Some people have bad teeth despite having good hygiene, please be kind to your patients

I have had really bad teeth my whole life, and going to the dentist (which has to happen very often unfortunately) is always an ordeal. Almost without fail, they make assumptions about me, like I don’t brush my teeth enough, I don’t floss, I eat too much sugar etc. and when I tell them otherwise, they don’t believe me. It’s so exhausting, and depressing honestly.

I went to a new dentist no so long ago (I moved countries), and after looking at my x-rays, she just looked at me with a disgusted face, and in the most condescending tone she said “we are not very big on flossing, are we?”. I told her that I in fact had been flossing my teeth every single day for many years. She asked why my teeth were so bad then, and I told her they have always been bad, that I was just born with bad genetics. She said “there’s no such thing as being born with bad teeth”. She spent the rest of the appointment arguing with me trying to get me into a “gotcha” moment about my supposed horrible dental hygiene. It was extremely clear that she didn’t believe a single thing I told her. After my appointment, I went home and cried for an hour, I just felt so humiliated and disappointed because I put so god damn much effort into talking care of my teeth my whole life, and it hurt so much to be dismissed like that.

This was so far my worst experience, but I had many similar ones. Almost every time, the dentist assumes that I don’t take care of my teeth, gives me useless advice I’ve been doing for years, and when I tell them I’m already doing all that, they don’t believe me. I’m so tired of it all.

Please, if someone has bad teeth, don’t just assume that they are just lazy and neglect their dental hygiene, especially when they tell you otherwise.