I have a lot of dental anxiety and a huge part of it is the novacaine injections. Especially in my cheek. It is always super painful and I hate it. I had 4 (very shallow) fillings that needed to be done and my dentist said he could do them with just a topical gel and I was dubious. But I gave it a go anyway and it was great. He didn’t even use a gel, he just went for it and explained he had a special very small drill thingy for these types of fillings. Almost no pain at all, I had worse pain when my filling was too high. I could actually feel my bite when he was fixing it and walked out feeling totally normal.

So glad I found this dentist! PM me if you are in socal and need a recommendation. Just wanted to share a positive story.