DENTIST HORROR - NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH

Not last Sunday night but the Sunday before, I got an abcess under my wisdom tooth. I spent a week of sleepless agony while waiting for the antibiotics to kick in. If you haven't HAD an abcess under your tooth, you can't imagine how HORRIBLE it is.
Anyway, I made an appointment at the dentists for today to have the tooth out (I have been putting it off for 18 months, so the abcess is my own fault anyway.)
Sooooooo I go to the dentist today. Now, I am TERRIFIED of dentists. Absolutley TERRIFIED.
So there I am, shaking and near to tears, and I get called in. She does the injection thing (which I don't mind so much), and then I wait for 5 horrible minutes and go back in. And off we go. 20 minutes (yes, TWENTY) later she can't get it out. I have been yanked and squahed, heard crunching and cracking, and it won't come out. She decides to xray it, and "while we are waiting" for the results of the xray, she does some other work that needed doing: 3 fillings, ANOTHER extraction and a scale and bloody polish!!
By this time, I have lost all fear of dentists and their dental practices - fillings? ha, they are nothing. Scale and polish? a walk in the park. Bear in mind I have been in this chair for an HOUR so far....
The xrays come back, and the tooth that wont come out is "tricky". Mmmmm, yes, I agree, smiling my bloody smile, looking like an extra from Zombie Flesh Eaters, with gore trickling down my face. Another dentist arrives to help with the "trickiness". Dentist number one sits on me, while dentist number two hangs onto her. She shows me one of the things she is going to use. It is a small chisel. A proper chisel, out of a toolkit. I grin again - this is nothing to someone of my calm demeanour and non-fear of dentistry.
Wrench, CRACK, chisel, CRUNCH CRACK CRUNCH, a HORRIBLE pulling sensation which lasts for...oh, another 25 minutes or so.... (yes, TWENTY FIVE).... and FINALLY nothing.
"Won't it come out?" I ask, and she is holding it up in her plier things. I feel cheated. No gut-wrenching final agonising yank, no collosal CRAAACK - it's just OUT.
But this isn't the end of it!!! Its an exciting tooth!
Turns out it has 4 roots and was stuck behind the tooth next to it AND embedded in bone which is why it didn't want to come out. The second dentist jostled me in his excitement at such a unique find. Its going to some dental place to be looked at as its very unusual apparently.
Anyway, here I am , back home, blood filling my mouth, anticipation of impending agony, and I am SOOO proud of myself its untrue.
I am not frightened anymore. Everything that could go wrong or was unexpected HAPPENED to me today in my 2 hour ordeal. It hurt then and it hurts now and it will get worse I expect, but I WENT and I didn't cry or anything and I feel so relieved its unbelievable.
If any of you are scared of the dentist, don't be. It's easy to say, I know, but I was PETRIFIED, went through HELL and now its nothing to me. A filling is a nasty noise and a bit of wincing. A scale and polish is a bit of vibration and horrible mouthwash. The tooth that WASN'T "tricky" was out in seconds (literally - it was pliers in, one yank and its gone!) and it is weird rather than painful. The pain comes AFTER, but by this time you aren't in the dentists anymore so it doesn't count.
So, I am dripping blood, sore jawed and in lot of pain but I lost my fear of dentists, and toothache will never get the better of me again.