One anecdote for not all rosy:
My father is permanently traumatized because he had to get his tonsils removed when he was young and they didn't give him any anesthetics.
Sounds like you got local anesthetics. You probably just didn't see the needle due to the angle.
This is a description of the most of the Soviet health services.
For example, dentists were using short metal pipe on a thumb when treating kids, so they don't bite or close their mouth.
>"and then the police shoot the dog...and the dog raped the boy...and then the rat shot the police..."
>"and then you have to eated the police...but the dog was eating the rat..."
>"and my grandmother ate the police...and the police turned the dog into lampshade....but the rat raped the police...and now my grandmother is dead inside lampshade dog...."
Going to the dentist now is ... challenging.
They could get some of the things westerners had, but with extremely low bandwidth.