Going to the dentist is often hell for me.

I've already bitched about this before but DAMMIT! It HURTS! It's fucking torture!

I brush and floss EVERY SINGLE DAY. I also use one of these dental pick type brushes after brushing and flossing to get into the cracks etc. Lately I started getting pain like the time a dentist caused me so much pain I needed 600mg of Ibuprofen every 3 hrs for a month). This new pain is similar feeling but not quite as bad. It's comes and goes but generally I get it at least once or twice a day. Yesterday it came 3 times. If I'm lucky it goes away by itself but 5 times out of 6 I need to take 200−400mg of Ibuprofen and then 20−30 minutes later it's gone. When it really hurts I can feel it from my temple to neck.

So I go to the dentist. He sees one tooth with an old filling that looks like it might have problems. He says he can't really know what the problem is until he takes the filling off so we make an appointment to replace the filling with him telling me if it doesn't fix the issue I'll need a root canal. Here I have no idea what the right thing to do is. Since the pain is the same as the last time I needed a root canal I'm on the side of "why not just do the root canal" but of course I'm not a dentist so we do the filling.

He managed to take off the old filling, find a cavity and put on the new filling (or more likely a cap) but W...T...F. He pulls on my cheeks so hard that it's 8 days before they stop hurting. He had something holding my cheek open and when he'd turn to look away from me it would pull even harder. I wish every dentist was sued every time something hurt until they take not hurting people seriously.

So, yea never going back to that dentist.

I pick another. Explain that I went to a dentist, had a filling replaced, still have pain, think I need possibly 3 root canals. When it hurts it feels like 2 teeth on top hurt and kind of sometimes one on the bottom which is the one that had the filling replaced. She takes an x−ray, as did the last dentist, and she can't see anything wrong the top 2 teeth. She points out there is a vertical crack in the bottom tooth on both sides. You can't see that in the x−ray AFAICT but she showed me a picture (wish I had it). I'm curious where that came from. Was it the last dentist's drilling? Does the crack go so deep as to require removing the tooth? All I can do apparently is trust the dentist or get a new one.

She doesn't want to do the root canal yet. First she wants to give me a rubber mold of my teeth that I can wear at night. She says maybe the issue is I'm grinding my teeth. Um, ok? Then she suggests I get my teeth cleaned as well (which it is time for. It's been 8 months, longer than I wanted it to be).

So today I go in for a cleaning. I get told this will be a rough cleaning. It's in Japanese so from the description this rough is rough as in "rough draft" not rough as in "rough and tough". Basically only a certain amount of cleaning is covered by Japanese health insurance and that's all she's planning on doing. I really don't care about using the insurance personally. I just want my teeth to be better. She says I can make another appointment for more cleaning if I want but today will just be the standard insurance covered cleaning.

She starts and it feels like she is stabbing the ultrasonic thing straight into my gums. It's the most aggressive cleaning I've ever felt. On top of that in Japan they often cover your face. They do this when getting a shampoo for a haircut as well. I have no idea why. Is the because Japanese people are embarrassed to look at each other? Does the customer want this so they aren't looking at the dentist/hairdresser? Does the dentist/hairdresser want this because it makes them uncomfortable to look at the customer/patient? In any case, in the hairdresser case I don't mind but in the dentist case she can't see my expressions of pain, scrunching eyes etc..., looks of worry, etc... that would be a signal to BACK THE FUCK OFF!!

After probably only 2−3 mins of cleaning I need a break. I don't want to do this given it's never been this aggressive before. I feel like she's doing it wrong. She claims the calculus on my teeth is bad and that she hasn't really even started. She claims all other dentists probably never really cleaned them completely. Really? She mentions levels 1−6 and says in front it's 3 but on the very back teeth it's 6 and that it's going to hurt a lot to clean that. She said I should make a new appointment and they'll put anesthetic gel on my gums and shoot me up for the back teeth to clean them. How am I supposed to trust her though after the first experience? Especially since no other dentist in America or Japan has ever been this aggressive?

So I don't know what to do. Try yet another dentist, get x−rayed and cat scanned again, try to get it all done, cleaning and root canal? What?

In any case everything about dentists pisses me off!!! I mentioned long ago some dentists only have cold water which hurts. Why isn't lukewarm water a requirement? They have that sucker that sucks up your saliva but it also causes a pretty strong wind that freezes my teeth. Why not a slower sucker? Or pump some warm air in. When the first dentist was replacing my tooth I was constantly exhaling through my mouth to try to put some warm air in there because as the teeth get colder so comes pain. I'm guessing he wasn't happy about that but FUCK HIM! If I doesn't want me to try to warm my mouth maybe he shouldn't be freezing it.

How long until this shit gets better? When will we get a vaccine or antibiotic for the stuff that actually causes cavities? How about a calculus solvent or some better way to get rid of it? When will remineralizing teeth be a thing? And, how about allowing us to sue dentists for torture. Especially when so many things are under their control and influence. It's frustrating as hell.

Some people will say they can take the pain. I'd suggest to them they experience pain different than me. If they experienced it the same as me I assure you they would not be ok with it.

As yet another aside why is it Japanese medical offices are so damn unsanitary? My experience so far is probably 2 out of 3 medical establishments I've been to have stuff like this