A childhood belief about being ill

when I was little I hated getting needles from the dentist (still hate needles) anyway, my dentist was a children's dentist, and told me that he didn't use needles. he used an instrument that massaged the gums with anasthetic called "the Blue Tickler" and so I believed him.
until I was 16
when my older sister mocked me to no end.
I had no reason to doubt him! topical anasthetics exist!
she still makes fun of me, 7 years later.
although, the very same dentist was a bald man, and my sister, when she was a child, stared up at him raptly as he described the procedure, and instead of listening, spider-walked her fingers up and across his bald pate while singing 'the itsy bitsy spider' in soft tones. My parents still call her "inky binky" (somewhere the words got changed) and it has been 20 some years for her, so I should stop complaining