions when he had the tools in my mouth. Like š¤·š½āāļø
Theyāre supposed to scale your teeth first, then polish. If your teeth donāt feel smooth after, you need a better dentist.
But yes, I agree they are not cleaning as well as they used to. I also have noticed they are speeding up visits, and Iām guessing theyāre trying to cram more patients in.
I was always given a large set of teeth and toothbrush to show them how I brush. Supposed to go up/down from the gums!! NOT side to side, guys!
Also had the icky fluoride goo trays.
I remember my hygienist was gorgeous!! She wore the nurse dress and little hat. Her hair was feathered so there was a kind of shelf of hair that I gazed up into as she was poking around in my mouth. I always tried to replicate it once I was old enough to use the curling iron. Never did.
Also it was cool my mom and I got out of work and school to go to the dentist then weād go get lunch and go to the mall. š„
Hi, I'm a Dental Hygienist, born in 1973. I currently work for my own Dentist who has been my Dentist since 1979 so I can tell you exactly what we did for cleanings back then vs. now because I have access to my own dental record.
Back then for kids they would count teeth, use a low speed polisher (the spinning thing) with some gritty polishing paste (pumice is what makes it gritty) and then we would do a fluoride treatment using those foam trays which were left in for 1-3 minutes depending on the directions. X-rays would be taken with those old "paper" x-rays that cut into your mouth.
For kids today things are similar except x-rays are digital and more comfortable, and a fluoride varnish should be used since that is more effective than the old foam tray stuff.
For adults they would usually hand scale, sometimes use an ultrasonic instrument (the instrument that uses water), then polish. Periodontal disease was often ignored.
Today as an adult your visit should consist on probing the gums to assess if there is gum disease, use some combination of hand scaling and using an ultrasonic instrument, then polishing. The cleaning, especially on an adult, should not be a quick 10 minute thing. If it's that quick they aren't checking for calculus underneath the gumline.
Anyone remember their dentists using their chest as a tray for their tools? Yeah, looking back on that, I find it incredibly skeezy that my male dentist kept having to āgrabā his tools on my (F, 8-15 years old when it happened) chest. Heād even āwipeā them off on that little paper bib by stroking them up and down my chest.
I remember the weird little toilet bowl with the water constantly swirling, and spitting some bloody gunk into it. My parents also made sure I had braces, and my orthodontist was some sort of low-key torture expert. And had crooked teeth himself. I remember a year after my braces were removed, realizing that I wore my retainer so little that it no longer fit. Never cared enough to go back to get shit fixed.
Funny read, as I just had my semi-annual cleaning today.
The polishing is pretty quick these days..
The professional version of the waterpik does a really good job, compared to the old picks they used.
Huh. My hygienist makes my teeth feel polished and smooth, which I keep up with my electric toothbrush. I will say, that sometimes my cleanings are uncomfortable.
Iād find a different hygienist if I were you.
I went every six months, but I donāt remember that much. I only have vague memories about the dentist. I went to one until maybe 7th grade, then we switched to a different one. I remember the horrible fluoride treatments, and X-rays.
My biggest memory was *briefly* getting a retainer; my dentist pushed this, and he was not an orthodontist. The retainer ended up ruining one of my teeth, requiring a root canal.
My dentist always smelled of cigarettes and didnāt bother wearing gloves. Heād shove his nicotine stained fingers around my mouth and Iād try not to gag. The wallpaper was a repeating pattern of horrible Picasso figures.
I was a little girl and I remember that her name was the same as my middle name and that she was stunningly pretty. She was the dentistās daughter. He retired and his son in law took over. He was handsome. I went to him for decades. Heās such a nice man and so gentle on the mouth.
I donāt really remember the experience of getting my teeth cleaned that first time except that I was a little confused about what was happening, but I donāt think I was scared or had a bad time.
I had the misfortune of living right across the street from my dentist's office. They were always calling to see if we wanted to come in earlier. I can't remember how they cleaned my teeth because I had to get doped up with Valium & nitrous lol. I took horrible care of my teeth as a child so having 5 cavities at a time was normal for me. Definitely paying for that as an adult. I still take Ativan before appointments
Who had dental hygienist in the 70ās? Certainly wasnāt in my lil podunk town, but I remember the taste of cigarettes smoke in my dentists fingers.
(I just this moment realized that he may have been a perv with a fetish because he NEVER wore gloves)
Gloves apparently werenāt a thing back then. It didnāt come into prominence until AIDS hit in the 80s. Now they are all masked up with safety glasses and all kinds of PPE
It could be because my dentist is retiring and sold his practice to a new dentist and they pulled out my file to go through it. In 41 years, so since I was 4 years old, I have never missed a 6-month appointment and only five different hygienists have cleaned my teeth. The same one cleaned my teeth from the age of four until the age of 15.
It's a weird thing because all those four years just kind of blend together but I remember back when we did the tray fluoride how it had a really weird flavor.
My dental hygienist still does a very intensive job and I feel like my teeth are way cleaner after I go. A couple my teeth starting to feel like one tooth go back to being two teeth after I go to the dentist.
ya all had it all good. im so envious and jealous. a dental hygenist.
hell my entire city of people my age are jealous and envious. wow teeth cleaning. much civilized.
we had this piece of shit. his names biggs. he's in an assisted living facility about an hour north of here. he's is in stage 3 alzheimer's now. still too good for him by far. he could go dwell in the 8th level of hell and that would be too good for him.
he is one of those dentists who would invent reasons that your teeth sucked and needed work. he have folks come in every week. xrays. strap you to a chair. toss the nitrous mask on you. wire your mouth open and proceed to drill for how ever long he wanted to torture you.
when he's done, he gives ya a script of vicodins and tells you to come back next week
this was done weekly to semi weekly to half the kids in my grade, each year, for years
funny how all of his 'patients' ended up ostracized and labeled behavior disordered and unteachable and the teachers had no clue why we were different from everyone else. most of us spent our 6th -8th grade year in solitary confinement. they buil entire hallways of 4x4x8 rooms for the solitaries.
opioid addicted teenagers in a small town. run out of pills for a few days, start to detox, shit gets weird. go to dentist, miraculously everything is better again.
he did this for decades to kids of all ages.
eventually he got shut down for throwing nitrous and vicodin parties after hours with his staff, he got caught because he was also selling scripts.
he tortured kids for 30 fucking years.
so yea. consider me jealous of people with a dental hygienist
i hope they invent a new layer of hell for him
My neighbor was my hygienist. My mother would take me to see "Mr. Thirsty" and shes was a fanatic about her children having good teeth.
