I've never had any teeth problems, thankfully. Not sure how, cause I had terrible hygiene when I was younger... Never had braces either.
As far as anesthetics go, everyone I've talked to has said the dentists will say "Count to 10, please." and even the biggest, burliest guys I know only get as far as 2 before they lose consciousness. "David After the Dentist" is proof enough it's not a placebo effect.
Work today was nice. I wasn't doing work. We student-interns ("co-ops" as they call us in Fancy McFancypants town) had a class today on drawing pretty pictures correctly so people don't cheat you out of your company's money, thousands of dollars at a time. Then we got to fiddle around with the apprentice training machines and figure out how they worked. Learning is sooo much more fun than desk work.
That sounds interesting! What sort of pictures? Technical drawings? Or was it a lesson in "Forge classical art like a pro"? ;P
I've never had braces, but my poor little sister had to have an expander that looked like a giant metal spider on the roof of her mouth for a few years :/
I've only ever had local anesthetic, and it usually takes more than one shot to work
when I was ten I had to get stitches in my eyebrow, and the conversation went like this:
Doc: aaaand that should be numb so--
Me: uh no it's not actua--
Doc: oh, ok. I'll increase the dosage a little bit... Better?
Me: ow...not really...?
Doc: ok this is the maximum I can use, it should be better now...
Me: uhhh actually n--
Doc: aaaand stitch number one...lalalalala~!
I've never had it, but the full-blackout/ semi-consciousness stuff really scares me D8 like, it's terror-inducing, and they're my only two options for when I get my wisdom teeth out! ;m;