I've had some fairly major dental work done over the years; not exactly fun, but not that bad either. Here are a few of things that help: 1. Dentists take a course in bad office music, so bring some tapes or a CD and listen to 'em with headphones. Trust me, Bach helps. 2. Dentists have a fairly high rate of suicide. Remembering this made me realize that if I howled with pain the dentist might take this the wrong way and jump off a bridge. I wouldn't want to be responsible for this. 3. Sometimes you can sweet talk dentists and technicians out of some nifty tools that are useful in sculpture, etc. 4. If it gets really bad, you can always bite. Just knowing this is somehow comforting.