Got a filling today. It's in a tooth which doesn't need any pain killer because the nerve was taken out of it with a root canal. Nice! Always a favorite topic. . . pain and dentistry.
My dentist is also a professor so he always teaches you something when he is working on you. He was like, "Well, you won't need any thing for pain today." and looked me straight in the eye to see if I understood why. I was like, "right. there's no nerve in that tooth" He was like, "So, no needles today." But you know, I've got a drawer full of 'em." I was like "I know you do." He liked that.
Then I told him I am pretty macho when it comes to dentistry pain, but that is a tendency I am trying to overcome. Perhaps it's because I had to adapt to different norms when I was living around the world. A friend of mine is from the Ukraine and growing up she never had any sort of pain relief at the dentist. I would just think of her when I got a little uncomfortable in years past.
I guess there are several approaches to pain. 1) Face it down, realize it is as much of an illusion as pleasure - it's all in your mind! 2) pain killer, or, perhaps alcohol or some other pleasure- enhancer 3) laughter - as Mark Twain said, Heaven must be boring because there couldn't be laughter without any pain.
The filling was, as promised, pain free. Or perhaps I was just so zen I rolled with the discomfort of it. At the end the dental hygenist offereed me that spit suction tube thing they use to mop up your mouth, for one last expectoration. I looked at it and said, "as inviting as you offer is. . no thanks!" and swallowed my spit. They thought that was hilarious.
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