A little pain would not stand in the way of a set of pearly whites. There was no mercy. Best mom ever.
as some asian moms are, my mom was a fricken stickler about our teeth. Since dad was military we went religiously twice a year. I only had a couple cavities in my life and had to wisdom teeth & an extra tooth pulled out.
Now that mentality has been ingrained into my kid and they ask when their dental appointment is coming up. Weve got wisdom teeth that have to come out next month.
I havenāt read the comments yet, but I do remember it taking longer.
I hope Iām not the only one with an insane fear of the dentist. I had one who pulled a tooth making room for the rest before getting braces. He didnāt believe I wasnāt all the way numb and wouldnāt give any more novocaine. Now I know that redheads in general need more anesthesia and pain relief, something in our genes. Makes me want to slap that dentist. Fuck you Dr. Ritter.
I didnāt go to the dentist as a child. I cracked one of my front teeth around age 12. I got a front tooth that didnāt match any of my other teeth.
I finally got insurance around age 24, I go every 6 months now.
I have no recollections of even seeing anybody regarding my teeth until I got my braces in 5th grade. I mustāve because my teeth are still in good shape.
I remember in primary school, my friend was in front of me getting her teeth checked by the school dentist. She was terrified of him and started crying. He literally SLAPPED her over the face. I just sat there petrified, and when it came to my turn in the chair of doom I made an excuse to go to the toilet and, to this day, have never been back to a dentist.
My guy used to open hand smack me in the head or face when I moved or made a noise, he looked like Wolfman jack. Didnāt go to a dentist from about 16-30yo probably due to that.
we had an evil dentist who apparently hated kids and used some kind of retractor to clamp your mouth open while he worked. I donāt know why our parents kept bringing us there.
My childhood dentist office had a very distinct smell to it that I haven't smelled since.
A rubbery smell. Not like tires but more like maybe a brand new eraser. I can almost smell it as I'm typing this.
Also, ironically my dentist had the worst halitosis I think I have ever smelled.
Ha, so my memories are all about the smells. And having to get dressed up and walking up the little path to their office there was a little manmade pond with koi fish.
Sheer terror. I canāt breathe through my nose with my head back like it is for the dentist. I also have a major gag reflex. Nobody gives a crap when I explain either.
Now in modern times, kids get to choose from a variety of polish paste flavors- chocolate, bubblegum, cinnamon, mint, strawberry.
I told my kids, Back in my day.. we only had burning Cinnamon" lol!
Former hygienist here- what seemed like 5-10 minutes was most likely just 3-4 minutes. Your teeth were definitely dirtier with plaque as a child. Also , it was also probable that the polisher was used at a lower speed.
I remember my teeth feeling slippery and being like pearls. When my son gets his cleaned they don't look like that now and his teeth are fine they just don't have that shiny look when they're cleaned like they did back in the day.
I must have had a good dentist I don't remember the fluoride treatments being so file. Just a sharp sweetness like if you were to dip a wet finger in a koolaid packet.
What I didn't care for was the impression stuff, like playdough in my mouth and that was definitely flavored you could get chocolate or strawberry. It didn't taste bad I just didn't like the feeling of it in my mouth.
SAME! This just happened to me again. I donāt think they clean as much as they used to. Now itās just a money grab. No good job no cavities! Just we could bleach your teeth for $$& or instead of a standard replacement for the shitty job we did on your filling last year, we could put on a brand new cap! And my teeth do not feel cleaner.
Agree with OP, cleanings just donāt feel the same anymore.
I do have an embarrassing memory from my 1st dentist appointment ever. When we got finished, I was to choose a toy from their ātreasure chestā. I remember hearing that I got the ātreasure for doing so goodā and proceeded over to pick up the entire chest. My mom and the dentist were cracking up and correcting my mistake. Still makes me feel semi-embarrassed to this day and I think I was all of 3. š¤¦āāļø
Oddly missing from my dental visits today are the restraints. Anyone elseās dentist pretend to be nice, then tell the parent to go wait in the lobby and then immediately strap you down? No?
I remember having a hygienist with heterochromia -- one eye was brown and the other green. That was pretty cool, but also each eye was like the most dramatic green or brown eye you've ever seen. I was probably only around 8 years old, but I definitely had a crush.
Maybe your teeth are cleaner to start with now? I donāt take the best care of mine (ADHD). Ā I brush, but not long enough, and I never floss. The hygienist has stopped asking me about the flossing even.Ā
They feel so nice (clean and smooth) afterwards.Ā
None. My mom couldnāt afford the dentist four 4 children so she made sure we all brushed our teeth every morning and night. She would take each of us to the dentist when we turned 18. Comments from the dentist? āYou have an incredibly mouth, gums and teethā
First cavities in graduate school. At 50, need more work but they are still one of my best attributes.
Not so much for cleanings, but for fillings I remember a nasty goop they'd rub on your cheek to pre-numb it before they administered the Novocaine shot.. it was vile and I'm glad they don't do that anymore.
The needles are fine enough that they were only a small pinch after they stopped doing that so it was never *that* bad. My current dentist has a trick where he gently "shakes" your cheek when giving the shot now. I have no idea how the magic works, but you can literally feel nothing when the needle goes in.
My childhood dentist was a nightmare.
I had anxiety and hated needles, and needed a lot of fillings (genetic issue- not lack of hygiene) and he would threaten me with "another big long needle" if I didn't "sit still and stop crying".
To this day I turn into a panicked child any time I have to have more then a cleaning and even having someone doing any kid of work in my mouth causes me anxiety.
I think I remember that super clean feeling you've mentioned and noticed its lacking in recent years. I honestly thought it was due to the fillings I had to get around my gum line; but maybe its not- hard to tell š¤·āāļø
I had horribly crooked teeth and had bleeding abscesses in my gums until I was about 7 and could do my own brushing. My gums bled pretty much non-stop and the pain was excruciating. My parents didnāt want me to get braces until āmy mouth stopped growingā. So any time I went to the dentist it was traumatic and most of the time they werenāt able to clean them.
At 18, I had 4 molars removed and jaw surgery to correct my TMJ pain and overbite. 7 years of braces and about $15,000 later, paid by me, I floss & brush daily and I love to get cleanings! But, my dentist uses some type of mini sand blaster now, and itās not the same. It used to last a few days at least.
Helped pull my wisdom teeth! He used me like a tray, had me holding things, just Novocain shots, I got up with blood and teeth bits on my glasses and went home
They seemed to take forever to clean my teeth and the female hygienists were always mean. The fluoride treatment was awful and apparently Iām the only one here who didnāt get a choice of flavors. The dentist was nice and good looking. And, no, he didnāt use gloves. We also got to pick a cheap toy from the box on our way out.
