Went in for a crown the other day. The dentist got called away to a different patient midway through. Anesthesia started wearing off. Dentist took her time with the other patient. I was fairly tensed up by the time she got back. I was doing my best to balance being polite with limiting how much the pain affected me. The longer she was gone, the less I was able to pretend I wasn’t in pain. My strategy for pain management is tensing inwards, and I hadn’t raised my voice or cursed. I was waiting for my turn.
A friend who works there later told me that the dentist said I scared her and she thought I was going to harm her. I can’t seem to make sense of that. I can’t think of what threatening behavior I displayed, unless dentists getting attacked by patients is just a thing they have to deal with.
Also ask for gas. It doesn’t stop the pain, but it relaxes the mind somewhat.
I tried that. I got paranoid. Gas made the experience worse.
e: iirc, I think they might have overhyped it as an extreme mind altering drug that would affect my ability to make decisions. The important take away I fixated on was:
Things are not as they seem. You are not in control.
I wasn’t able to shut the Clockwork Orange montage vibes out.
In retrospect, I had gas a bunch of years prior. It’s mild af.