I've come to believe that dentists no longer exist. I live in an alternate reality.

You have to floss well too.  Sometimes even then it's not enough.  Believe me.  Whether or not I'd have cavities always seemed like such a huge roll of the dice.  My brother doesn't take care of his teeth very well at all and he went in and had no cavities.  That's just not fair.

I don't know what bothers you about the drilling, though.  In fact, people have been drilling teeth for thousands of years.  It's much nicer now than it used to be.  Anesthetic, high speed drills, etc.  Just imagine someone just turning a rock back and forth over your tooth to drill it.  That would totally suck.

wait a minute, why was your dentist exposing his chest hair to you?  you sure you were at the dentist?

My ability to be exceptionally mellow combined with the fact that needles don't bother me at all means I don't really have much of a problem with the dentist. I think my least favorite thing about said place is the friction.
Also, one of my aunts is training to be a dentist.

So... less unpleasant then it potentially could be + historical context = not unpleasant? I don't think so.

Oh yeah. Did I mention that I don't like needles, either? I guess I'm just a walking shambles of phobias... needles, hospitals, dentists, heights, spiders, losing control of my own mind, death (among other things)...

Interestingly, the things that I'm afraid of are also the things that fascinate me. I guess this is because fear is one of the most complicated and incomprehensible, yet at the same time, so painfully simple, aspects of the human psyche. Almost every story I write has something to do with one of my own fears. I think one day I might become a horror writer; Stephen King says the reason he can write such effective horror stories is that he's afraid of so much stuff.

I know what you mean, actually. I know people that brush a mere once a day, and don't ever floss, and have never once had a cavity. Rather unfair, if you ask me.

I don't have a problem with dentists, except for one thing: the smell. I don't like the smell of the places, but they can drill, stick needles, and plow away at my face all they want. Needles don't bother me, not even painful ones.

*laughs*

I have the same problem. I brush and floss my teeth twice a day and I don't eat many sweets nor anything with lots of acid like an orange but I still seem to get cavities. Lose lose situation for me.

Funny timing.  I just had an appointment last week, and they found a bunch of stuff wrong.  I went in because a tooth broke in the back of my mouth earlier this year and theres a hole there now (and trust me that's a pain to deal with) and some of my front teeth got chipped playing basketball.  So I went in to get a check up and an "estimate" (I'm more concerned about paying for it then what they put in my mouth unfortunately).  And I scheduled the next appointment knowing very well that I'm gonna be broke for a few months paying this thing off, so I decided to apply for a credit card, and just got approved tonight for this one card, it took less than a minute... So now I'm extremely happy :P  They can do anything they want to my mouth.  Sure, I don't like long pointy metal things in my mouth, and I hate that scraping feeling, but I want my mouth to be the best mouth it can be haha

I believe the guy was Greek or Italian, depending on how prejudice you are, that might answer your question ;)

I received a piece of metal on one of my central incisor while playing a stupid sport in primary school. It split my tooth in half but the sensation of it was rather fun. Every breath I took gave me a shiver. I think I came back home my teeth totally exposed to the air that day. My mother was rather unhappy but we managed to have the school pay for the dental crown (if that's how it's called in English).



The operation wasn't bad (I'm not afraid by dentists or their machines; I especially don't mind needles - a good thing since I like to donate blood when I have a chance) but the whole process was very long... way too lengthy actually. I had a temporary crown in plastic which was of a scary yellow-ish tint but it was so badly glued that it fell very often. After a point I decided to just take it off and put it on my desk at school - better than swallowing it if you ask me - and often I forgot that people could see what was left of my tooth. Not a nice image, but funny faces.



Cactus... 8 years of braces? I hope it was worth it! Makes me happy to have nicely aligned teeth.