Is it safe? (Er, apparently not, no...)

Here's one to turn us all odontophobic. In the nastiest piece of New York State dentistry since Larry Olivier's turn in Marathon Man, Brandy Fanning, a woman from Syracuse, is suing Dr George Trusty (inaptly named, I think) for $600,000 after the drill bit snapped off and lodged near her eye during some work.

The story:

Fanning said she went to the center's emergency dental clinic after pain in a left molar started getting worse. With a root canal ruled out as an option, Trusty gave her some Novocain and began drilling to break up the tooth before extracting it, she said.

So far so good. Hey doc, let's turn the radio on.

As Trusty drilled, he was "performing rhythmical steps and movements to the song 'Car Wash,'" which was on the radio, according to the lawsuit.

Hmm, a dancing dentist? No thanks. Not even to Rose Royce.

Then, Fanning heard a snap.

Uh-oh. There goes the drill...

Trusty tried to use a metal hook to pull the bit out, but that only pushed it farther up, driving it through the sinus and bone near her eye socket, the lawsuit alleged.

Ouch. As if a dentist's drill wasn't already the worst sound in the world.

After first minimizing the problem, Trusty talked to an oral surgeon to set up an appointment — and then told Fanning she needed to get to an emergency room immediately, according to the lawsuit.

She claimed he had initially told she would likely sneeze the drill bit out, but doctors said later that if she really had sneezed, the drill bit could have blinded her left eye.

Good thing she didn't sneeze, then.

Our cousins across the pond in general set a great stall by their oral care. And generally the care is much better than in Europe. Face it, we Brits have horrible teeth and the Portuguese ain't much better. But somehow this tale of mouthly woe just screams only in America, doesn't it?