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My husband hasn’t been to the dentist in 10 years, how can I make him go?

Hello Dr,
My husband will not go anywhere near a dentist and hasn’t had a check-up for over ten years.He had a bad experience at a walk-in clinic and had his tooth extracted and won’t even discuss going now.
He generally has a healthy diet and looks after himself generally. Could you give me any advice on how I can start to get him to even think about going to the dentist? I go twice a year and take our two teenage sons. I have spoken to my dentist but he said unless my husband is willing to at least try there isn’t much that can be done.Thanks, Mary

its almost impossible to get someone to do something they dont want to by trying to persuade them .
You need to think what benefit your husband would get from going to the dentist .
in his view he had a ghastly experience and going might find something else , especially as he isn’t in any trouble .
However most people need a professional cleaning after 10 years s their mouth may not be very clean and have lots of hard scale and maybe not very fresh breath .
Perhaps he might consider looking at that aspect of it rather than the dentist looking for holes !
Hope he gets there
Jenny

Answer provided by: Dr Jennifer Pinder Retired
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