In the movie Marathon Man, Dustin Hoffman plays an athletic young runner who is violated by a Nazi dentist. The dentist, played by Laurence Olivier, drills big nasty holes in Hoffman’s teeth, and asks him in a menacing voice, “Is it safe?”
This is the scene that was running through my brain the other day when I underwent an extraction of my number 18 molar. It was abscessed. It hurt.
And while I can’t find any statistics on deaths in the dentist chair, apparently it’s a dangerous place. There are many dire warnings on the Internet about people who have died due to tooth problems, including fatal blood infections from cavities, allergic reactions to anesthesia during dental procedures, terror-induced heart attacks in the chair (who can blame them?), too much anesthesia, stroke, oral cancer, etc.
So always remember to brush your teeth, and floss thoroughly. It could save your life.