I have a general fear of dentists because as a child and young adult I NEVER HAD ANASTHETICS for drilling! This was before fluoride, before the highspeed drills (ours were driven by belts over pulleys), our family has a disposition to bad teeth and we ate too much candy. We had a lot of fillings and it hurt! When I hear sounds like the old drills made I get anxious. A lot of stories-I’ll spare you.
@andyw Yes, as a child I had an old dentist in San Francisco who was my parents’ dentist. He had the drill with the belts and pulleys. This was around 1970 but I’m sure the equipment was from the 40s or 50s. And I know at least on one occasion he said « you don’t need anesthetic ».
My dentist, a lovely lady, loves me, and I love her. She is kind and gentle and a dear friend. We have had her and her husband, also a dentist, and FIL, who is 99 (a retired professor of denistry), over for dinner and have dined out with them on more than one occasion.
Unlike many people, I have never dreaded the dentist. And yes, I grew up in the era of belts, pulleys, and slow grinding drills, without fluoride, but for some reason, I have never dreaded going to the dentist.
My dentist’s name was Dr. Hurt when I was a child. Can’t believe his name alone didn’t scare off his clientele. My orthodontist was my mom’s first cousin who us kids called uncle Ray. He always made me feel so special! He’d make a big deal over seeing me and he’d speak to me in Arabic (we’re Lebanese) telling me how beautiful/cute I was and how much he loved me. He also could have passed for Joe Namath’s twin!
He definitely made the hour and a half ride it took to get there all worth it AND also made it easy for me to love going to the dentist! There’s nothing like the feeling of freshly professionally cleaned teeth!!
Yeah, big improvement over my childhood dentist and orthodontist. Modern equipment, great assistants.
Granted, I had “Mony mony” stuck in my head for a couple of hours after my appointment, but still pretty happy that my teeth are getting taken care of.
@Salanth The modern tech and training make such a huge difference. I didn’t go from about 16 to about 35, and I was astonished how much better it is now.
My dentist is Romanian. She has this charming accent and calls me “my Miss Elaine” and “my dear,” and she’s just old enough that it’s adorable and in no way creepy. I was into the practice for a good six grand a couple years ago because they were taking care of a bunch of things I had let go for too long, plus Invisalign, and I assumed I was her favorite patient and “my dear” because I was such a good customer.
Turns out she’s that sweet to literally everyone. Broke my heart a little bit!
My dentist is pretty meh, but somehow that was not a choice in the poll. He took over when his business partner, my previous dentist, whom I liked pretty much, retired. (To his own tropical island which I helped finance, I’m guessing.)
About a decade back, I had squirreled away enough cash to cover what I expected to be a fairly intensive bit of rebuild on one of my molars. In point of fact, a piece had cracked off of the edge adjacent to an existing filling. And I went to a nearby dentist who had reasonably good reviews. Instead of looking at my tooth, which would have made the damage obvious as hell, he looked at the x-rays and said “Oh there’s no problem.” I tried to convince him that no, he was wrong, he should look at the tooth, and there’s a piece missing. But he insisted that there was no problem. So he charged me for cleaning my teeth, a process which should have brought him into contact with the area where the chip was gone, except that he assigned it to one of his technicians. The technician failed to report the issue, too. Well, that ate a good bit of what I had squirrel away for what I expected to be some filling work, and money was super tight in those days. And about 14 months later, the tooth developed an ache, and I went to a different dentist. That one correctly reported that there was a chip missing, the tooth had quite a bit of decay in it, and I was going to need a root canal. 1200 bucks worth of root canal and crown to be specific.
I left an appropriate review of the original dentist on Google maps. His office has since moved. I haven’t checked to see if the reviews followed him.
Of course I like the dentist I don’t have one right now and haven’t been in a couple years lol. But truth be told I love the dentist and the feeling of clean teeth afterwards.
I have a general fear of dentists because as a child and young adult I NEVER HAD ANASTHETICS for drilling! This was before fluoride, before the highspeed drills (ours were driven by belts over pulleys), our family has a disposition to bad teeth and we ate too much candy. We had a lot of fillings and it hurt! When I hear sounds like the old drills made I get anxious. A lot of stories-I’ll spare you.
@andyw Yes, as a child I had an old dentist in San Francisco who was my parents’ dentist. He had the drill with the belts and pulleys. This was around 1970 but I’m sure the equipment was from the 40s or 50s. And I know at least on one occasion he said « you don’t need anesthetic ».