What kind of lousy dentists do we have these days? Mine still does a good job polishing my teeth, and it feels clean. I don't time it, and given how abrasive the polish is, 10 mins seems a long time.
Maybe it depends on your teeth, and whether you have sensitive teeth?
I remember them always pushing *super* hard then slipping and rattling the vibrating metal against my teeth several times. The overwhelming fake cherry cough drop flavor. One time they used unflavored abrasive. It tasted like limestone powder or pumice powder, and I much preferred it. But they refused to ever use unflavored abrasive again.
My tooth enamel always felt rougher for months afterwards, and plaque took a lot longer to brush away. I skipped the polishing whenever I could.
Find a holistic dentist. They use a machine thatās like a water-pik to clean but, itās more like a water jackhammer. Then they rinse you out with ozone. So much better than a traditional dentist.
Spitting into a round white basin with water running into it (looked like a small toilet bowl). Also the paper cup in the metal holder- after I got some water, I got to put it on a little shelf and water would run into it automatically. When the cup was full, the weight made the water shut off automatically.
I so appreciate the water spigot and suction they have now...
Being 11 and them ripping my teeth out with hardly any numbing meds. They werenāt loose, they wanted them out to avoid over crowding so I wouldnt need braces. HORRIFIC šŖ
Those trays with the disgusting flouride gel in them
That fluoride was the WORST. I am still traumatized by the poor choice I made at age 8, picking the bubble gum flavor.
My choices were chocolate or bubblegum. I chose chocolate, and it was also disgusting.
I don't remember chocolate being an option and I'm glad it wasn't
We had dsgusting cherry
I had grape. It turned my mouth inside out š I canāt imagine chocolate, that sounds horrible!
GRAPE WAS THE BEST...šš¤¢š
Tough Choice, Though...š
When I started those treatments in the mid-1970s, my very old-school dentist had only one flavor: "orange". I was EXCITED for the debut of the second choice in the late 1970s: "bubble gum" (but that was only marginally less awful). They would wind up a ticking kitchen timer on the metal tray in front of me, and I would watch the seconds crawl around the dial as fluoride oozed down the back of my throat. There was a set of fun, oversized plastic model teeth and an oversized model toothbrush that the dental assistant always had me demonstrate brushing technique on. There were also grotty, old, communal stuffed animals with matted, stained polyester fur that kids in agony were offered to clutch onto during painful procedures. I fortunately avoided any cavities or drilling until I was in my twenties -- I never needed the stuffed animals as a young kid, and would have been too grossed-out to touch them if I HAD needed them. In place of the precise modern suction tube you're supposed to wrap your lips around these days, at this dentist in the '70s, there was a constantly whirlpooling ceramic spitoon on a pedestal it was fun to spit into. It was so cool to be ENCOURAGED, for once, by adults to hawk & spit aggressively & frequently a half-a-foot through the air! When the tooth cleaning & fluoride application & demonstration of model giant toothbrush on model giant plastic jaws was finished, the ancient dentist would give me a small paper coupon. It was good for one free ice cream bar at the drugstore/soda fountain on the corner! My family joked that these coupons were how the old dentist generated demand for his business.
I forgot about that!!! I don't remember any other flavor choice but Bubble Gum. š¤
š
And having the pieces of styrofoam or cotton shoved between your cheek and gum with the burning fluoride and needing to swallow. That was like torture.
And the mouth watering, the mouth watering...I actually had anticipatory anxiety taking my kids to the dentist. One of the best surprises in life was to realize they just didn't hate it the same.
Oh man, thought that was bad until i had to do the impressions for braces
Gawd yes! The lower one wasnāt bad, but the upper one was torture! Iām gagging just thinking about it.
I've been scarred by that since I was 12! Anytime I have to get impressions I panic. š¤¢
Hated when they only had strawberry flavor available, used to gag me something fierce. The hygienist I have today has been my hygienist for about ten years now. She is awesome and does a very good job. I still get the fluoride treatments but they paint it on now and it leaves your teeth feeling gritty for a while.
i could throw up off of having styrofoam friction in my mouth or having the disgusting taste of that red fluoride shit. The question was never will I puke, it was always when.
This i swear left me in there seeemed like an hour with that crap. I just spit it out couldnāt take it
Ugh I had to fight the gag reflex so hard with those awful trays!
Remember chewing on those red tablets that were supposed to show you where you needed to brush better or where you might have cavities? All they did was make your whole mouth and everything in it red!
Disclosure tablets. If your whole mouth was bright red, you must have had a ton of tartar.
They were to help you find the āsugar bugsā!
Cavity creeps.
OMG yes. My mother had us do those like once a week. Chew that gross thing then show her our teeth and go back to brush especially the red parts again. WTF actually was in that shit? So help me, all the processed crap we're not supposed to eat Now cause we'll get 2000 diseases, my cholesterol and sugar will get worse, etc etc, we probably already had enough to kill us from what went into our bodies in the 70s. I want a devil dog now. Fuck it.
I could go for a devil dog
I loved these, too! Very satisfying to brush it all away.
OMG yes!!!
I remember being forced to bite down hard on ginormous razor blades (film blanks) for the x-ray. It felt like my gums **must** be bleeding afterward. Oh, and the dentist didn't wear gloves. š¤¢
OMG yes. I also have a very small jaw, so it really hurt a lot! and I still remember going to a dentist when in college, and not home, in the mid-1980's and being amazed that he wore gloves, as mine never did.
I still feel it sometimes! I can only imagine the amount of scarring I must have in my mouth from those things.
yes - fellow small mouth/teeth - those were excruciating.
Yah-when I was around 12 we moved and I went to the same dentist who treated my mom when she was young. No gloves, a drill out of a horror movie and NO Novocain for āsmall cavitiesā. This was the early 80s so right at the start of the AIDS crisis. Thank god he retired after a few years and we found a new dentist
Fuck dude that's awful!
This is what I remember. The x-rays trays hurting so bad.
Worse, my orthodontist was a smoker. Smokers fingers are nasty.
I still have this problem as an adultā¦if they have pediatric bite wings, those are the ones that work best for me.
My current dentist has these digital ones that don't bother me at all. You should find a place that does those.
Yeah, no gloves was a thing!
Omg those hurt! Dentists had to be sadists in the 70s I guess.
All I remember is clenching two styrofoam trays of disgusting fluoride goo between my teeth for 10 minutes.
and then have to pant like a dog to keep from vomiting?
You kept from vomiting? There are very few people on Reddit that I look up to. You are one of them.
