Is there anything besides drilling that can be done for a very shallow surface cavity?

Long run PULL it!
Get over the drilling, it will only get deeper. get it fixed!
Maybe a laser drilling instead. or get Nitrous Oxide.

If it is very shallow you might not even need novacain. They need to drill a little to get a nice clean surface so the filling sticks right and you don’t decay under the filling. Do it now and it will be a little nothing. Do it later and it will be worse.

my dentist uses something like a tiny sand blaster on little cavities. No shots and colored filling material

I understand that you are nervous, but in the long run, you will need to let a dentist decide what treatment is best. How do you know it is only a shallow cavity? There could be a big cavern below the surface. It would be best to get it appraised and fixed before it becomes a major problem. Big pants on and off to the dentist for you. Let the dentist know if you are seriously nervous. They deal with anxious people all the time. I am sure they can help alleviate your tension.

Better to get a dentist to fix something shallow than let it get deep. The newer composite fillings would work great here, and don’t need much drilling (if any).

Popular Science has predicted both laser drilling and sandblasting. I have yet to see either.
Just have it filled. They have drugs these days that can make my mouth numb in one dose; used to be that it would take a whole tube or two of novocaine to get about halfway there. It would take hours to get there, and I’d usually just tell the dentist to get it over with already.

@Nullo – you have redundant nerve pathways like me. It’s great for fighter jets but bad for dental work. You need only 2 shots – left side, right side. That knocks out the second path. Or you can ask for a Ligamaject. That will go deep into the bone structure and knock out the nerves before it splits in 2 directions.