I'm absolutely gob-smacked.

There was absolutely no pain or discomfort at all.

Not one single bit.

If I had had an anaesthetic, the pain of the needle going in, and injection would have been the and the only pain of the procedure.

So, I'm now in Berlin, and the dentist I like, trust and prefer is here, so I'd made an appointment for a general check-up before I arrived.

I had that yesterday, all was well, except for needing one filling.

So I go today for that filling, and dentist says to me, "how about not having anaesthetic?"

And I'm like... "is that a thing? wouldn't there then be considerable pain?"

She says, well, it varies, and it can be just fine. If it doesn't work, we use anaesthetic.

So I say let's try it, and we do, and it worked - it was amazing.

It was so much easier in the mind, without anaesthetic.

Before, my belief had been - having always, always had anaesthetic - that anaesthetic was needed and necessary and always used because the procedures induce considerable pain.

So when I've been in the dental chair, my belief has been that what's being done would be very painful, if it were not for the anaesthetic.

So I'm laying there, and I'm fine with it, used to it, so I'm relaxed enough, but still my basic assumption is that something very painful is occurring, which is being masked. There's an inherent tension in being in that situation.

Turns out at least some of the time it has in fact not been painful because there has been no pain.

Laying there then without anaesthetic and experiencing no pain, it is then clear that there is no pain, and so there is no tension.

So, my question to y'all - have you had this before? have you had fillings without anaesthetic?