Dentist fears justified?

Recently I had a very strange dream. I still can't figure out what it might mean. See if you have any thoughts.

I was at the dentist and he was fitting me for some apparatus that may have ended up looking like the one sported by young Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I'm not sure what it ended up looking like because I suddenly came to realize that the dentist was trying to make an incision in the meaty part of my hand between my thumb and forefinger. I was alarmed that this would hurt a great deal. He wanted to go ahead and do it so that he could insert a dime in the resulting hole.

Thank goodness I demanded that he provide me with a reason it was medically necessary to stick a dime into my hand. Unfortunately I woke up, somewhat disturbed, before finding out just what it was.