In centuries past, the best and only relief from the blinding pain of a serious toothache came in the form of a pair of pliers. In the twenty-first century, we can detect cavities and fill them before they start to cause any pain at all. Of course, drilling the tooth causes pain, so you can have your tooth numbed with an injection first. Naturally, having someone jab a sharp needle into your gums is itself not pleasant, so you can also have some topical anesthetic applied before the shot.
To recap: you get a numbing gel to take away the pain of the injection, which takes away the pain of the drill, which in turn fixes the tooth before it starts to cause severe pain. That’s a triple-layered pain-avoidance strategy.
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