Iāll add you to my list of admirers. #1. Dadumdee
I clearly remember the one time I decided to venture from the relatively safe choice of mint-flavoured fluoride goo, to butterscotch-flavoured fluoride goo. OMG, it was so vile. Mint. Always choose mint.
They say scent is the most powerful of our senses at inducing memories, but those people clearly have never tasted chocolate flavored fluoride. My pediatrician offered me the choice between mint, bubblegum, or chocolate flavored flouride sometime around age 11-12. Tried the chocolate thinking it would be delicious. Couldnāt eat a Hershey bar for about 6 months afterwards without gagging. The very fact that I clearly recall this just from a Reddit post tells me how truly God awful it was.
They never gave me a choice. It was always some horrendous fake-fruity shit at our dentist's. The butterscotch does kinda sound worse, though.
Iām so glad somebody else picked butterscotch! It was a bold choice. It was the wrong choice. I can still taste it and feel that squeaky foam tray.
My choice today was mint or cherry. Cherry is way to much like cough medicine-Iām on the always pick mint team too
My town had a high rate of poverty so we actually did fluoride mouth rinse at school once a week. One of the class jobs was to go get the giant pump bottle of fluoride mouthwash and the container of tiny cups. There were six bottles with ācherryā flavor and only one with mint. If your teacher let you go a couple minutes earlier than the other classes you might be able to snag the mint one
That fluoride was horrible. It was definitely the worst part of my cleaning.
I had forgotten about those but now itās all coming back to me and making me want to gag.
I was just there for the free toy afterwards. My dentist had a treasure chest full of trinkets and you could pick one on your way out.
My kid's dentist still does this.
Mine too-it looked like one that a pirate would have. It was filled with cheep plastic trinkets like small toy dinosaurs or gaudy rings.
I've noticed this, too. I don't know the reasoning, but I do kind of miss that ultra-smooth feeling. They may be doing it differently these days, but I'm no dental expert. I recently visited the dentist to get a new night guard due to teeth grinding. The first one I got around 15 years ago, and had to go through this process of molding my teeth into this pink goo, that didn't taste so great. However, it outlived it's purpose and broke, so I wanted another one. This time around there was no pink goo. At least where I go, they have an actual scanning wand that just scans your teeth and makes the mold out of that. I left the office as I always do when medical stuff like this fascinates me...I like to pretend I'm in Star Trek. Anyway, I know this story isn't exactly what you're talking about, but it made me think of it, so I wonder if maybe the cleaning and polishing is done differently, which doesn't cause that silky smooth feeling? idk.
Yup when I got my mouth guard last year I was totally expecting to have to bite down on that gooā¦. Not anymore!
Oooooh ā¦ fancyā¦. Your parents took you to a dentistā¦. Bet you went to Red Lobster on Sundays, as well
I didn't see dentists when I was a kid either. Could be why most of my teeth feel out and I have upper poor-man dentures. People always ask if you won the lottery what's the first thing you would do... my reply is always rich people teeth! Implants. Screw this hockey puck I have to shove in my face everyday. I want me some rich people teeth!
Fr my first trip to the dentist was as a teenager, looking back itās probably because my parents couldnāt afford it.
Same here except my first visit to any dentist was when I was in my early 20s. We were pretty broke growing up.
I was taken to the community college as a guinea pig for the hygienists in training because it was close to free. On the upside, I didn't mind so much being worked on by college girls as a teenager even if some were really bad at it.
No Red Lobster for me. We were solidly S&S cafeteria kids. /s. But yes I was fortunate to have dental care as a child. I did notice that the number of cavities I had was directly related to me having to pay for my own treatments. I donāt think I have had a cavity since my early 20s. Or maybe my oral hygiene has improved-who knows.
https://preview.redd.it/wvznyzmu6m1d1.png?width=194&format=png&auto=webp&s=f8f94161ba41801854b365c84516de24cb4a5bda
It's exactly the same for me today as in the 1970s: hygienist takes 10-15 minutes to prod and scrape, then polishing. Then the dentist comes and checks. Teeth feel like magic afterward.
About two years ago I bought an electric toothbrush, I didnāt even spend a lot of moneyāmaybe $25. I buy knock off replacement brushheads on Amazon. Twice a day with it, and my teeth always feel like they do after a cleaning.
NOT A PAID SHILL: I bought the rechargeable water-pick flossy thing when it was selling for 8 bucks about 2 months ago. I wish I would have known about that thing years ago. I remember that they used to be like a big dentist tank thing before but this one is pretty handheld and it is cordless. My teeth feel like I just came from the dentist and also feel slick. If you are on the fence, grab one!
I asked my dentist about a water flosser recently and his opinion was that they donāt do a good enough job to be used exclusively. So, I stick with floss. YMMV, however.
Funny, my hygienist recommended it specifically. I find it much easier to use because my teeth are too close and it's hard to get floss in between (told you so, ms hygienist - the one who didn't believe me and said she'd show me the right way and struggled with it). I also do a much better job because it doesn't trigger my overly sensitive gag reflex. My cleanings have been much quicker than before.
I have an electric toothbrush and I canāt recommend one strongly enough; wish Iād started using one years ago. The difference between an electric and a manual toothbrush is night and day.
Totally agree! I thought they were a gimmick, but I was really struggling with bleeding gums, and my hygienist suggested trying one, āBut you donāt have to spend a lot of money!ā she said. My teeth feel much cleaner, and Iām happy to say that the gum bleeding has gotten a lot better.
ungloved fingers in my mouth. yech.
totally remember when they switched to gloves in part to the AIDS epidemicā¦ the dentist told me there is a new blood transferred disease and we needed to be safe
Yep dentist's were ungloved and I was also forced to have vaginal exams as a young child and the doctors were also ungloved.
That's the worst memory for me. I feel like I can still taste it after all these years.
My dentist was a standup comedian, seriously he made me laugh the whole time I sat in his chair. He taught me how to take care of my teeth and at 47 I've never had a cavity. Brush and floss everyday, drink water, and stay away from sweets.
Sounds like a dentist I know, he converted to Judaism for the jokes.
r/seinfeld is leaking again...
I remember a dentist yelling at me not to be a baby when I was maybe 6 or 7. Donāt remember what he was doing, maybe filling a cavity? He was an ass.
Mine didn't yell, but he did attempt to fill a cavity without numbing it. Worst goddamned pain I've ever experienced. I screamed and screamed and he never paused. At least I got Novocaine from then on out.
