Thanks for the reply. I told her about all the sensitive spots I am
aware of, but the pain came from other spots that usually are not
sensitive and that were not painful during probing either.

I would just let the dentist/hygienist know where the sensitive areas in
your mouth are, that way, he/she can avoid it with the ultrasonic cleaner.
The ultrasonic is not necessary for an adequate cleaning.

Just changed dentists and had a filling and cleaning done today. The
dentist did an excellent job with the filling - no pain no discomfort
at all (topical plus slooow injection of nerveblock) !

However, the cleaning/descaling was a different story. With my previous
dentist I experienced maybe 2 jolts of pain when he used the
ultrasonics cleaner on my lower front teeth. It felt like poking the
gums with a needle or something.
With the new dentist it hurt about 6 times at various points and the
feeling was more like that of getting ice on a sensitive tooth. Oddly
enough the points where it hurt are normally asymptomatic- no extreme
sensitivity. Both used ultrasonics cleaners.

So that I don't procrastinate going for the next cleaning: are there
any ways of making this procedure less painful ? Is it less efficient
to have the tartar scraped off with a probe instead?