Two dentists

Dentist A

Six months ago, I got my teeth cleaned for the first time in Malaysia. I asked my neighbor for a recommendation, went to a well-reviewed clinic nearby, and the dentist available that day was Dentist A. Super nice guy. He kept explaining what he was doing and when it would hurt.

BUT. That was the most painful, longest dental cleaning of my entire life. Right from the start, when he was doing the periodontal chart, he probed way too deep. I had a bad feeling about what was coming.

Since I learned to meditate, my pain and itch tolerance has gone way up. For minor procedures that normally need local anesthesia, I can often say no thanks.

But this was unbearable.

During the cleaning, Dentist A kept buzzing around my poor gums. Every time he said “this part might hurt a little,” I was screaming inside: “Is there a part that doesn’t hurt?” But all I could do was nod. It felt like he cleaned the inside of my gums too. When I rinsed halfway through, my mouth was full of blood, which didn’t help with the trauma.

And because dental care in Malaysia is all out-of-pocket, it’s nothing like the rushed 20-minute insurance-covered cleanings¹ in Taiwan. Mine lasted over an hour. I kept thinking, isn’t it over yet? Hasn’t it been 20 minutes already? How long can one tooth take? If it didn’t hurt, fine. But when cleaning is this painful, every extra second is agony.

The process was brutal, and my whole mouth and gums were exhausted afterward. But my teeth and gums had never been this clean in my life.

Dentist A asked if I wanted to come back to fill a cavity that wasn’t urgent. But I was so traumatized that I’ve been putting off replying ever since.

If a cleaning hurts that much, what would a filling be like?

Dentist B

Recently, it was time for another cleaning.

I asked my neighbor. We go to the same clinic. So why did he say it “didn’t hurt at all”? Turns out he sees a different dentist.

I contacted the clinic and asked to switch to Dentist B.

Dentist B was also super nice. Young, gentle voice. And his cleaning didn’t hurt at all. The only moment I felt any sensitivity was a brief stretch. The rest was comfortable.

But after experiencing Dentist A, something felt off.

I was a new patient to Dentist B, yet he didn’t redo a periodontal exam. He just glanced around and said “looks fine.” My guess is that the front desk had already told him I was “afraid of pain,” so he stayed away from my gumline entirely during the cleaning.

Not a single drop of blood this time.

After about 50 minutes, my teeth were reasonably clean overall, but if you looked closely at the gumline, you could still see traces of plaque.

And I actually found a noticeable piece of white food debris stuck between my teeth. It had good camouflage, but Dentist B clearly wasn’t thorough with the floss either. He only passed through each gap once (you’re supposed to go left and right separately).

A completely different level of clean compared to Dentist A.

Why did that first cleaning in Malaysia hurt so much? Looking back, it was probably because all those years of rushed cleanings in Taiwan had left my gums chronically inflamed. Dentist A gave me a deep clean.

A lot of dentists, for the sake of business, for ratings, for getting patients to come back, will skip the painful parts. But I think a good dentist should insist: “This is going to hurt, but I still need to clean it properly.”

A good dentist doesn’t skip the painful spots just because you’re afraid of pain.

Dentist B probably has better reviews than Dentist A. He probably gets more repeat customers too. But I’ve decided to go back to Dentist A for my filling and my next cleaning.

Dentist A really does hurt, though.