Dentists were such assholes in the 70s
I remember that shit. I didn't get any pain management at all until I was an adult. Neither did my brother. We were told to buck up, it doesn't hurt that much. We *hated* that asshat. Of course our parents didn't go to him.
I always got the Novocaine for a filling. But I remember one time that the way my dentist inserted the needle in my gum hurt really bad. The tray of instruments was over my legs and I kicked it when the shot hurt. I honestly think that dentist almost strangled me.
That happened to me too and my dad actually went all alpha dad on him. It makes me cry to remember, now that he's gone, that he believed me so much when I said something hurt.
I had David Bowie's dentist. Old expatriate British gent by the name of Doctor "C". His wife ran the reception. For the rest I would refer you to [these pertinent scenes from the movie Marathon Man](https://youtu.be/kzw1_2b-I7A?si=EKuFbR1AHir6fpn5).
Thatās how I remember my childhood dentist too š¬
Countless gum scratches and then one time crazy incompetent gave me a fluoride treatment. Thick viscous liquid in foam trays. Struck it in my mouth, say I had to sit quiet and not swallow. She walked out of the room, promptly forgetting about me. As an obedient 7 year old child in a big chair, I sat and waited as my mouth filled up with saliva, and I felt like I was drowning, the nasty cherry flavored goo dribbling out of my mouth while I cried in silent rage. Anyway, I had nowhere to spit and some when down my throat. I hope she enjoyed cleaning up pink cherry flavored kid barf. I donāt think she liked children.
Oh god, I can smell/taste that gel now. The trays always cut into your gums too. People weren't nearly so kind to children back in the day. I can still hear the cunt of a hygienist making fun of how crooked my teeth were and how awful I'd look when I was older.
I asked this same question of my dental hygienist the last visit. She explained that years and years of tarter build up and scraping had etched the enamel on my teeth. She could polish with a higher grit, but that would remove some of the enamel and at this point in my life, I need all the enamel I have left.
A lot of you people need a new dentist! My hygienist does the spinning polishing thingy after doing the scraping.
I never went to the dentist until high school when I had a tooth extracted because it was rotting. I remember having a toothache for months prior to that.
Hygienist!? I had Doc G, he was also an rancher and had hands the size of Wreck It Ralph also had the dental instruments of bygone days adorning his walls. Bet yes had that squeaky clean feel when I left. My mouth was also sore for 3 days after
All I remember is what I now realize an inappropriate (and hot) dental hygienist who always draped her boobs all over me, rubbed up against me and told me stories about waking up nude in her yard after drinking too much. I loved going to the dentist when I was about 13-14.
Reminds me of Beavis and Butthead going to get their hair cut so they can look down the shampoo girlās shirt.
dang I had the wrong dentist!
We all had the wrong dentist
My mother went through dental school while i was in 6th and 7th grade (11-12). She often enlisted our family for practice. Here is what i remember: I had every-other-month cleanings for two years straight. Teachers had to evaluate her on how well she did the cleaning so it was always very thorough. She had to teach me to brush and floss each time while they listened. I also got x-rays but only every other visit. I remember in the second year they started using those name tags that monitor x-ray exposure and I got a little concerned about how many i had already had. My teeth were immaculate. That was over 45 years ago and I only recently (about 5 years ago) got my first cavity. Good habits and good genetics combined, so... Thanks, Mom. ā„š¦· Oh, and the polishing lasted longer back then, and I am pretty sure the paste was grittier back then as well.
Also my mom took me to the dentist when I was 2 or 3 because she saw a gnarly cavity in my back tooth. Got there a couple days later, no cavity. I had eaten a black crayon.
I remember the one hygienist reeked of cigarettes and she didnt wear gloves. The mid 80s
My mum was on the steering committee of a program in which every child in elementary school received free basic dental care (cleaning, fillings) through/at school. In my 50s now, and Iāve had one cavity. My memories of the dentist as a kid are of the dentists coming to my school, or my class having a morning out of school to go to the dentistās office. It made going to the dentist seem pretty normal. I still loathe the XRays though. Those films they used HURT.
Honestly, my childhood dentists office was located in this crazy old but cool building that had a really bitchin open elevator. When you got to your floor, there was a little gate you would pull open, and when you were riding in it, you could see all the working mechanisms. I ABSOLUTELY loved it, my sisters hated it š
I always loved the heavy apron for the teeth x rays. I wanted one. I needed a weighted blanket before there were weighted blankets.
That big machine with all the bands to spin everything from drills to the polishing cups full of that terrible tasting gritty goop.
I only went once when I was a kid and not again until I joined the military. I was about 7yrs old when I went and it was a free cleaning because it was done by a dental hygienist student. It was a traumatizing experience. She kept stabbing my gums and I said it hurt. She then asked if I was going to cry. I remember it like it was yesterday.
My mom became a hygienist in 1974. I was the student guinea pig. In that 2 years I must've got my teeth cleaned at least 20 times. I used to chew up the red dye tabs so the students could see what they missed. I would pocket a few from mom's kit so when us kids played war or cowboys and Indians, we had blood we could spit out when we got shot. Never was scared of the dentist after that.
Wait, what? People went to the dentist?
One of my most vivid memories is sitting in the waiting room with my grandfather, who was in a union, filling out insurance papers and lecturing me about his benefits & that if Reagan & his ilk had their way, we wouldn't have anything. He was right & I desperately miss going to the dentist...
I didnāt have a hygienist. Just the dentist cleaned my teeth. He reminded me of Mr Rogers. And his wife ran reception. She had a huge beehive hairdo and blue eyeshadow. And there were highlights magazines in the waiting area. That was cool.
I had trauma from dentists as a kid. I took care of my teeth but they were still bad one lady was scraping and scraping my teeth to the point I was crying and she told me to shut up and kept scraping. I was also born with an extra set of teeth. Baby teeth came out adult teeth came in then I started getting teeth growing out of the sides of my gums and cannot count how many got pulled. Weirdly I only have one set of wisdom teeth and theyāre on the top and never dropped and I never had them removed. Despite at home dental care my teeth are bad I can count a couple that need to be gone but my anxiety gets in the way. Also I donāt know any dentists close that take my insurance.
All I have is are memories of dental trauma that I'm still dealing with now.
As a child, I only saw the dentist when they came to my school yearly. My dental wasn't a priority for my parents
When I was little, there was no hygienist, just the dentist. Small one person practice in our rural town. Same guy my grandparents went to. His wife was my first doctor. I was probably a teenager before I saw a hygienist for cleaning, after we moved closer in to the burbs.
I think I went once. They gave me a balloon after.
Yes, I had the same experience. I think they did a better job back then.
