Especially when they're soaked in topical anesthetic.
I don't know why it is that lying down on a cushioned chair for an hour should leave me dazed and feeling like I've been beaten about the torso by two or three big guys with baseball bats. It started this time when the dentist put the needle in my mouth and said, "Don't try to hold your breath, this is going to take a minute or two."
But the amenties are much better -- safety glasses so that I don't get any overspray in my eyes -- and the aforementioned topical, several steps up fron just pressing really hard on the injection site with a finger or numbing it with ice. So we're not talking Hillerich and Bradsby, just whiffle bats. Someday, they will be nerf bats. Yeah, and Ari Fleischer will open his mouth and the truth will come out.
The project for today was replacing a bunch of crumbling filling in an upper left molar and cementing the crown back in place that got pulled out last time around. But most of the time I spent listening to the conversation among everyone in the office about the new space they're moving to -- apprently the main feature of the color scheme is "Happy Yellow" with acents of dark green, gold and some other colors I forget. The dentist hates most it it, one person likes it. But all the colors they really liked, when you looked at the chips next to the carpet, "they looked like dog vomit."
Even with ordinary fillings (no ceramic for this one because it's likely the tooth won't last anyway) the procedure has changed since last I played this game. Or perhaps my new dentist was just winging it. After drilling out the old filling she spread on some kind of UV-curable plastic instead of the usual thermal isolation layer -- I guess when the novocaine wears off completely I'll find out whether it works.
It's about three hours later, and most of the feeling is back in my mouth -- including the gums where wedges got stuck in to stabilize the banding that held in the front part of the filling. But I'm not supposed to eat on that side until tonight or tomorrow when the amalgam sets up. (Needless to say my original Idea of baking some crisp-crusted pizza for lunch was right out.)
Next up, that gap on the bottom left from my last dentist, where food always collects and inflames the gum whenever I eat anything interesting (for some reason ham is particularly bad) and then we'll start talking longterm strategic plan. I passed on a July 3 appointment, but I'm sure I'll get to spill some blood in a patriotic fashion anyway...