[Grishnakh]

>My experience with "dentists these days" matches yours. I go in for a checkup, and instead I'm getting sales pitches for mouth guards and alignment thinggys, and electric toothbrushes and all sorts of obviously high-margin dental accessories.

I'm going to agree and disagree with this one.

I went a few times to a "dental spa" a couple years ago which was trying to sell me a "night guard" for $900, claiming I was grinding my teeth at night. Their prices for other stuff were pretty high too.

My current dentist pushed me hard to get an electric toothbrush, either from her office or elsewhere. They even gave me a sample brushhead and let me try it out in their office, using some purple pills to show how much cleaner the electric toothbrush made my teeth. Her price actually wasn't that bad compared to Target/Walmart, but I ended up getting a nice Oral-B on Amazon on Black Friday. Guess what? The dentist was right! Now my teeth constantly feel like I just got a polishing at the dentist. I got another Oral-B for my wife on Amazon (it was only $30-35), and she loves it.

Seriously, get an electric toothbrush; it makes a huge difference. You don't need to waste time getting a full polishing when you use one of these daily.

But as for the night guard, my current dentist hasn't tried to sell me one of those. And they recommend twice-a-year visits, which is what my insurance pays for.

It sounds like you need to find a new dentist.