Has my dentist done half a job?

[Established1981]

Yesterday i went to my new dentist (private, not NHS) to have a bit of work done.

First thing she did was take some moulds of my teeth to enable her to monitor tooth wear as she thinks i might be grinding my teeth when i'm asleep.

Then i had a scale and polish. This was my first scale and polish in a good few years, so i expected my teeth be noticably smoother when completed. However, the back of front lower teeth feel really rough. I think my teeth might have been scaled but not polished. All my dentist did was spend 5 minutes scraping my teeth with some whirring instrument and that was it, nothing else was performed. Strangely enough, i remember her concentrating a little more effort with this instrument on the back of my front lower teeth. Aren't my teeth supposed to be polished with a different instrument? Has she done half a job?

Following the "scale and polish" i also had a tooth coloured filling done. Which i must say looks great.

Help appreciated.

[Toothsmith]

Was this the first appointment in a few years, or do you normally not have your teeth polished?

It doesn't sound a very thorough scale and polish, but if it doesn't often need doing, then you might be someone who doesn't build up much tartar anyway - so it's pointless cleaning something that's not dirty!

When tartar builds up, it often fills in the spaces between your teeth, and it all feels quite smooth. When it's cleaned off, you feel all the gaps again, and that can feel quite rough.

So it's a bit hard to say whether a 'proper' job has been done without knowing exactly what 'job' you needed doing.

If the filling looks good though, then chances are you're seeing someone who knows what they're doing.

[Established1981]

Thankyou for your reply.

It was my first appointment in few years, and i did a little tartar noted in my New Patient Consultation.

I have contacted the dentist this morning and they say that it isn't standard to polish in every case, but if the roughness doesn't improve by the time i collect my casts i can make an appointment to discuss the matter.

In that case, I'm happy to wait. The roughness does seem to be at the edges of my teeth, so you might be right that it's the gaps i can feel.

The filling is the first i've ever had done, so i have nothing to compare it against but it isn't possible to even recognise the filling, so seems a good job there - again, the surface of the filling feels a little rough however.

[alison999]

Thankyou for your reply.

It was my first appointment in few years, and i did a little tartar noted in my New Patient Consultation.

I have contacted the dentist this morning and they say that it isn't standard to polish in every case, but if the roughness doesn't improve by the time i collect my casts i can make an appointment to discuss the matter.

In that case, I'm happy to wait. The roughness does seem to be at the edges of my teeth, so you might be right that it's the gaps i can feel.

The filling is the first i've ever had done, so i have nothing to compare it against but it isn't possible to even recognise the filling, so seems a good job there - again, the surface of the filling feels a little rough however.


my teeth always feel 'rougher' after a scale, esp in my lower front teeth because theyre really close together.