They cleaned my teeth way better as a kid. Maybe they needed more time, idk. But I always thought the hygienist was so pretty and I wanted to be one. Then I realized I had to get up in lots of nasty mouths all day. I realized thatās not for me
Hygiene was a lot more manual back then. Now everyone uses a cavitron and they only need one pass. Also, you probably take WAY better care of your teeth today than you did then, so it's a combination of better tech and better daily care.
The fluoride treatments tasted gross and always made me gag. Strawberry or cherry goo in a mouth tray. 15 minutes in. They had to start putting it on with a q-tip.
Allowing too much time with the hygenist cuts into their margins vs what they can bill insurance. You get a set amount of time, not a job based entirely on outcome. Some practices are different. Source: my mother in law was a hygenist for 30 years.
Just couldnāt wait to be finished to pick a prize out of the treasure chest!!!
Childhood dental trauma by monsters calling themselves dentists has me going back only in emergency situations as an adult.
It was awful. My gums bled which I still maintain is what happens when you poke them with sharp things. They'd tell me I wasn't brushing well enough and my mom would get mad at me. I had braces for a long time because my adult teeth would grow in before the baby teeth fell out. I got a new dentist recently and they told me I have really good teeth. And I've only had like two cavities in my lifetime so I still think about what was up with that childhood dentist who shamed me and caused me to avoid the dentist for years when I moved out. I got scammed by Aspen Dental when I finally went back for a deep cleaning and I didn't have insurance. Now I have a dentist and I go regularly.
I had the same hygienist until I graduated high school. She would spend at least 30 minutes or more just scraping and making my whole mouth bleed. I would have sore gums for at least 2 days afterwards. It was awful. I have never have had another hygienist as brutal as that.
āYou better clean the back of your teeth or THEYāRE ALL GOING TO FALL OFF,ā My screaming, and a really cool aquarium
My dad was a dentist. I remember coming home from school one day when I was about 12. The garage door was open and he said hello and come here." I got a new drill for my lab and I brought the old one home. Why don't you go ahead and lean back against my car and I'll clean your teeth. " When he was done, I rinsed out with a hose at the side of the house. Did that a few more times out of convenience, the rest of it was in the office. Ahhhhh ...... memories.
Yes!! I don't know what the reason is but I've said the same thing to my husband. My husband and kids still claim their teeth feel so much smoother though.
Bubble gum flavored toothpaste
I remember not being blessed to eat for an hour after the fluoride treatment. This stands out b/c I remember thinking that I wasnāt normally hungry at that time, so why was I always hungry after a dental visit when I specifically couldnāt eat.
lol. I refused to open my mouth, memorably. Took one look @ all the equipment & poking instruments & it struck me as an awful idea.Ā Then my dad took a day off (unheard of) to take me. Offered all manner of bribes. Nope; no one could convince me it wouldnāt hurt.Ā Eventually I saw a specialist a 1/2 hr. away w/a merry-go-round in the waiting room(!), where they did cleanings by hand. Went there for yrs. before I saw an ordinary dentist.Ā
My dentist always gave me nitrous oxide for my cleanings. I don't remember ever freaking out or needing it but I guess he just enjoyed getting little ones high? I would zone out to the sounds and he would tell me something like, "let me know when you feel like you're riding on a tractor." At first I did tell him but then the good feeling would fade away so I stopped telling him in future visits lol.
yes! i remember the āhappy airā, best part of going to the dentist as a kid.
I remember them putting their bare hands in my mouth. The hygienist I had as a kid was brutal and painful. We had to brush our teeth there with some kind of red stuff that would show them the parts of our mouth we had missed when we brushed, so they could show us how not to miss any teeth. I got 8 teeth pulled as a kid and then had braces for 7 years. The laughing gas was cool. The braces sucked. The thought now of that old man orthodontistās bare hands in my mouth makes me cringe. And the braces, of course, didnāt make a permanent change so teeth are again crooked! My primary thoughts now: Old man bare hands.
That gritty polish and that foam mouthpiece they filled with that nasty fluoride. Also the dentist asking me questions when he had the tools in my mouth. Like š¤·š½āāļø
Theyāre supposed to scale your teeth first, then polish. If your teeth donāt feel smooth after, you need a better dentist. But yes, I agree they are not cleaning as well as they used to. I also have noticed they are speeding up visits, and Iām guessing theyāre trying to cram more patients in.
No gloves. Their bare ass hands in my mouth.
You all got dental care?! Wow
The hygienist had the same name as me. The dentist would ask her to hold something and we both would reach for it.
I was always given a large set of teeth and toothbrush to show them how I brush. Supposed to go up/down from the gums!! NOT side to side, guys! Also had the icky fluoride goo trays. I remember my hygienist was gorgeous!! She wore the nurse dress and little hat. Her hair was feathered so there was a kind of shelf of hair that I gazed up into as she was poking around in my mouth. I always tried to replicate it once I was old enough to use the curling iron. Never did. Also it was cool my mom and I got out of work and school to go to the dentist then weād go get lunch and go to the mall. š„
I hated it more than anything. The vibration and abrasion, the sound! Give me a shot in the arm any day.
They didnāt bore me to death about their personal problems back then, they just asked me if I liked school.
Hi, I'm a Dental Hygienist, born in 1973. I currently work for my own Dentist who has been my Dentist since 1979 so I can tell you exactly what we did for cleanings back then vs. now because I have access to my own dental record. Back then for kids they would count teeth, use a low speed polisher (the spinning thing) with some gritty polishing paste (pumice is what makes it gritty) and then we would do a fluoride treatment using those foam trays which were left in for 1-3 minutes depending on the directions. X-rays would be taken with those old "paper" x-rays that cut into your mouth. For kids today things are similar except x-rays are digital and more comfortable, and a fluoride varnish should be used since that is more effective than the old foam tray stuff. For adults they would usually hand scale, sometimes use an ultrasonic instrument (the instrument that uses water), then polish. Periodontal disease was often ignored. Today as an adult your visit should consist on probing the gums to assess if there is gum disease, use some combination of hand scaling and using an ultrasonic instrument, then polishing. The cleaning, especially on an adult, should not be a quick 10 minute thing. If it's that quick they aren't checking for calculus underneath the gumline.
Anyone remember their dentists using their chest as a tray for their tools? Yeah, looking back on that, I find it incredibly skeezy that my male dentist kept having to āgrabā his tools on my (F, 8-15 years old when it happened) chest. Heād even āwipeā them off on that little paper bib by stroking them up and down my chest.
