Mepivacaine (carbocaine) can be slightly better than some others.

http://www.mgawpa.org/pdfs/Dentristy...20GravisLH.pdf

I ask for very little and say I'll take a little more pain.

If you do that, keep reminding them that some amount of transient pain is better than lasting illness following a procedure. Somehow, and I've never understood this, transient pain sounds/seems worse to doctors than other kinds of suffering.