I'm new to this newsgroup and hope someone will have some advice.

I am 47, see my dentist regularly, brush twice a day with an electric
toothbrush and floss once daily.

My dental hygienist insists that I come in every three months for
cleaning, rather than every six months (insurance only covers two
cleanings per year).  At each visit, she begins by taking the little
metal probe and literally stabbing it into my gum (I'm generally sore
for two or three days afterward).  All through the cleaning, she
comments that "there is a lot of bleeding" and that I have "advanced gum
disease".  During my regular brushing and flossing, I have never seen
any bleeding or even "pink in the sink" as the commercials say.

I am beginning to wonder if I am being snowed.  My next visit is coming
up next week, and I am really dreading it.  Last time, when she began to
polish, she dropped the polisher inside my lip and gave me a cut that
hurt for about a week afterward.

I really like my dentist.  He is always up on the research, he is
pleasant, and he has done some very nice work for me.  But I hate this
hygienist.  This, by the way, is the second one I've worked with in his
office, because the first was very young and so rudely flippant I
demanded I be assigned to someone else.  With that history, I'm a little
reluctant to ask for a third hygienist, but I do find I don't trust this
woman.

Any advice?

Libbie