Everyone seems to hate their dentist. I can get this because a dentist
is basically a person who:
 1. tells you that you aren't good enough at things (such as brushing
    your teeth)
 2. causes you pain
 3. costs a lot

I had to have some fairly serious dental work done recently. I'm pleased
to say that this wasn't the result of poor dental hygiene, since I'm
always paranoid that my dental hygiene isn't good enough (I wonder why).
It was the result of having misaligned teeth since I was a child. Oh
well.

The first dentist I saw wasn't very good. She did a quick and painful
x-ray, looked at it quickly (but not so painfully) and then told me I'd
have to have my tooth pulled. Or, I learned a few moments later, I could
have a root canal. This is a mean psychological trick. Present a really
nasty option first, followed by a not-so-nasty-but-still-pretty-nasty
option, and someone's going to jump at the latter one. I didn't want my
tooth pulled anyway.

I'd been there for all of five minutes and the dentist was discussing
with her assistant whether they'd have enough time to do the first stage
of the root canal done before the next patient was due. The conclusion
seemed to be that they could do it if they rushed a bit.

I took this opportunity to postpone (with some convincing) any actual
dental work until another appointment that Saturday.

I called up later to cancel that appointment.

At this point I booked in with another dentist, Jess Su at Queen St
Dental. She's great.

This was the first time I'd seen her; the appointment began with her
talking to me and actually looking in my mouth before doing x-rays
(something the other dentist hadn't done). After some decently thorough
investigation, I was told that I would need a root canal, but that my
tooth was also cracked and that we'd need to proceed carefully because
the outer layer of my tooth was very thin in one place, so I'd have to
have a something-oh-somethingplasty done.

The other dentist, being unaware of this, would certainly have caused me
to lose my tooth.

I booked in for a few days after to begin the treatment. Jess was once
again convivial (a nice surprise, as apparently people who lack social
skills are more likely to become dentists) and made sure I was clear
about what was going to happen.

The treatment took about an hour and a half. I learned at one point my
gums were "too healthy" (making it hard to fit a clamp to one of my
teeth) and at another that one of the scariest things a dentist can say
is "get me the big one". I'm usually pretty resilient to anaesthetic, so
I needed quite a bit of local (the big one). Getting this was perhaps
the least pleasant part of the treatment.

I left kind of dozy, and smiling crookedly with half my jaw numb. I'll
be going back again in a couple of weeks, but so far the treatment seems
to be going according to plan and nothing hurts anymore.