Can a dentist refuse a dental cleaning, if he insists on doing a deep cleaning on three teeth? all i wanted was a regular cleaning.

Yes: If you your dentist says that you need a deep cleaning on some of your teeth then he should have informed you that you have periodontal disease affecting those areas and the standard of care for treatment is scaling and root planing (deep cleaning). Your dentist can either choose to not treat you the way you request or have you sign an informed refusal to treat the periodontal disease then clean.

Yes: Yes. A dentist may not do substandard treatment even if the patient consents to it. The dentist knows better and the patient may not. It would be malpractice to knowingly do substandard treatment.

Two choices: A dentist can refuse to give you treatment that is not exactly what you need, ie, a cleaning instead of the recommended scaling and root planning. However, my experience has been to do what i can for now until my patient is ready to do the better recommended treatment. I would rather give my patient my best expertise, (doing no harm) and continue to encourage him/her as our relationship grows.