I realize that this is one of those questions I might not really want the answer to, but…
Anyway. Last week I was having a root canal done, which was about as enjoyable as can be imagined - all the elements were there for a good, painful bit of dentistry: last tooth in the row, cavities, pocket of infection under the tooth, the works ; and as I was writhing in that chair fighting against myself not to sock my dentist one on a general fight or flight principle, I got to thinking : this hurts. Like, a lot. This is one of the most painful things I’ve been through so far.
And since the internet has introduced us all to the sheer depth of fucked upness inherent to the human condition, I also got to thinking: are there people out there who undergo this for *fun *?
So that’s the question: is there a sub-sub-fringe group of people out there who, for one reason or another, actually seek out this sort of thing ? Who get off on having their teeth pulled, drilled, yanked, poked, broken or otherwise tampered with ?
There’s an old saying, “even masochists hate going to the dentist.”
That said, there is a subset of people who pick their gums so badly they eventually need to go the dentist and get them fixed. That’s not exactly the same as masochism, it’s more related to self-cutting.
Dental pain is a whole other world of hurt. Folks can be into some fairly extreme masochism, but I suspect this would be too much for even the hardest of the hardcore.
A friend of mine who used to like to pride himself on his pain tolerance once heard of some friend-of-a-friend who had all of his dental work done without anesthetic. My friend tried this on his next trip to the dentist, and was crying for the novocaine immediately.
(Also, I have been getting chills and squirming while writing this post because it’s made me think of Dental Pain I Have Known.)
In the musical version of Little Shop of Horrors, there is a character Arthur Denton (Don’t Panicon!) who is a dental junkie. Played by Bill Murray in the movie, with Steve Martin as the sadistic dentist.
There’s a masochist in the original, played by Jack Nicholson, tho’ I don’t recall him being into dental pain. But I am really fuzzy here.
So, these kinds of folk are “part of the culture”, as they say. I figure they must exist.
If you’ll forgive a slight hijack, is a root canal still that painful a procedure even with modern drugs? Or did you not get properly anesthetized?
I had an abscessed tooth once which probably was the most physically painful thing I’ve experienced, though a bad second degree burn and having a cyst cut out of my neck with a completely ineffective local anesthetic is very close to claiming that spot. I couldn’t afford the root canal so I just had it pulled. My friend though had the same situation and had the root canal, he describes it as almost completely painless with the drugs and a welcome relief from the hell of tooth pain.
Of course I did - my dentist is a sweetheart who never skimps on the adrenaline shots. Still hurts when she’s pushing down into the deep ends of the roots - like I said, I had pockets of infection down there (granulomas) which got compressed or otherwise inflamed during the procedure (not all that clear on the specifics, TBH). Not much to be done about that particular pain except gobbling down on some Ibuprofen and prayers that it works quick.
Prayer don’t work too good, either.
It’s hit or miss, really - I needed four of them done in a short timeframe because I’m an idiot. The first two were absolutely painless, third one was a bit difficult, but the last one - motherFUCK.
I’ve had my wisdom teeth cut out and had a root canal and both procedures were excruciatingly painful, despite the drugs. I have a high tolerance for drugs, which is largely my own fault.
In the original film, the character was played by Jack Nicholson (in one of his first screen roles), and he definitely was portrayed as a masochist who liked dental work so much that he insisted on getting more done.
Unfortunately dental work is very painful for me to the point where I have to take a valium prior to even having a cavity filled.this is because of my very high tolerance to pain needs. Novocaine and even nitrous seem to have little or no effect on me, so even a simple cavity fill is painful. But, before I had this high tolerance to the medications I had root canals done and they were never pleasant, even with a numbed tooth it was still somewhat sensitive.
For me, the Novocaine shot hurts more than the drilling without anesthesia when I have dental work done. For the past twenty years I’ve gone without anesthetic except for wisdom teeth extraction and root canals. Even when they rub the surface with Novocaine first before injection it still hurts like hell. And it’s not fear of needles but the Novocaine itself that hurts so much. I think the pain of the dental drill is over-rated.
A week ago I had a back molar prepared to receive a full crown. I go in tomorrow for the permanent one to be installed. For a short time the pain peaked at 3 on a scale of 10. A Novocaine shot would have been 8 or 9. Even with Novocaine, you still feel the vibration of the drill and have to deal with having stuff crammed into your mouth.
Are there people who like dental pain? Sure, I guess, all kinds.
But I doubt there are many who have an actual sexual fetish associated with it.
I’m sadly quite familiar with pretty much everything, and everything that’s, ummm, “professionally” offered, and I can’t recall ever seeing anyone in the BDSM community advertise expertise in dental scenes. Sure, it’s possible as a subset of “medical scenes,” but those tend to be more physical examination kinds of deals, the poking and prodding (so to speak) goes on elsewhere and not in the mouth.