The dentist. I remember hearing a recounting of how someone’s mother who lived in the boondocks of Northern Quebec had a tooth issue removed by attaching a thin cord to the tooth in question and attaching said cord to a hinged door as extraction procedure. Hardly orthodox, but not uncommon. Dentist fear is not uncommon, the fear of sadism, and the expense, often regarded by those on a tight budget as a discretionary outlay is part of a phenomenon.
Several years ago, while sitting in the captain’s chair at the dentist before he began procedure for a root canal, I got to overhear the conversation of the specialist discussing with his assistant the joy and pleasure he was going to get from his new Mercedes, and how he was caught between one of the tougher decisions of his life in choosing the model and accessories that most fittingly reflected him. The patient’s mouth is a natural resource, an extraction and mining industry. Its such a huge industry when one considers the schools, the equipment, the insurance, and the tax revenue.
That aside, the health of our teeth is supposed to be reflection of our overall condition with poor teeth being positively correlated with deficiencies elsewhere.
ADDENDUM:
Studies have shown that cheating begins in as early as the sixth grade, with 45% of children in McCabe’s study admitting to have copied another student’s answers on a test. The aforementioned numbers are alarming, yet one would think that in the dental profession, which is ranked as one of the top 10 most trusted and ethical professions in America16,17, impropriety would be much less severe. To the contrary,
the August 2007 issue of the Journal of Dental Education, reports a study by Andrews et al. in which 1,153 dental students were surveyed regarding academic integrity.
…The results showed that 74.7% of students admitted to some level of cheating. This report, coupled with accounts of students forging faculty signatures on patient charts, performing unnecessary procedures on patients in order to complete requirements4,19,20,21, and of institutions taking monetary contributions to accept students to specialty programs, among many others, conveys to us that immediate action must be taken. Read More:http://www.specdental.org/SPEC_Website/SPEC_Home_files/3.%20ASDA%20Ethics%20White%20Paper.pdf
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An article published in the Journal of the Canadian Dental Association claims that many dentists are at risk of suffering from a chronic mood disorder known as dysthymia. ItR
a condition the Université de Montréal Department of Dentistry is fighting – preventively.
Dysthymia is characterized by loss of appetite, low levels of energy, desperation, excessive anger, social withdrawal and working long hours to compensate for declining performance, troubles in concentration, guilt and suicidal thoughts….
…A 2005 study published in the Journal of the American Dental Association claims that 10 percent of the 560 dentists surveyed suffer from this condition. However, only 15 percent of them are followed by a doctor and receive treatment. Read More:http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/137209.php