Love my dentist, but hygienist makes my dental anxiety worse every time…(60+ yrs and more anxious as I’m getting older)

[Cara5656]

Some hygienists make my anxiety skyrocket. I’m always afraid they’ll pull off my bridges (I have 3) or crowns (several). All that yanking and tugging with those instruments. And today during a cleaning, I felt something loosen. It felt weird as if the bridge readjusted. She said it wasn’t the bridge and nothing fell out from the tooth (a molar) next to it, but that molar had “mobility “ from food getting stuck between it and the wisdom tooth behind it. She said—the wisdom tooth could be pulled, they wouldn’t root canal/crown it because they don’t like to—the roots are short and there’s bone loss (no x rays were taken of that area today, it was probably 6 months ago). They could root canal then crown the molar because it’s a huge filling that goes all the way down to the root. All that said—I have no pain and no obvious decay in either tooth. The dentist comes in, checks the area, doesn’t say anything about mobility in the molar (and due to my slowly building panic I forgot to ask)… says we don’t have to do anything yet but maybe down the line extract the wisdom tooth which might solve the problem because food won’t get caught anymore, and root canal/crown the molar if we need to. He suggested trying a water pik to get that trapped food out (I floss religiously and thoroughly—I didn’t floss before today’s appointment as I rushed over from work, thus the piece of lunch stuck in there—but in general he didn’t seem concerned. My questions are— should I be concerned about this molar mobility issue that the hygienist mentioned ? And considering the hygienist, is it weird to ask to see the hygienist in the office across town (same company owns both offices) but have my dentist of more than two decades in the other office do the actual checkup? I’m getting anxiety even thinking about going back to today’s hygienist. Or should I go back to this one I saw today and hope she’s gentler next time? (The last time she wasn’t too bad). Sorry. My head is spinning with this. I know I have to go for the cleaning in 6 months but the thought of it is already petrifying me.

 

[Gordon]

Paragraphs are your friends Sorry!

It's not weird to see a different hygienist if you get on better with the other one. Doubt the dentist will be bothered.
It doesn't sound like an urgent problem so the dentist's attitude seems reasonable.
Sorry if I've missed something else.