One terrified patient thought the dentist had finally found a way to spare him more panic.

But when a single pill appeared in the dentist’s hand, relief gave way to disbelief, and the explanation only made things stranger. With a tooth still waiting to be pulled, the nervous man was about to discover the dentist’s most outrageous little secr…

In this cheeky dental joke, a nervous man stops his dentist just as the nitrous oxide is being prepared. The problem isn’t merely the extraction: even thinking about a mask covering his face makes him feel as though he’s suffocating.

The dentist acknowledges his fear and offers another option. Would he be comfortable taking a pill? The patient readily agrees. For a moment, it seems they’ve found a solution. The dentist steps out, then returns with a single tablet.

“This is a Viagra,” the dentist announces. The patient is baffled; he had no idea that medication could help with dental pain. The dentist quickly clears up the misunderstanding: it won’t.

Then, with a grin, he delivers the punchline: “It’ll just give you something to hold on to when I pull your tooth.” The absurd switch from reassurance to innuendo is the whole gag—not a recommendation for managing an extraction.