Is getting your teeth cleaned suppose to hurt like hell and make you bleed like crazy?

So its been a long time, about 4 years since getting my teeth cleaned and now that I have insurance I decided to finally get it done. The dental hygienist was checking my teeth and told me I needed to floss more often. Then she took a little hook looking thingy with a really sharp end and started scraping the ends of my gum. It hurt like crazy!!! Not to mention all the blood I was tasting and seeing on her glove. And thats ALL she did!! From what I remember in the past, they used flouride trays to clean my teeth and polish. Isn%26#039;t that what they%26#039;re suppose to do?? Please correct me if I%26#039;m wrong but I don%26#039;t ever want to get my teeth cleaned!! That was couple days ago and it still bleeds and hurts when I brush my teeth. I never thought getting your teeth cleaned would be a painful experience. Is this normal???

Is getting your teeth cleaned suppose to hurt like hell and make you bleed like crazy?
I am a hygienist and I would first like to state that we do not enjoy making people bleed or causing any discomfort.


With that said, I would like to clarify for you some of the other responses you are getting.


Yes, 4 years is too long to wait to have your teeth cleaned. Routinely it should be done every 6 months. What happens is that the soft plaque on your teeth continuously builds up, this is why you need to brush and floss. When it mixes with the calcium in your saliva, then it turns hard and adheres to the side of your tooth (like barnacle on a boat). This is called calculus or commonly known as tarter, it is hard piece of bacteria.


Tarter irritates the gums (like a pebble in your shoe) and it sends your brain a message to send your blood cells to that area to help kill the bacteria, but it gets trapped, causing inflammation which is red swollen gums. When you have your teeth cleaned, removing the irritation (tarter) actually %26quot;uncorks%26quot; the build up of blood and it flushes out of the sulcus (area between tooth and gum). THink of it as getting a splinter in your finger and leaving it in for 4 years, it gets swollen and inflamed and infected, then you try to remove the splinter, yes it is going to bleed and hurt like hell, but after your body heals, it will get better!!! If you get another splinter and remove it right away, it is quick, easy, minimal pain and your fine...right? THink of your teeth and gums this way. Keeping up with your cleanings will make your gums healthier and prevents you to have a more difficult cleaning like you just had.


It is actually a healthy thing to have that blood flushed out, but you don%26#039;t want to have it build up to begin with and that is where brushing and flossing come into place.


Now, if you maintain good home care and go every 6 months for a cleaning, you will most likely have a fairly easy experience. If you prolong it, you end up causing gum disease in the form of periodontitis, which the bone is being damaged by the bacteria. What you have right now is gingivitis, which is inflammation of the gums, with a good cleaning and good home care, that will be reversed, but if let go, then it will develop into periodontits and that is not reversable. Keep in mind that gum disease is directly linked to heart disease, evidence to pancreatic cancer and even alzheimer%26#039;s.. My motto is when did your mouth become separate from your body.


To also comment, I would stick with a hygienist to have your cleanings with. Nothing personal to the dentists, but we have much more training that they do when it comes to hygiene and tend to be more thorough. This is our specialty. If scaling under the gum line is needed, it is because we have to remove the tarter, not because we like to hurt.


I recommend to use an electric toothbrush, they force you to brush for 2 mins. and they are 90% more effective than a regualr brush. Brush 2-3x a day and floss every day. If you feel you are still have inflammation and bleeding issues, your hygienist can recommend an antimicrobial mouth rinse to help.
Reply:It is very common if you have sensitive gums or don%26#039;t brush often, esp if you have a lot of build up
Reply:If you didn%26#039;t have your teeth cleaned in that many years and you were not diligent about flossing, yes this is normal.





The scraper was getting off hardened plaque that probably already caused gum disease (gingivitis) and hence the bleeding. Keep up your dental hygiene routine and things will get better.





If the hardened plaque builds up enough, you will require gum surgery and may lose your teeth altogether. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Reply:actually it is some how normal.


but what is not normal is ur continuous bleeding so go to Dr. to give you antibiotics and antinflamatory drugs if necessary.





Best wishes
Reply:If you don%26#039;t have particularly good dental hygene, that may be the problem. Flossing and brushing regularly can make your gums stronger and less likely to bleed. That may be why she said you weren%26#039;t flossing enough. However, I brush and floss to the point that my family members think I%26#039;m crazy, and I still bled at the dentist. He was very rude about it as well. Said i didn%26#039;t floss. I told him I did and he didn%26#039;t believe me. Some dentists aren%26#039;t very gentle when cleaning teeth. The sharp hooky thing is for scraping plaque off your teeth and most dentists do it. Next time, let the dentist know beforehand that you have sensitive gums. And go to a different dentist next time. Except for the one horrid dentist, all my dentist visits have been fine and never hurt.
Reply:Yes if you don%26#039;t do regular teeth and gum care it is painful and bleeding.If you are not flossing regularly and correctly you had a lot of plaque build up on your gums. It has to be removed with the scraper.for your future comfort floss like crazy! Make sure to hit all sides of your teeth and in the back too.
Reply:WOW, too long to wait 4 yrs, should be done every 6 mos. Dentist has told me should not hurt, yeah right, everyone I know hates dental cleaning as hygenists dig down deep, like going to China !, told my dentist could not take that as hurt for over week later, hardly able to eat, etc, so now he does it, I tell him take it easy, but yes, does bleed lot, gross, even tho dont bleed wqhen I brush, floss, think they enjoy doing it to us! Talk to dentist if he can do it as get too much hurt from why hyg, one does it. Mine uses dinx? on some electric machine, hatwe the cold water it uses, sensitive to it too, ouch !! then polishes with minty polish. Good luck and i can feel for you.
Reply:my best friend is in dental hygeine school and she cleaned my teeth and the same thing happened. That hook is used to scrape calculus (sp) off of your teeth which is a plaque build up... i think. because of all the scraping, touching and moving around in there your blood vessels swell up and then it doesnt take hardly anything at all to make them bleed. I know this sounds crazy but you actually want them to use that hook the best they can otherwise your teeth are going to decay faster. Think of it this way: if the hygienist is nice on your teeth she may not be getting them as clean as she can and a root canal is going to hurt alot worse than a cleaning.
Reply:You probably had to have a deeper/more thorough cleaning than normal b/c it has been so long since your last cleaning. Normally if it is painful they would numb you to keep you from feeling it.
Reply:You can probably lessen the bleeding now and in the future by taking 500 mg of Vitamin C a day (for at least the week preceding the cleaning).





I am good about getting my teeth cleaned once or twice a year (usually twice). Still, I could not tolerate the sonic cleaning one dental hygienist tried to give me. It was much worse than the scraping. In the meantime, get some Sensodyne toothpaste and use mouthwash twice a day - not just any mouthwash, but Listerine (30 seconds) once and Biotene anti-plaque (30 seconds). Floss every day if you can, but you can also use a Waterpik (they make a cordless model), which you might tolerate better. Use a soft toothbrush.


Some dentists and hygienists are just making it painful. I haven%26#039;t had a Fluoride tray since I was in my childhood.



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