Do you detest the dentist?

When I couldn’t afford really good dentists I did.
Sorry they made you feel that way. My childhood dentist was a real jerk too.
I have found that when I have a candid conversation with the dentist about why I hate going to the dentist they are much better. My last two dentists have become family friends.

Yes, oh God yes, with the intensity of ten thousand suns.

A dentist nearly choked me to death when I was 4 or 5 and I’ve loathed the profession ever since.

Luckily for me, a very hot friend of mine is currently in dental school, and she has promised to be my dentist when she graduates, so I should be good.

Funny, I just saw the dentist today, too, for the first time (for a regular checkup) in a long time. Too long, in fact.

He said not a word about my not having made “regular” appointments with him for several years. I first saw him about three years ago for a dental emergency, and have only been back since then because of various minor emergencies. Today was my first regular cleaning in several years, too.

In fact, he didn’t hurt or make me feel bad at all, and we actually had a pretty good conversation.

I still don’t like “going to the dentist”, but it’s not so bad.

I have had several bad dentists, and my current dentist often mentions what a mess previous dentists made in my mouth. He is a bit of a jerk, as well, but most of his work is fine.
Fortunately, I hate myself, and I make myself go to the dentist twice a year.

No, I love going to the dentist. When I’ve got insurance then I’m in there for every cleaning they’ll cover.

I am not a big fan of going to the dentist, but I don’t detest it.

Its not that I mind going to the dentist. I like having clean teeth.
Its not even that my dentists are jerks or anything. I guess I’m just super self concious about it. Like I said, I brush my teeth a lot. And when they tell me I’m not doing it right… it’s just like… the shame I’ll never live down. LOL. That’s what I hate.

I have no problem with the dentist. I kinda like it. He still lets me pick a treat out of the snack box when I’m done with my appointment. :)

I don’t like what I go through in the dentist’s chair, but I love my dentist, who is brilliant and gentle and has saved me untold misery. Whatever happens to me at his hands is thousands of times better than where I’d be without his intervention. I hope I don’t outlive him.

Do most adults quit going? More fools they. The pain they avoid is nothing compared with the suffering they invite.

I fucking hate it. I’m going to find a new dentist (i typed detest by accident HAHA!) in a couple weeks when I get back home. Then I don’t think it’ll be so bad. But, I have soft teeth, and thus every time I go, no matter how much I brush and floss (and I LOVE to floss) I have cavities. :(: (

Nope, I’ve had good experiences with them, and I love my teeth so I want to take care of them.

I’ve seen more trauma in the dental chair than I care to think about. Dentists from my past ruined my mouth, and as a result I’ve paid, and will continue to pay thousands of $ to keep my teeth good and repair their damage. It’s a crap shoot, and you never know whether the dentist you end up with will make things better or worse.

@Jeruba that was incredibly poetic.

I’m going to have to find an excuse to use the phrase “more fools they” now.

Not really. I fucking loathe mouth x-rays, though.

Once you start going to the dentist on a regular basis you will appreciate the pain and suffering they can save you from in the long run. Most people can save a lot of heartache by just getting their teeth cleaned at least once if not twice a year. @emjay, just brushing obsessively daily is not good enough. Sorry. Brushing and flossing is much much better. As the sign in my dentist office reads…
“ONLY FLOSS THE TEETH YOU WANT TO KEEP”. So clever:D

Never thought it was so bad. Plus, I would not go to a professional who made me feel like a slob. You should hire somebody else.

I never knew what novacane was until I was about to get out of the army with the final check up. I needed one cavity filled. When I saw the army dentist preparing a hypo,(which also bother me, a lot) I was starting to dread it all over again. So I asked what that was for. Told me it was to deaden the area, “It’s really quite standard procedure”. Huh? For a filling? He goes “yeah, why, you wanna be like John Wayne and rough it?” “Ummm, no. I grew up thinking novacane was for the really nasty extractions and such.” He looks at me and goes “Jesus Christ man what kind of barbarian would do this raw? Maybe you should’ve been a Marine!” My mind flashed back to all those times when I was a kid getting those fillings with the torture of no pain management…for nothing. wtf? All I could say was “Proceed”. That was the easiest time with a dentist ever, in the army. I was a changed person after that, walking out with slop jaw from my mouth being numb. I don’t cry any more with the prospect of seeing the dentist now.

My childhood dentist also was the fire chief, really small town.

I wouldn’t say I love going to the dentist, but I have no problem with it. Of course, I haven’t had much done beyond the occasional checkup. I haven’t had a filling since I was 10…

My dentist doesn’t make me feel like a slob. No dentists I’ve seen ever really have. In fact, they all seem to have no real comment to make.
But one time I had an abbess in a tooth, and the dentist who dealt with it was all hyper and explaining a buncha shit to me. Like he was getting off on it, and even when the tooth was pulled out, he stuck it in a bag and was showing me specific places on the tooth, and explaining all these little details and stuff. I’m like, dude, all I see is a bloody bag lol.

I don’t jump for joy when I need to see my dentist, and I do find a lot of the process, whatever needs to be done, a bit uncomfortable. But it needs to be done.

My current dentist always asks me how work and life is going while I basically have the equivalent of a robot’s penis in my mouth. It’s like how do you expect me to answer or carry on a conversation man? Lol. But I was explained by a friend on here, who has a dentists like mine, that they usually do this to put you at ease. So I’d say, generally dentists are pretty cool. They know their job is fucked up. Also mine needs to trim her nose hairs, I can always see them when she bends over me and stuff. But yeah, she’s awesome, and never made me feel like a slob.
I still don’t enjoy going much though. XD

I was a kid and I didn’t like them. Now I do love them because they make us feel a lot more better. If you do not treat cavities then become bigger problems. And infections in your mouth can turn later into gastric problems / ulcer etc.

I used to hate going to the dentist, but the technology has changed so dramatically for the better, that I no longer clench my fists in anticipation of the pain that never comes. Even a root canal was totally painless (I was out and never felt a thing.) My current dentist is a really neat guy with whom I enjoy talking (between rinses and spitting.) What I hate now is the sounds the drill make. If only they’d make them soundless or with a non-piercing sound.

No, I love my dentist – but he’s my dad!

Yes. He has to hold my hand….....when I go!