# A dental question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-dental-question/181443>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 12, 2003, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-dental-question/181443 "2003-06-12T21:19:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-dental-question/181443/1 "2003-06-12T21:19:13Z")

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A thread in one of the other forums struck a nerve with me, so to speak. The OP mentions that he/she had a childhood dentist who didn’t use novocaine for fillings.

I had the identical, horrific experience as a child and dreaded dentists until I found out, as an adult, that dental work didn’t have to be torture.

Was/is this common practice among dentists working with children, or was my dentist just cheap or sadistic? (If it helps, the period of time would have been the late 60’s early 70’s?)

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**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-dental-question/181443/2 "2003-06-12T21:32:32Z")

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I don’t know how common it was, but I had cavities drilled with no anisthetic as a kid, 50’s & 60’s. I learned how to deal with intense pain in that dentist’s chair. I remember that my mom had some procedure done with novocaine, so it was available. Apparently it was thought unnecessary for the relatively brief period of pain involved in drilling cavities.

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**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-dental-question/181443/3 "2003-06-12T21:49:08Z")

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I had the same experience in the 70’s. My parents took me to the cheapest dentists they could find and these dentists happened to be fairly old. Perhaps their age had something to do with it.