Here’s an email I sent my parents today that I figured everyone would enjoy:

I’m waiting for some processing to finish at work so I thought I would
tell you about my trip to the dentist this morning.

When the hygenist brought me back to the chair she mentioned that the
doctor would be a long shortly. It was a good thing I was early, she
said, because the doctor finished early on another patient. While she’s
telling me all this I kept thinking, “I just came for a cleaning! What are
they talking about!” So when the dentist showed up she started explaining
what they were going to do to me and such.It quickly became apparent that
what I assumed was my followup cleaning has turned into my first
experience with a filling.

The doctor was quite nice and told me to just raise my left hand if I feel
anything. SO about 10 seconds into the drilling I feel this sharp pain in

my tooth. I raise my hand and they get me more novicaine. I tell them I’m
a big boy and I promise not to do that again. 10 more seconds I feel
another shooting pain through my tooth. They get me more. After 3 shots of
novicaine they could have drilled straight into the nerve and I don’t
think I would have felt a thing. After that it was painless, literally.
But because of all the pain meds I will be unable to drink for a while and
she told me to just forget about eating today.

What have I learning from this experience? Never stop going to the dentist
for 5 years. And that the shots are nothing to worry about, at least at a
Health Partners clinic.