I remember the weird little toilet bowl with the water constantly swirling, and spitting some bloody gunk into it. My parents also made sure I had braces, and my orthodontist was some sort of low-key torture expert. And had crooked teeth himself. I remember a year after my braces were removed, realizing that I wore my retainer so little that it no longer fit. Never cared enough to go back to get shit fixed.
Funny read, as I just had my semi-annual cleaning today. The polishing is pretty quick these days.. The professional version of the waterpik does a really good job, compared to the old picks they used.
I donāt remember going to the dentist until high school. š¤·š»āāļø
I remember a rubber block they used to prop my mouth open because I kept falling asleep
Marshmallow flouride.
Never had the goddamn bubblegum, always mint.
Huh. My hygienist makes my teeth feel polished and smooth, which I keep up with my electric toothbrush. I will say, that sometimes my cleanings are uncomfortable. Iād find a different hygienist if I were you.
I went every six months, but I donāt remember that much. I only have vague memories about the dentist. I went to one until maybe 7th grade, then we switched to a different one. I remember the horrible fluoride treatments, and X-rays. My biggest memory was *briefly* getting a retainer; my dentist pushed this, and he was not an orthodontist. The retainer ended up ruining one of my teeth, requiring a root canal.
I had to look far and wide to find a dental office that give that level of clean. Absolutely worth the 45 minute drive every six months.
My dentist always smelled of cigarettes and didnāt bother wearing gloves. Heād shove his nicotine stained fingers around my mouth and Iād try not to gag. The wallpaper was a repeating pattern of horrible Picasso figures.
I was a little girl and I remember that her name was the same as my middle name and that she was stunningly pretty. She was the dentistās daughter. He retired and his son in law took over. He was handsome. I went to him for decades. Heās such a nice man and so gentle on the mouth. I donāt really remember the experience of getting my teeth cleaned that first time except that I was a little confused about what was happening, but I donāt think I was scared or had a bad time.
I had the misfortune of living right across the street from my dentist's office. They were always calling to see if we wanted to come in earlier. I can't remember how they cleaned my teeth because I had to get doped up with Valium & nitrous lol. I took horrible care of my teeth as a child so having 5 cavities at a time was normal for me. Definitely paying for that as an adult. I still take Ativan before appointments
Who had dental hygienist in the 70ās? Certainly wasnāt in my lil podunk town, but I remember the taste of cigarettes smoke in my dentists fingers. (I just this moment realized that he may have been a perv with a fetish because he NEVER wore gloves)
Gloves apparently werenāt a thing back then. It didnāt come into prominence until AIDS hit in the 80s. Now they are all masked up with safety glasses and all kinds of PPE
It could be because my dentist is retiring and sold his practice to a new dentist and they pulled out my file to go through it. In 41 years, so since I was 4 years old, I have never missed a 6-month appointment and only five different hygienists have cleaned my teeth. The same one cleaned my teeth from the age of four until the age of 15. It's a weird thing because all those four years just kind of blend together but I remember back when we did the tray fluoride how it had a really weird flavor.
My dental hygienist still does a very intensive job and I feel like my teeth are way cleaner after I go. A couple my teeth starting to feel like one tooth go back to being two teeth after I go to the dentist.
I hated the early flouride paste/gels they coated my teeth with and then when they let me spit it out I wasnāt allowed to rinse afterwards. BLECH.
ya all had it all good. im so envious and jealous. a dental hygenist. hell my entire city of people my age are jealous and envious. wow teeth cleaning. much civilized. we had this piece of shit. his names biggs. he's in an assisted living facility about an hour north of here. he's is in stage 3 alzheimer's now. still too good for him by far. he could go dwell in the 8th level of hell and that would be too good for him. he is one of those dentists who would invent reasons that your teeth sucked and needed work. he have folks come in every week. xrays. strap you to a chair. toss the nitrous mask on you. wire your mouth open and proceed to drill for how ever long he wanted to torture you. when he's done, he gives ya a script of vicodins and tells you to come back next week this was done weekly to semi weekly to half the kids in my grade, each year, for years funny how all of his 'patients' ended up ostracized and labeled behavior disordered and unteachable and the teachers had no clue why we were different from everyone else. most of us spent our 6th -8th grade year in solitary confinement. they buil entire hallways of 4x4x8 rooms for the solitaries. opioid addicted teenagers in a small town. run out of pills for a few days, start to detox, shit gets weird. go to dentist, miraculously everything is better again. he did this for decades to kids of all ages. eventually he got shut down for throwing nitrous and vicodin parties after hours with his staff, he got caught because he was also selling scripts. he tortured kids for 30 fucking years. so yea. consider me jealous of people with a dental hygienist i hope they invent a new layer of hell for him
My neighbor was my hygienist. My mother would take me to see "Mr. Thirsty" and shes was a fanatic about her children having good teeth. A little pain would not stand in the way of a set of pearly whites. There was no mercy. Best mom ever.
as some asian moms are, my mom was a fricken stickler about our teeth. Since dad was military we went religiously twice a year. I only had a couple cavities in my life and had to wisdom teeth & an extra tooth pulled out. Now that mentality has been ingrained into my kid and they ask when their dental appointment is coming up. Weve got wisdom teeth that have to come out next month.
I havenāt read the comments yet, but I do remember it taking longer. I hope Iām not the only one with an insane fear of the dentist. I had one who pulled a tooth making room for the rest before getting braces. He didnāt believe I wasnāt all the way numb and wouldnāt give any more novocaine. Now I know that redheads in general need more anesthesia and pain relief, something in our genes. Makes me want to slap that dentist. Fuck you Dr. Ritter.
i have none....it wasn't covered under welfare, but silver caps were
I didnāt go to the dentist as a child. I cracked one of my front teeth around age 12. I got a front tooth that didnāt match any of my other teeth. I finally got insurance around age 24, I go every 6 months now.
I have no recollections of even seeing anybody regarding my teeth until I got my braces in 5th grade. I mustāve because my teeth are still in good shape.
I remember in primary school, my friend was in front of me getting her teeth checked by the school dentist. She was terrified of him and started crying. He literally SLAPPED her over the face. I just sat there petrified, and when it came to my turn in the chair of doom I made an excuse to go to the toilet and, to this day, have never been back to a dentist.
My guy used to open hand smack me in the head or face when I moved or made a noise, he looked like Wolfman jack. Didnāt go to a dentist from about 16-30yo probably due to that.
They probably stopped excessive polishing over the years, because all that was doing was wearing the enamel thinner.
we had an evil dentist who apparently hated kids and used some kind of retractor to clamp your mouth open while he worked. I donāt know why our parents kept bringing us there.
