Kaity Goes...Dental
All this talk about President Obama’s health care plan got me thinking about the kind of health care my brother and I got as children. It was iffy, at best. Because we were poor, my parents could not afford to send us to private doctors. I know they did not have health insurance. They could barely afford to pay rent.
One of the scariest memories from my childhood of things medical was dental care. Nothing like the bright and comforting dentist’s office my son went to as a child. For him, video games in the waiting room, a dentist’s chair shaped like a spaceship, a screen on the ceiling to project the video of his choice, a relentlessly cheerful dentist with a degree in child psychology….and best of all, a dab of anesthesia on a Q-tip to numb the spot on his gum BEFORE he got the novocaine injection. Local anesthesia even for a cleaning, if that’s what your little darling wanted.
For me and my brother, a radically different experience. Our dental care was at a teaching clinic because it was free for low-income families. You didn’t pay….at least not in dollars. By going, you agreed to be live subjects for students who hadn’t quite gotten the hang of a drill yet. So I guess, you did pay. In fear and pain.
When our names were called from a waiting room filled to the rafters with potential victims, we’d be led into a huge room with row upon row of dentists’ chairs. You could smell that awful burning odor that drilling through enamel creates….hear the yelps and screams of other patients getting cavities filled without the benefit of anesthesia, and feel the firm grip of someone holding your shirt as you tried to make a getaway.
I tended to be a bit more stoic that my little brother, who would yell bloody murder even before they touched him. He was no fool. He could see what was in store. I tried to calm him down by pretending to be calm myself. But believe me, looking up into the eyes of a young dental student who looked as scared as I was did not induce confidence.
One time, I think I was about nine, I was told I had to get a tooth pulled. No such thing as a local injection. Nope. For that, I was put on a gurney, wheeled into a dark, scary room, and a mask soaked in ether was put over my terrified little face. I woke up, nauseous, with a bloody gauze shoved into the hole in my mouth. When I stopped hurling, I was walked out into the hall where my mother was waiting to take me to the bus stop to go home. She looked horrified, as blood was seeping out of the gauze and onto my clothes, and my eyes looked weirdly dilated.
And in the distance, I thought I could hear my little brother….still yelling and fighting the team of wanna-be dentists trying to hold him down.
Let me say, though, I am grateful for the care we did get…and if we did anything to help those scared students turn into accomplished professionals…..I STILL wouldn’t wish that on anyone!
Oh, and when I needed braces….oh boy! Let's just say I am lucky to have my two front teeth. But I will save that story for another blog. It’s a doozy.
Comments: 8
Meanwhile, you survived the teaching clinic dental services and have become very successful.
Why not apply the teaching clinic approach to other areas of medicine. IE- open heart surgery and transplants, hip surgery, brain surgery, etc...
The US could save a lot of money thus solving the health care crisis and we'd get more successful Americans in the process. :-)
Very well done & humorous as always Kaity! This one was scary, too! You brought back some frightful childhood memories very vividly with your description of the other dental patients getting drilled & the odor that would emit! Uggghhh!
I don't know what the results will be regarding this whole Obama Health Care Debate,.. but, I sure hope includes a dental plan that incorporates kinder methods than the ones from the past described above. I wanna keep my lucky two-front- teeth too!
I have a small mouth and my dentist has big fingers. It kills me to go to the dentist. Last year I spent over $13,000 on dental work. Oh God, I have to go back too.
Kaity,
To this day, in the later years of my life I am still terrified of the doctor and the dentist. You know why? Because it hurts! I always expect the worst, and you know what, I think some doctors are sadistic and it gives them great pleasure to torture their clients. My dentist and I have a love/hate relationship. I don't mind needles, and I must get them for cleanings, etc., but the last time, he really hurt me. Growing up I had a scary dentist and a very nice one. The scary one seemed to love his craft. I hated those trips, but couldn't avoid them, because in the old days we had these stupid dental notes that we had to bring to school, and they threatened not to pass you ahead to another grade, if you didn't finish your dental work. At least, as an adult, I have choices, but in essence, you really don't. You have to keep up with your check-ups and dental work even more as you years go by.
Keep telling your stories. I really enjoy them.
lol, Lee
I remember going to a Chinese dentist where my mom paid cash. Since we didn't have insurance, this was her only option. I didn't associate the dentist with pain, but with the trinkets I received afterwards. He had a selection of rings for the girls. Not sure what my brother got?
As a child of a LEGAL immigrant, my mom mostly brought us to doctors that accepted cash. I have a complicated medical history and my pediatrician was able to help my mom to get health insurance for me. If we needed glasses or had to go see a doctor, it depended on my parent's cash-flow. My parents were and are legal and we are citizens and this was our struggle for affordable healthcare. There has to be a better way!
Your story made me laugh and grimace, conjuring up dentists in movies like Marathon Man and Little Shop of Horrors.
I don't know what hurts more--the actual
dental work like root canals and crowns or
the bill they present you afterwards.
All dentists should come back in the next life with
really bad teeth.
The NYC Mayor has proposed the elimination of NYC's dental clinics at a perceived savings of $2.5 million (Hospital emergency room care will obviously increase)
However, NYC continues to add unnecessary fluoride chemicals into the water in a failed effort to reduce tooth decay at a cost of $24 million a year and climbing.
Fluoride is neither a nutrient nor essential for healthy teeth. Studies how it is not preventing tooth decay in NYC.
It makes more fiscal sense to eliminate fluoridation instead of the vital dental clinics - that, in effect, can save lives.
Kaity, and here I thought I erased those memories of my childhood involving that frightening eastside dental/torture insitution. Here in NYC that was the only time we were on the yellow school bus, which might explain my present day avoidance of the yellow monster mobile.