Wolf, probably more people don't regularly go than do! My husband hasn't been to the dentist since I can remember. Seriously. For awhile, between jobs, he didn't have insurance, and once he got it, just never went back. The fronts of his teeth look great, whiter than mine even (prebleach :)). But the tongue side is pretty gross. It's been so long that now he just doesn't want to go because he knows there will be A LOT of scraping, and he's a self proclaimed wuss when it comes to Doctors.

My dentist abandoned the old fashioned scraping thing years ago ... he uses an "ultrasonic scaler" which is a high speed mechanical version of the same thing. You can feel the plaque flying off your teeth, which is either really gross or pretty cool depending on your perspective. The old hour of scraping is replaced by 5 minutes of high pitched whining noises, and the inevitable pain is considerably reduced.

Every time. For some reason it's significantly worse in the mornings. Sometimes I can just gag a few times and continue, but usually I have to wait until later in the morning and just brush my teeth at work.

I can cure that. Just quit drinking before 9pm! :guinness: On a more serious note, I had the ultrasonic whitening done and I'm glad I did. Took 10 years off--ok, maybe five. Anyway, I'm a BIG coffee drinker so there was that. And it was painless...except for the pocketbook.

I'll call around to local dentists and see if any have this new untrasonic scaler thingie. Definately sounds worth checking out. Thanks for the info.

i had the molds made in the dentist's office abotu 3 years ago. i still have the same ones and use them about once/month. i only wear mine for 1-2 hours though and immediately brush and rinse. my teeth are sensitive for a couple of hours, but not terribly so.

the difference is immediately noticeable.

[quote][quote=wolf I just got a tube of Colgate's Herbal Freshness or whatever, mostly because it was a buck cheaper than everything else on the shelf.
I've kind of adapted to it now, a couple of brushings into the tube, but it was rough going at the outset. Anybody else get an uncontrollable urge to retch when they first start brushing sometimes? [/QUOTE] Warning - I'm going to be graphic here - I also tried the Colgate Herbal toothpaste. You adapted??!!? Not me - I choked, gagged, wretched, and came very close to puking. Never ever ever again....I would much rather chew on a twig or whatever.....However, I will am also planning on whitening my teeth and I have no doubt at all that the procedure will lead to a "procedure of the month" for me. I won't desire a facelift, lipo, boob job.....my teeth were always a little discolored due to antibiotics when I was young (or when Mom was preganant with me??) and white teeth just make you feel better - better as in clean and well groomed. Nothing wrong with that!

Oh thank goodness, it's not just me. I actually have one other friend that this happens to as well, but it's good to hear that I'm not that freaky.

This mainly occurs with mint flavored toothpastes for me. It's not the mint by itself, as I like mint in other contexts.

I read something interesting the other day regarding how the flavor "mint" works. The way I understood it was that the chemical action going on was to *block* the receptors for bitter in your mouth, and the resulting combination equalled mint! So, the four detectable tastes, sweet, sour, bitter, and salty, minus bitter (in some Proctor and Gamble proportions) equals mint...

Either that or I'm all messed up.

OOPS!! I just noticed that I left out the word NOT in my last post....as in whitening my teeth WILL NOT lead to a procedure of the month! Big difference there!

It had never occurred to me that it might be the flavor of the toothpaste causing it. I've never used any toothpaste except standard Crest mint flavor--well, except that one time I tried their nasty "Orange" flavor. That tube got tossed in the garbage after one use.

They sell a 4 mini tube pack of different flavors of toothpaste that I'm going to buy tomorrow. You know, be spontaneous and outrageous.

This is cellar, what were you expecting, things to stay on topic? Curse and a blessing. I use the colgate total whitening toothpaste, largely because half the time the supermarket is out of the plain old total and it does seem to work, considering my coffee intake. Wouldn't pay for proper whitening though. Catwoman deserves a cookie.

I can't have cookies anymore my boss will find out what I've been doing instead of working.

I've been around long enough to appreciate the fine qualities drifting can bring to a thread, much the way time ages a fine wine. However, I was just trying to keep the drift within a certain boundry, away from societies distortion of what's 'normal' due to media influence etc. and on the overall physical process of tooth whitening Now, had I been asked with a little courtesy as to my personal reasons for doing it (which I stated anyway) and not directly told how I feel, and would feel, I would have been happy to answer.

Cool?