Yeah... ouch! Its sure not inside the "pleasure zone". Believe me, I know what I'm talking about. I had ALL teeth pulled when I was about 50. Trust me, you dont want to do that twice. Fortunatly, it can only be done once.
The only good aspect - compared with your situation - was, that I didn't have to pay for that myself. Only later, for the dentures, I had to participate in the cost of making those with about AUS$ 1000.
Those are the benefits of the German public health system. All neccessary medical treatment is basically free. But of course there is the downside that everybody who is employed is paying into the health service - and not little.
Same thing here, its basically a 2% levy on top of additional tax, but for some reason no dental work is covered under the public health system.
Mine isn't strictly "necessary", but if it isn't done then it will become an even worse problem later.
Perhaps if I believe pleasure is pain, this will be the highest level of pleasure I ever experience.
Well, as I said, they pay things that are medically neccessary. And dental problems are medically relevant - very relevant even. A whole plethora of illnesses can origin from dental issues.
At the end of the day, its depending on the doctor/dentist statement if something is deemed "medically neccessary" or not. If its confirmed, all treatment is covered by the health service, also dental surgery and whatever else. Only prothesis is only covered partially. And depending on what type of prothesis you want, that can cost you a fortune.
About the pain... its not the worst possible pain, I guess. The weird thing is, you usually dont feel much pain during the treatment - it sets in when you are back home and the anestetic wears off. But they will probably give you some pain killer for that.
Oh and a tip: get something ready that you can eat without chewing, like soup or jello or pudding. But not acidic and to eat cold, to avoid bleeding.
Yeah, I have ice cubes galore in the freezer, and soup cans - mushroom, pumpkin, neutral stuff.
I will probably subsist on fluids - protein shakes and soups and the like, for the most part, until I can feel brave enough to chew again.
Got a bag of salt for warm water salt rinses, and well, I think that is about as prepared as I am, as well as the specialist mouthwash they gave me. I'll be fine. Just a journey into the unknown.