Unseen Privilege
Unconscious Benefits of Good Health
This was me several hours ago. Or at least a picture of someone in the same sitution. I had my usual four month dental cleaning, preceeded by the filling of two cavities. Although the patient’s position is unrealistic — you are mostly horizontal when they work on you. It took a while for me to get used to this — including learning to breath through your nose during the procedure.
Fortunately I have good dental genes. Not perfect, but well enough to draw the envy of those who “look at a candy bar and get a crown” as opposed to me once went 20 years without a cavity. Due to the woeful dental benefits, as opposed to medical coverage, people often are forced to put off serious fixes. The “treatment plan” offered by dentists sounds more like a “construction project”, with many dentists clueless on coverage. It’s not that people don’t want to get their teeth fixed, it’s often that they just can’t afford it.
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I remember my childhood days of fillings and the loud drills and clouds of teeth debris. I relish the technological advances, especially the sonic cleanings and xrays without tons of stuff in your mouth. I still wish for a reversal of positions that would allow patients to be upright and not fearing drowning with every spurt of rinsing liquid. But who knows what the future might hold?
Today I was thinking about how I am in relative calm during the procedures and wondering how others with more sensitive systems manage the process. Especially children with their first few visits. The hygienists and dentists at our local dentist office are very understanding and attuned to patient comfort, but the experience can be nerve wracking. One of my sisters had a very bad experience early on and avoided dentists like the plague for many years. I, too, was not that keen on them and it took insistence from my wife to get back into the “chair”. Now that I am back regular it is better and I am grateful for good dental genes.
Also, staring at the dental cleaning tools I am conscious that in the wrong hands they could be very dangerous. No wonder films like Marathon Man, with Dustin Hoffman, and Little Shop of Horrors, with Steve Martin, use dentists as villains.
And if I get a little nervous or tense sometimes while having work done, I can’t imagine what people with sensitive eyes, skin, or breathing issues handle dental visits.
I realize how privileged it is to be, as an Air Force medic once told me, “disgustingly healthy”. I do have type 2 diabetes, and managed high blood pressure, but otherwise my health has always been excellent and I work to maintain that. Don’t overlook the benefits you have, which many people do not.
