Well, speaking of childbirth, you know how one of the things they say to make you feel better about choosing an epidural is, "don't worry, sweetie, nobody would ask you to get, say, dental work done without anesthesia!"
Today, I had dental work done without anesthesia. It happened like this.
I went in for a routine cleaning and checkup. The dentist did a great job even if she did chat with her assistant the whole time in Hindi. They could have been commenting on the odd features of my mouth, for all I know. At the end of the cleaning and exam, the dentist said, "you have some decay in this tooth," and then showed it to me in the mirror.
Then she said, "I will fill it," and she she got ready to do just that.
Then I said, "Are you going to give me drugs? Like novocaine?" Because although I've had fillings done before, it's always been in the US. To clarify my point, I told her, "In the US, they ALWAYS give novocaine." She shrugged and told me it wasn't really necessary.
"Well, will it hurt?" I asked her.
"Maybe. You will feel it, but it might not hurt."
It sounded like quite the thrill ride. I would have said something tough like "BRING IT ON!" but I already had a number of dental instruments in my mouth at that point, so I just went with the flow in silence.
And it wasn't that bad. I broke into a cold sweat and was in a lot of fear for most of the procedure, waiting for it to get really, really painful. It never did.
So now I've gone through two medical procedures (for lack of a better unifying term to use with childbirth) without anesthesia. Now that I think about it, I think I've heard of people opting out of novocaine (or whatever) during some dental procedures, am I right? How common is this? When I told the dentist that in the US they "always" give novocaine, I was really just relating my experience. Maybe it's fairly common these days.
In any case, it was nice to pay the bill ($75 for the exam, cleaning, and filling) without having drool dripping out of my mouth, that's for sure.