Asklemmy

Like everyone else, I agree that pain management can be pretty good these days. For me the experience was:

• dentist comes in, says hi, reviews what's going to happen, asks if you have any questions; tell them if you feel nervous, it's ok
• doctor puts a "local anesthesia" (something on a q-tip) to your gum, so the needle won't hurt too much
• then the doctor injects the "real" anesthesia in the gum. (an assistant may do this part - it varies) Depending on how deep they need to put it, you may feel a bit of pain, but not too bad. Pinch your arm moderately hard, and imagine that happening in your gum, and that's the most I've ever felt for a very deep injection for a removal. it lasts about 1 second. (some places might give you nitrous oxide for this part, but I've never had that.) They may give more than 1 injection, depending on the situation. From this point on you should feel no pain.
• doctor/assistant goes away for 10-15 minutes to let the anesthesia spread. your mouth starts to feel numb.
• the dentist comes back with an assistant, they get organized (figuring out what tools they need, etc) From this point on they're mostly just drilling or doing whatever they need, and your job is just to move your head however they want and keep your mouth open and spit when they tell you. it's a little boring, tbh, at one point I almost dozed off and made a bit of a snoring sound.
• it can be a little weird having saliva pool in your mouth. the assistant should be vacuuming it out regularly. if they're not doing this often enough, let them know. It is also very very helpful if you can breathe through your nose. if you have a problem with this just let them know.

Good luck, let us know how it goes!