forced to get artistic to ignore the pain and fear -or- my trip to the dentist

I just came back from my 2nd dentist visit and have had 4 of my 7 cavitites filled
Although I am not terrified of the thought of it, everything changes when your’e in the chair and the drill is in your mouth
So, in order to cope, I have applied my philisophical/overthinking mode to the most un-comfortable aspects of having drills and grinders applied to your teeth
I try to keep my eyes shut and breathe evenly to relax
The eye shutting is also helpful because the needles and drills can be a bit frightening

The surface anesthesia made it easy to take the needle which spread the numbing agent throughout my mouth and jaw
I didn’t really have problems with pain but I started to think about what it feels like to have these things happening in your mouth without feeling the consequences of intense pain
In the absence of the pain was an un-natural feeling of pressure

Usually, if that kind of pressure was applied to your teeth then you would be screaming in agony

The drill was pretty much a non issue except for the aformentioned weird pressure but it was the grinder that was the really freaky thing
This guy has a dremmel tool in my mouth and the grinding is sending vibrations all thoughout my skull
At one point, my entire skull vibrated at once
I realized that the vibration very similar to an open “A” note feeding back on an electric guitar
and started to giggle whilst wondering if the dentist and his assisitant thought I was insane

I spent the rest of the day with a numb mouth but I hauled my ass to work and did a shift

This time was a bit different
The novocane had not taken complete effect and I felt a sharp pain
The dentist opted to let things sit for a couple of minutes and came back
This left me with a few minutes to sit and overthink everything
For a few moments, I started obsessing over the drill and started to get scared so I just started simulating the breathing patterns for meditation
Once I got over that, I just tried to re-capture the enthusiasm I had going into the office and I was fine
Although the last visit was the biggest and hardest to reach cavity, this visit would concentrate on one very close to a nerve
Also, I found out, the novocane shot would hit a nerve as the needle entered my lower jaw
“I am going to inject you near your Lingual Nerve” says the dentist “Everybody has it in a different place and sometimes we hit it”

“It can feel like a hot stab or an electrical shock”

“Cool”, I replied before I even knew I was saying
The next thing I knew there was the exact electrical shock he had predicted and it wasn’t that bad
Kinda like when you stick a 9 volt battery on your tounge but much more intense and colorful
I saw fractal art and lightning at the same time and it was traveling from the base of my lower jaw to the center of my tounge
I wouldn’t reccomend doing this as a recreational activity but I have to say it was one of the single most unusual feelings I have ever experienced

The rest of the session was fine exept for the bits and pieces of teeth and filling material that were dotting my tounge and making me wanna gag
I can’t stand to feel things on my face and I naturally wanna wipe them away
However, I was laughing because I realized I had “crumbs on my tounge” and wanted to swallow or have them washed off
I dealt with it and kept still
At one point I started to drift off
Fuck going to work
Although I am not in any pain, my mouth and lips are way more numb this time and I can barely articulate words

I am encouraged by the fact that I am seeing everything that happens to me as an opportunity to develop my observational, artistic and communication skills
Besides, you gotta cover up the pain and fear with something
Might as well capitalize on it and make some art