You're welcome to have your teeth drilled as you like. However, if you have a younger family member with more sensitive teeth you may understand that it's not for everyone. Imagine if your child jerked away for just and instant that caused the drill to cause more harm than good. The modern novacaine derivative my dentist uses lasts only about 30-60min after the appointment.

Because I was under the age of 18 and he was my parents dentist I didn't really have a choice. I didn't have any cavities as a child so my first negative dental experience was at 17 when he filled 4 molars "preventatively" (because he didn't know that epoxy capping was a thing). It didn't kill me, but it was an excruciating 30 min and an absolutely miserable day. The muscle tension pain from not moving took days to subside. Not a reasonable trade-off for me.

I had your experience at ages 6-9 in Alaska. The only available dentist had moral qualms about using novocaine.

The resulting aversion conditioning kept me away from dentists until I was 36, when my then-girlfriend coerced me to see a dentist. I needed lots of work, all of which was done using novocaine.

Pain control is part of good professional medical practice. If a practitioner puts you through gratuitous pain, find somebody else.

> Pain control is part of good professional medical practice. If a practitioner puts you through gratuitous pain, find somebody else.

I he has really "moral qualms" even when asked explicitly, I accept that you better look for another dentist. My claim is rather that it is as a dubious practise to just apply an anaesthetic injection by default.

That's interesting. My dad (half German) is the same way. After having gone to the dentist and seeing that, I though to myself, if he can do it, so can I. I now prefer it over having a numb mouth the whole day.

I've never had to to anything beyond simple fillings so I'd like to think that's the limit for me.

> I strongly prefer 5 to 10 somewhat inconvenient minutes over having a numb jaw for a whole day.

Is it possible only a minority would consider the pain of a drill into the core of their tooth an inconvenience?

It depends on the procedure. I had a minor cavity filled when I was younger, and it really wasn't all that horrible. Something like a root canal would be unimaginable.

As I mentioned higher up the thread, pain thresholds vary dramatically. My father has had more than one root canal with no anesthetic because it was cheaper. He said the pain wasn't that bad. He just has a very high threshold for tooth pain, or lack of nerves there.

not all procedures are the same. my doctor also asks me if i want anaesthetics - but only if he thinks i can get away without one (i.e. minor work - he wouldn't ask if he expected the operation to last for more than a couple of minutes).

i've also skipped the anaesthetics on occasion without problems, but there were surgeries where this would have been madness where the doctor didn't ask.

Funny.

> I strongly prefer 5 to 10 somewhat inconvenient minutes over having a numb jaw for a whole day.

I am not sure you'd say the same after 3-4 hours of treatment. I've done some root canal treatments here and there, which can take a long time. I'll take a numb jaw for a couple of hours afterwards over being in pain for 3 hours.

But I guess you're right, for 5-10 minutes of pain, it isn't worth it.