This Is Going To Hurt Just a Little Bit

Ok, so I had to go to the dentist yesterday. And despite my outward bravado, i was dreading the visit since the day before, when I realized something had gone very very wrong in my mouth.
I was at the movies, munching on caramel flavored pop corns when something happened. I was hoping it was just a bit of pop-corn stuck in my teeth that was hurting my tongue, but when I checked at home a part of my tooth had gotten chipped, and the jagged edges of that tooth's metallic filling were hurting my tongue and making it difficult to talk/eat/spit.

So there I was at the dentists' with a friend who had never before stepped into a dental clinic (some people are so lucky!) Started off with detailed inquiries into my health/personal details, all of which went well enough. Next step was the actual check up in the dental (pain) chair. She started with the problematic tooth and went on to examine each of my teeth for cavities. I'm ashamed to say that she had to call her assistant to write down everything that was wrong inside.
She also had a problem with my existing fillings! I mean give the dentist a break, they'd been filled up like 10 years back when dental technology (?) wasn't what it is now. And they've been serving me fine, so why fix what isn't broken. That started her talking about life and  how we need to fix stuff before it gets worse! Sigh!

Anyway, I brought her back to my existing complaint, the solution to which was putting in a cap on the chipped tooth, that would mean drilling the remaining non-chipped part, and if required replacing the filling (Rs. 1200), and if further reinforcement was required, then putting in a pin on the filling (Rs. 2000), and then finally putting on the cap (Rs. 2000). All of this was gonna set me back by like Rs. 5500!! What a waste!
At least the procedure wont hurt anything other than my pockets, due to the root canal previously done, which has killed the nerve and thus all sensation.

But, due to lack of other options (I asked her to just put an outward filling and fix it, she refused!), I'm gonna have to sit in that very same chair many many more times!

I had a nightmare about this visit last night. In it, the drilled slips a bit from her hand, and she ends up pulling two of my teeth out!!! Hoping for the best.
All of this reminded me of a poem we had in school.

This is just going to hurt a little bit - Ogden Nash

One thing I like less than most things is sitting in a dentist chair with my mouth wide open.

And that I will never have to do it again is a hope that I am against hope hopen.

Because some tortures are physical and some are mental, But the one that is both is dental.

It is hard to be self-possessed With your jaw digging into your chest.

So hard to retain your calm When your fingernails are making serious alterations in your life line or love line or some other important line in your palm;

So hard to give your usual effect of cheery benignity

When you know your position is one of the two or three in life most lacking in dignity.

And your mouth is like a section of road that is being worked on.

And it is all cluttered up with stone crushers and concrete mixers and drills and steam rollers and there isn't a nerve in your head that you aren't being irked on.

Oh, some people are unfortunate enough to be strung up by thumbs.

And others have things done to their gums,

And your teeth are supposed to be being polished, But you have reason to believe they are being demolished.

And the circumstance that adds most to your terror Is that it's all done with a mirror,

Because the dentist may be a bear, or as the Romans used to say, only they were referring to a feminine bear when they said it, an ursa,

But all the same how can you be sure when he takes his crowbar in one hand and mirror in the other he won't get mixed up, the way you do when you try to tie a bow tie with the aid of a mirror, and forget

that left is right and vice versa?

And then at last he says That will be all; but it isn't because he then coats your mouth from cellar to roof

With something that I suspect is generally used to put a shine on a horse's hoof.

And you totter to your feet and think. Well it's all over now and after all it was only this once.

And he says come back in three monce.

And this, O Fate, is I think the most vicious circle that thou ever sentest,

That Man has to go continually to the dentist to keep his teeth in good condition when the chief reason he wants his teeth in good condition is so that he won't have to go to the dentist.