Sunday Pseudo-Dental Thread: Over the years I have seen many things but

[PCIntern]

today, I was overwhelmed.

I had gone into my office to see a patient who was in some fair degree of pain,('Yay' me, right, on a Sunday with the Phillies playing and all...who sez we dentists aren't sensitive...and no, I didn't charge her for the visit, since there's more adventures ahead with this tooth), but I digress.

As I was walking back to my car I saw a young lady who anyone could describe as attractive: blond hair in pony tail, about 30, very very long arms emerging from a sleeveless top...but what caught my eye was the first case of macrodactyly I have ever seen. Two of her fingers were at least eight inches long and well over an inch in diameter on her right hand. I was overwhelmed and still am -- it was just the most incredible sight I've seen in a long time and is in fact, a reminder of many issues.

The first and most important is that she was seemingly an otherwise normal person, walking with her family and enjoying the day.

The second is that she made no attempt to walk with her hand in a pocket or under a handbag as many do who have had traumatic injuries or birth defects.

The third is that it is imperative that all people have a RIGHT to health care and it is not up to anyone who is a 'disinterested' (read: profit-making) third party to decide who is eligible for what kind of care. Obviously, this had not been attended to for whatever reason, quite possibly a reasonable medical/orthopedic one, when she was a child, but having nothing to do with her, it once again reaffirmed my opinion that although we live in a country known for its great hospitals and medical schools, there are millions upon millions who have no or limited access to health care, and as with education,or the inadequacies thereof, it is ultimately the society who suffers due to the lack of productivity directly related to the lack of general health of an individual.

Although the cliche is that "it is cheaper to bury someone than to save them", that is not true by a long-shot. The lost productivity, altruism, and spirit of those associated with the departed is a cost too great to imagine.

So from an ethical, moralistic, humanistic, socio-political point of view, I am entirely pleased that I went in to see this toothache today.

(Reminds me of James Burke's "Connections"...well, not quite.)

[Aragorn]

1. good 4 u

I am a physician working solely in under-served areas, and have made many house calls etc. I charge what my insured patients (that is, Medicare and Medicaid only) get charged. I have seem to have most of the uninsured people in the area seeing me - for some reason.

However that is not popular with my peers, most of whom charge as much as they can and NEVER less, never anything extra, etc. My dad was a dentist and both parents grew up in a very poor rural area. Much like where I live now.

I gotta say, the biggest problem I see in untreated health area is dental problems. I have yet to find a dentist where I work and live who does above average work, but they all seem to have above average prices and short work weeks.

So keep on keepin' on.

[PCIntern]

3. thanks...

nice to hear from you...I understand completely...

PC

[imdjh]

2. Most people with deformities hide.

Even people with proper upbringing seem unable to not get at least one look. Those with no manners stare, and the more feral types tend to laugh, point, giggle, or even openly comment.

I was watching Maury Povich years ago hosting people with abnormalities, and one of the guests said that people who work the third shift in all night grocery stores report seeing many people with abnormalities doing their shopping in the wee hours. It's sad how people are treated.

[tomreedtoon]

4. In Wasilla, Alaska, Palin's stomping and shooting ground...

...there is a lady I chat with on the Internet, who's been job hunting for the last year and a half. She and her mother live on welfare and the kindness of others.

There is NO way she can get medical care there. Alaska has no welfare medical program. So, when she had to have a root canal done, she opted the only solution she could afford, to have the teeth extracted. She no longer looks very attractive with those holes in her mouth, the dentist's pain pills were not enough to help relieve her pain, and she suffered for a week and a half after the extraction.

She is hoping to get some kind of part-time job to get out of Arctic Hell up there. If I wasn't job-hunting myself, I'd provide some financial help for her. (When I was employed I would send her an occasional gift card for a grocery store, just so she could eat something besides ramen and beans.)

So it's good to know there are some medical people who still believe in the Hippocratic Oath. It's nice to know that there are some people who believe we are better off alive than dead. Because neither of those beliefs exist in American corporations or the medical/insurance monopolies.

[Moostache]

5. Bill Maher had it right...

For profit health insurance is soulless vampires making money on human suffering.

What I find utterly perplexing is how so many Republicans and conservatives and others on the right of the political spectrum can allow themselves to get tied in knots over things like abortion or Terri Shivo, yet when confronted with the constant horrors of the uninsured or under-insured in this nation they become blind to all ills.

It is this (and many, many other) kind of rampant hypocrisy that drives me loopy! Given the chance to really implement changes to society that would actually alleviate human pain and suffering, they sit on the sidelines with folded arms like the good little attack dogs that their insurance paymasters purchased. I am physically revolted when I see them parroting the talking points on any network that will shove a microphone under their noses.

End the profit motive for health care now! There are some things that making money off of is OK, but there are others that simply have no business being done by the lowest bidder...health care is one of the former and always should have been! For all the bluster and nonsense I have heard over the years from the "culture warriors", their stance on this issue is astounding and shameful and something that we should never allow them to forget in the future....

[Mira]

6. K & R you are a good and insightful man N/T

[PCIntern]

7. ...right you are...

and having to deal with the insurance companies every day is torturous...