I had an amazing experience today; it was horrific but really quite interesting. I went to the dentist to replace a cracked filling. He gave me novacaine or whatever is being used now. It worked fine - no pain. But because it was a deep filling he had to use a slow drill. All I could think of was it is something like a stereo where the sound starts on one side and seems to move across to the other side. The intense and unpleasant vibration seemed to pass through the bones of my skull like that. All other sensation moved into the background. This was completely overwhelming. Then I became aware of my heart rate shooting up. I felt as if I was on the verge of passing out and having some kind of seizure at the same time. It was very frightening.
The dentist was concerned and did the drilling in little bursts to give me time to recover but we had gone too far to stop. I reassured him that I wasn't in pain from the tooth, anyway. I think this was very stressful for both of us. His assistant was wielding the mini-vacuum and it vibrated against my lip. I giggled and he said that I had a good attitude. I guess it surprised him that I could be so distressed and still find something funny about it. I think it also relieved him:) And for myself it is nice to know that my sense of humor remains intact, even in difficult circumstances.
Addendum -- since then I have had a cartoon pop into my head, which strikes me as quite funny though I suspect that most won't find it so. I see a cartoon dentist's office with drill and all, a female patient in the chair. Her head is vibrating and the drill is not. The dentist is looking with shock at her, at the drill, at her.
Copyright © 2000 Kyril Oakwind