I hate going to the dentist. Hate hate hate. I try not to hate anything, but dental visits still get that gut reaction from me. I feel rather guilty about it as I see a lovely young(er) dentist who does my cleanings (he’s a DDS–from Michigan) with no pain and a minimal use of the metal pick/scraping tool. He uses a high-pressure water device to get rid of most of the tarter and when he double-checks his work with the floss he never pushes too hard (he also has never accidentally snagged a gum or anything). The older main dentist has never done anything to me more than look in and say “they look fine–see you in a year.” It’s been many years since I’ve had anything more than a cleaning done and even before that my dental traumas have been pretty much non-existent since childhood (then I did have a dentist who always made my gums bleed).

Still, I get almost panicked every time I have to go for my cleaning, and when it’s the clean/check, I’ll consider breaking an arm to have an excuse to miss it.

A good part of it is that I am so sensitive to high-pitched sound. The painless water device I mentioned earlier? Worse than fingernails on a chalkboard. I squirm in my seat just because of the sound–aural torture. I can hear fluorescent bulbs when they are dying and some old CRT tvs and I cannot be in the same room, so I’m odd. Thus most dental implements are just sound-hell for me.

Anyway, today I had to go in for my annual check and 6-months cleaning. The double, and Christopher refused to let me injure myself to avoid it. This, however, was the first cleaning/check since I started using a Sonicare toothbrush–boy! that purchase was worth every dime!

This was the first time I was complemented for “obviously” flossing much more regularly. Ha! In reality, my flossing habits have not improved (good for about the first month post-cleaning, then almost never). There was almost no scraping at all and what there was was more like a quick tiny movement rather than the slow, hard pull/drag behind and between my front lower teeth that in the past had been known to lift me out of my chair! The water aural-torture device was wielded for the briefest time and my gums were pronounced in most excellent health. Huzzah! And that was after not using the Sonicare during my month-long trip–maybe the next cleaning will be even better!

So, not to sound like a commercial for them or anything, I highly recommend the Sonicare (we use an Elite model, but we’ve never used the “special” head) and we bought ours through Costco which saved us a bundle on a set good for the two of us (one charger, two bases, etc.).

Anything to keep that tune out of my head (Son, be a dentist…you have a talent for causing things pain!) and my teeth in it.