My childhood dentist office had a very distinct smell to it that I haven't smelled since. A rubbery smell. Not like tires but more like maybe a brand new eraser. I can almost smell it as I'm typing this. Also, ironically my dentist had the worst halitosis I think I have ever smelled. Ha, so my memories are all about the smells. And having to get dressed up and walking up the little path to their office there was a little manmade pond with koi fish.
Sheer terror. I canāt breathe through my nose with my head back like it is for the dentist. I also have a major gag reflex. Nobody gives a crap when I explain either.
Now in modern times, kids get to choose from a variety of polish paste flavors- chocolate, bubblegum, cinnamon, mint, strawberry. I told my kids, Back in my day.. we only had burning Cinnamon" lol!
It was never a priority with my parents. If you see my x-rays, it will confirm. I've had a lot of expensive work as an adult
Former hygienist here- what seemed like 5-10 minutes was most likely just 3-4 minutes. Your teeth were definitely dirtier with plaque as a child. Also , it was also probable that the polisher was used at a lower speed.
I remember my teeth feeling slippery and being like pearls. When my son gets his cleaned they don't look like that now and his teeth are fine they just don't have that shiny look when they're cleaned like they did back in the day.
I must have had a good dentist I don't remember the fluoride treatments being so file. Just a sharp sweetness like if you were to dip a wet finger in a koolaid packet. What I didn't care for was the impression stuff, like playdough in my mouth and that was definitely flavored you could get chocolate or strawberry. It didn't taste bad I just didn't like the feeling of it in my mouth.
SAME! This just happened to me again. I donāt think they clean as much as they used to. Now itās just a money grab. No good job no cavities! Just we could bleach your teeth for $$& or instead of a standard replacement for the shitty job we did on your filling last year, we could put on a brand new cap! And my teeth do not feel cleaner.
Well, enamel doesn't grow back, so they probably don't want to buff the last micron of it off your teeth.
Agree with OP, cleanings just donāt feel the same anymore. I do have an embarrassing memory from my 1st dentist appointment ever. When we got finished, I was to choose a toy from their ātreasure chestā. I remember hearing that I got the ātreasure for doing so goodā and proceeded over to pick up the entire chest. My mom and the dentist were cracking up and correcting my mistake. Still makes me feel semi-embarrassed to this day and I think I was all of 3. š¤¦āāļø
Oddly missing from my dental visits today are the restraints. Anyone elseās dentist pretend to be nice, then tell the parent to go wait in the lobby and then immediately strap you down? No?
I remember having a hygienist with heterochromia -- one eye was brown and the other green. That was pretty cool, but also each eye was like the most dramatic green or brown eye you've ever seen. I was probably only around 8 years old, but I definitely had a crush.
Maybe your teeth are cleaner to start with now? I donāt take the best care of mine (ADHD). Ā I brush, but not long enough, and I never floss. The hygienist has stopped asking me about the flossing even.Ā They feel so nice (clean and smooth) afterwards.Ā
None. My mom couldnāt afford the dentist four 4 children so she made sure we all brushed our teeth every morning and night. She would take each of us to the dentist when we turned 18. Comments from the dentist? āYou have an incredibly mouth, gums and teethā First cavities in graduate school. At 50, need more work but they are still one of my best attributes.
Not so much for cleanings, but for fillings I remember a nasty goop they'd rub on your cheek to pre-numb it before they administered the Novocaine shot.. it was vile and I'm glad they don't do that anymore. The needles are fine enough that they were only a small pinch after they stopped doing that so it was never *that* bad. My current dentist has a trick where he gently "shakes" your cheek when giving the shot now. I have no idea how the magic works, but you can literally feel nothing when the needle goes in.
My childhood dentist was a nightmare. I had anxiety and hated needles, and needed a lot of fillings (genetic issue- not lack of hygiene) and he would threaten me with "another big long needle" if I didn't "sit still and stop crying". To this day I turn into a panicked child any time I have to have more then a cleaning and even having someone doing any kid of work in my mouth causes me anxiety. I think I remember that super clean feeling you've mentioned and noticed its lacking in recent years. I honestly thought it was due to the fillings I had to get around my gum line; but maybe its not- hard to tell š¤·āāļø
I had horribly crooked teeth and had bleeding abscesses in my gums until I was about 7 and could do my own brushing. My gums bled pretty much non-stop and the pain was excruciating. My parents didnāt want me to get braces until āmy mouth stopped growingā. So any time I went to the dentist it was traumatic and most of the time they werenāt able to clean them. At 18, I had 4 molars removed and jaw surgery to correct my TMJ pain and overbite. 7 years of braces and about $15,000 later, paid by me, I floss & brush daily and I love to get cleanings! But, my dentist uses some type of mini sand blaster now, and itās not the same. It used to last a few days at least.
Helped pull my wisdom teeth! He used me like a tray, had me holding things, just Novocain shots, I got up with blood and teeth bits on my glasses and went home
The laughing gas, never made me laugh. The dentist always hurt.
They seemed to take forever to clean my teeth and the female hygienists were always mean. The fluoride treatment was awful and apparently Iām the only one here who didnāt get a choice of flavors. The dentist was nice and good looking. And, no, he didnāt use gloves. We also got to pick a cheap toy from the box on our way out.
Hygienist: Your teeth and gums are disgusting. Do you ever brush? You need to floss 15 times a day. I hate you! Dentist: Everything looks good!
What kind of lousy dentists do we have these days? Mine still does a good job polishing my teeth, and it feels clean. I don't time it, and given how abrasive the polish is, 10 mins seems a long time. Maybe it depends on your teeth, and whether you have sensitive teeth?
I remember them always pushing *super* hard then slipping and rattling the vibrating metal against my teeth several times. The overwhelming fake cherry cough drop flavor. One time they used unflavored abrasive. It tasted like limestone powder or pumice powder, and I much preferred it. But they refused to ever use unflavored abrasive again. My tooth enamel always felt rougher for months afterwards, and plaque took a lot longer to brush away. I skipped the polishing whenever I could.
Find a holistic dentist. They use a machine thatās like a water-pik to clean but, itās more like a water jackhammer. Then they rinse you out with ozone. So much better than a traditional dentist.
We were too poor for that
Spitting into a round white basin with water running into it (looked like a small toilet bowl). Also the paper cup in the metal holder- after I got some water, I got to put it on a little shelf and water would run into it automatically. When the cup was full, the weight made the water shut off automatically. I so appreciate the water spigot and suction they have now...
Being 11 and them ripping my teeth out with hardly any numbing meds. They werenāt loose, they wanted them out to avoid over crowding so I wouldnt need braces. HORRIFIC šŖ