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I had one filling when the novacaine shot was so painful that actually almost slid down out of the chair and tears were running down my face. The shot had NO numbing effect and while the drilling was painful, it was NOTHING compared to that shot. I was not about to tell the dentist that I was not numbed up. For what it is worth, laughing gas has no effect on me whatsoever so I always turn it down.
I also have a male friend of the family that endured a root canal with no pain killer of any kind. Yikes!!
Denise
@Denise The shots on the roof of the mouth and at the top-front of the mouth are worse than any drilling. When I have gotten those shots, I just about pushed my body up and off the chair trying to get away from the needle.
As a kid, our family went to Dr. McKay who was a friend of the family and I was terrified of him. He was grumpy and mean and would threaten, “You better brush better and floss or I won’t use any Novocain next time.” The chair was a hard, plastic, uncomfortable thing and he never had an assistant so as he drilled, the air filled with dust from his drilling. It smelled like burning flesh and I choked on the fragments and debris that flew around in my mouth. Every 10 minutes, when my mouth was filled with debris and I was gagging so much that he couldn’t work anymore, Dr. McKay would stop the drilling, spray a little water in my mouth, and grunt, “Turn your head and spit.”
I would turn my head and attempt to spit the rubble from my mouth into a white, porcelain bowl that was swirling with water, much like a toilet flushing. It was up too high for a child and with a numb mouth and tongue, I could only spew maybe half the chunks and grit so I would be left with spittle dribbling down my chin. It was horrible and I was terrified to go to the dentist.
Then in 1980, when I was 22 years old and married, my wife and I had our own dental insurance and I asked a co-worker for a recommendation for a dentist.
A few weeks later, I had an entirely new, life-changing dental experience.
Instead of a hard, uncomfortable upright dental chair, I was laid back on a soft, comfortable, horizontal couch. A cute, young girl said she was a dental assistant and she would be working with the dentist to make sure I was comfortable.
“Would you like laughing gas?” she asked
“What’s laughing gas?”
“It’ll make you a little loopy to take the edge off of the drilling.”
“Are you kidding me? You can make me high so I don’t even care about the shots and the drilling and the fingers in my mouth? Bring it on, baby!!”
“Would you like headphones and your choice of music so you won’t even hear the drilling?”
“You mean, mentally I can be in a happy place in the other room while you take care of my dental work in this room. Duh! Sign me up!!”
“Is there anything else I can get for you, Mr. Jones?”
“How about an enema?”
“Oh, of course. Just roll over onto your left side. That’s good. Now, lower your pants and underwear so I can have easy access to, oh, my, your very cute bottom. That’s perfect. Now, I’m going to work my lubricated finger into your bottom hole and spread the lubricant around so it’s easier to insert the nozzle. Do you mind me doing this to you, Mr. Jones?”
“Are you kidding? I’ll give you 20 minutes to stop doing it.”
Wait. Sorry. Scratch the enema part. That was only in my dreams or maybe it was the nitrous oxide.
So, this cute young lass hooked me up to the nitrous oxide and the music and a few minutes later I floated up, out, and away from the building and, apparently, while I was gone, the dentist drilled and filled and polished my teeth.
And while the dentist did his thing, the pretty young lady stayed and sprayed water on the teeth and suctioned everything off during the drilling so there was no dust in the air and there was no smell of burning flesh.
Perhaps an hour later, although it could have been days since I had no concept of time while I was enjoying the nitrous oxide, I found myself looking up into the eyes of the cute little assistant
“How are you feeling, Mr. Jones?”
“Great! When is the dentist going to start?”
“Oh, silly. He’s already done. I just have you breathing oxygen to clear out the laughing gas.”
“Wow! Amazing! I didn’t feel or notice a thing.”
I was surprised, amazed, astonished, dumbfounded, flabbergasted, stunned, and gob smacked that the entire dental experience was pleasant and pain-free compared to the countless number of terrifying experiences in the dental chair during my childhood in the 1960s and 70s. Wow! What a change and what an improvement!
(Yeah, I know that surprised, amazed, astonished, dumbfounded, flabbergasted, stunned, and gob smacked are pretty much the same thing but I wanted to really emphasize how great I felt).
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