Today if you go to the dentist in the Netherlands they'll ask you whether you want anesthesia. At first I was like 'wtf, is that even a question' but it's not that bad. It just compresses discomfort into a smaller time window. I'd estimate the 'total' discomfort to be the same.

Only have experience with fillings, btw. I guess extracting a healthy molar (e.g. to make room for other teeth), or a wisdom tooth, would be significantly more uncomfortable when done without anesthetics.