@pmarin My experience was the 1950s to mid 60s. He was a neighbor and our family dentist.
My dentist, a lovely lady, loves me, and I love her. She is kind and gentle and a dear friend. We have had her and her husband, also a dentist, and FIL, who is 99 (a retired professor of denistry), over for dinner and have dined out with them on more than one occasion.
Unlike many people, I have never dreaded the dentist. And yes, I grew up in the era of belts, pulleys, and slow grinding drills, without fluoride, but for some reason, I have never dreaded going to the dentist.
I am supposed to have a dentist? That’s not in the owner’s manual!
My dentist’s name was Dr. Hurt when I was a child. Can’t believe his name alone didn’t scare off his clientele. My orthodontist was my mom’s first cousin who us kids called uncle Ray. He always made me feel so special! He’d make a big deal over seeing me and he’d speak to me in Arabic (we’re Lebanese) telling me how beautiful/cute I was and how much he loved me. He also could have passed for Joe Namath’s twin!
He definitely made the hour and a half ride it took to get there all worth it AND also made it easy for me to love going to the dentist! There’s nothing like the feeling of freshly professionally cleaned teeth!!
@Lynnerizer My mother’s dentist later in life was EZ Filler; we never knew if that was his birth name or if he had changed it!
@andyw
That’s a good one!
Yeah, big improvement over my childhood dentist and orthodontist. Modern equipment, great assistants.
Granted, I had “Mony mony” stuck in my head for a couple of hours after my appointment, but still pretty happy that my teeth are getting taken care of.
@Salanth The modern tech and training make such a huge difference. I didn’t go from about 16 to about 35, and I was astonished how much better it is now.
My dentist is Romanian. She has this charming accent and calls me “my Miss Elaine” and “my dear,” and she’s just old enough that it’s adorable and in no way creepy. I was into the practice for a good six grand a couple years ago because they were taking care of a bunch of things I had let go for too long, plus Invisalign, and I assumed I was her favorite patient and “my dear” because I was such a good customer.
Turns out she’s that sweet to literally everyone. Broke my heart a little bit!
@kostia Don’t worry, I’m sure she thinks fondly of you every time she fires up her Maserati!
My dentist is pretty meh, but somehow that was not a choice in the poll. He took over when his business partner, my previous dentist, whom I liked pretty much, retired. (To his own tropical island which I helped finance, I’m guessing.)
About a decade back, I had squirreled away enough cash to cover what I expected to be a fairly intensive bit of rebuild on one of my molars. In point of fact, a piece had cracked off of the edge adjacent to an existing filling. And I went to a nearby dentist who had reasonably good reviews. Instead of looking at my tooth, which would have made the damage obvious as hell, he looked at the x-rays and said “Oh there’s no problem.” I tried to convince him that no, he was wrong, he should look at the tooth, and there’s a piece missing. But he insisted that there was no problem. So he charged me for cleaning my teeth, a process which should have brought him into contact with the area where the chip was gone, except that he assigned it to one of his technicians. The technician failed to report the issue, too. Well, that ate a good bit of what I had squirrel away for what I expected to be some filling work, and money was super tight in those days. And about 14 months later, the tooth developed an ache, and I went to a different dentist. That one correctly reported that there was a chip missing, the tooth had quite a bit of decay in it, and I was going to need a root canal. 1200 bucks worth of root canal and crown to be specific.
I left an appropriate review of the original dentist on Google maps. His office has since moved. I haven’t checked to see if the reviews followed him.
@werehatrack Oh,you went to the Tooth Nazi “No more teeth for you”!!
@werehatrack There’s a reason i refer to dentists in general as the “used car dealers” of the medical profession!
Yes I do. That is why I have been going to him my entire adult life. Now that dentist I had as a child, he can burn in heck.
@yakkoTDI
OH NO, what on earth did he do for you to wish such evil upon him.
@Lynnerizer He was just a bad dentist. It was nothing illegal. That is why he should go to Heck and not Hell.
@Lynnerizer @yakkoTDI Ruled by Phil, Prince of Insufficient Light
@Kyeh @Lynnerizer @yakkoTDI The Prince of Darkness is Lucas, and shall ever be.
Of course I like the dentist I don’t have one right now and haven’t been in a couple years lol. But truth be told I love the dentist and the feeling of clean teeth afterwards.