all hail anaesthesia

I was having a tooth prepared to receive its cyborg implant (or crown, as a dentist would more mundanely call it). The conversation went like this:

"Would you like some anaesthetic?" asked my dentist.
"What are you going to do?"
"Drill."
"Yes!"
Large needle is carefully pushed into my upper gum.
Pause, waiting for it to take effect, then drilling proceeds.
"Eek!"
"A bit tender still? I'll put some more anaesthetic in, then."
Large needle is carefully pushed into the roof of my mouth.
Pause, waiting for it to take effect, then drilling recommences.
And continues, painlessly.

Then, a couple of hours later, when the numbness wears off, the tooth starts saying to me, "hey, I've just been drilled, you know?". So I take a paracetamol, and everything's groovy again.

I can barely imagine life without anaesthetic -- and frankly, I don't want to.

Curious observation: the two injections were painful, too, but a very different quality of pain from the drilling. I had no trouble sitting there as the needles went in, but that drill in my incompletely-numbed tooth -- no way.