First time in a long time I went to the dentist today.  I was really worried, molar #2 was hurting.  I thought I might lose it.  When I showed up I faced the mandatory blizzard of paperwork because this is America: we can’t just do the procedure, we have to haggle.  Finally we worked out that I never re-upped my sliding scale file.  The attendant couldn’t reach the sliding scale person, so she asked me what we made last year.  I thought for a second and said, “We are so poor we don’t get a bill from VHAP.”  That would be the bottom of the scale.

The dentist was a nice young guy, early 30s.  He asked what was going on and I replied that he could just look through my teeth and pick the worst one, but please do look at the upper right molar, #2.  He said nothing was wrong with where I was pointing, but ’round back there was a crater.  He mentioned ‘numbing’ and I asked him if he’d be up for trying it without novocaine.  He was mildly surprised and agreed.

The work wasn’t unpleasant overall, every once in a while he’d push on a certain part and that would hurt, but I held still and didn’t worry about it, and shortly he moved to a new area and it didn’t hurt anymore.  It went fine and I didn’t squirm too much, I certainly didn’t move my head because of it.  He was talking about how the backside of the back teeth are the hardest place to work on because you have to hold the tool backwards and pull forwards, all while looking in a tiny mirror!  A moment later I involuntarily swallowed and my tongue bumped the tool and it hit the sensitive spot.  The operation went really quickly, even he remarked how simple it turned out to be.

Afterward I told him about my experiences with my last dentist and doing as much work as possible without novocaine and he said that most dentists don’t even think of working without numbing, they just assume that everything hurts too much.  I feel that the dentists work more carefully and a little slower, they pay more attention to what they are doing, it’s less blasé to them.  I must say that this guy never once pricked my gums with any tool.

So, for $20 I got my molar fixed and set another date.  I went in dreading the possibility of losing a tooth and came out almost giddy from having it go so easy.  Time to brush and floss.