11 Jun What are we actually afraid of?

‘Did you read it?’ I ask my dentist. ‘I certainly did,’ she says. ‘When you think about how things used to be—the amount of pain people suffered back then.’

I had photocopied a page for her from Luc Panhuysen’s book ‘Oranje tegen de Zonnekoning’ (Orange vs. the Sun King). It offered a fascinating glimpse into the Palace of Versailles, revealing the reality hidden beneath the glittering façade. Louis XIV had developed an infected molar. After various remedies failed to help, the doctors decided to extract the tooth. However, the infection persisted. Consequently, Louis was advised to have all his molars and front teeth extracted.

The treatment
That must have been a massive procedure, justifiable only if the alternative were excruciating pain and imminent death. I might add, as an aside, that Louis was a big eater; he could consume several large portions of meat in a single meal. During the operation—with lackeys and close friends present in the antechamber, able to hear the screaming—the molars were extracted without anesthesia. However, a portion of the palate came away with them, creating a hole between the nose and the mouth that was cauterized with red-hot coals. Are you still following along?

Amputations
‘Ah,’ says my dentist, ‘back then, they used to perform amputations without anesthesia, too.’ From my reclining chair, my gaze falls on my lower legs. ‘They had to be quick,’ she continues, briefly setting down the saliva ejector she is holding, ‘otherwise the person would have bled to death before anything could be done.’ She picked up the ejector again and firmly placed it in my mouth.
Unfortunately, I cannot reply, but I look around the room and wonder: why are we actually afraid of the dentist?

She thinks out loud: ‘I could copy the page about the Sun King’s teeth and slip it in among the magazines in the waiting room.’ I picture someone stumbling upon it unexpectedly, reading it, and fainting on the spot.
‘Thank you,’ I say sincerely to the dentist. ‘It’s great that you work so carefully. See you next time.’

Letting go of resistance
It is important to emphasize that the pain we experience cannot be compared to the pain people endured in the past. So, it is easy for me to speak.
However, it is interesting to note how much we ourselves add to the pain by resisting the sensation. Often, we are not even aware of this resistance.

We do this not only with pain but also with emotions—and usually, we are unaware of this, too. It manifests as anger, feelings of guilt, or accusations.

*This post has been automatically translated from Dutch