Attitude Check: Your Car VS Your Mouth

In our contemporary world, there are a lot of emphasis on appearance; what you wear, what you drive, and how you look. This has over time impacted on the general attitude of most people to what is really important. On this edition, let’s do an attitude check.

Everyone love cars. big ones, small ones, saloon cars, SUVs, you name it. we all have that ideal dream car we fantasize about. it sure feels good driving one.

The average person will drive more than a car in a life time, as our taste changes with time and cars tend to undergo so much wear and tear. Having said this a lot of us have or plan to have impeccable maintenance cultures for our cars as it is widely known that the lifespan of a car is determined by maintenance.

This simple assessment below further drives home the point;

“Let’s assume you were driving your beloved dream car down the streets of your town when suddenly the car grinds to an unexpected halt.You try the ignition but it keeps giving a spluttering sound. You glance up and look at the dashboard and notice an increase in the temperature gauge. Reluctantly you step down and you notice smoke coming from the bonnet. You open the bonnet and everything there is hot, with the water in your radiator boiling over.”

Now which of the following would be your response?

1. Pick up your phone and call your mechanic, briefly explain to him and ask him what to do, preferably asking him to tell you what to apply to stop the overheating.
2. Call your mechanic and demand he sends you the stuff he used on your car the last time you had car trouble.
3. Snap a picture of the bonnet and send to your mechanic and ask him if you should put ice-block or palm oil in the radiator
4. Tell your neighbour and any passerby who cares to listen, so they suggest to you what they used when their own cars had similar issues(they probably will tell you they put a mixture of salt and kerosene and that has been the end of all their car troubles)
5. Call your mechanic to take the car to his workshop for proper fixing and servicing

Yes, I know some of the options above are ridiculous and laughable, but do you know that is what we do every day?

You are probably wondering how. Of course we do it not to our precious cars which can easily be replaced when they are old or just when we feel like it, But we do it to our priceless mouths, the entry point into our bodies, where all our foods passes, our mouths that we cannot change because we are stuck with the one we have for life, Yes we do this to our mouths everyday.

We place more value on our cars and other possessions indeed than our oral health and overall health. Common we have got just one mouth, a newer and better one will not be in the market soon, let’s take better care of it!

Now let’s assume the scenario above was about you having a toothache.looking through the options, I know it doesn’t sound so ridiculous to us anymore;

Calling a doctor and expecting treatment over the phone is the commonest response to our mouth issues and overall health. I have a toothache next I pick up my phone and call a Dentist asking for drugs to take. Some people even make demands of the Doctor to send the drugs which they were so graciously given the last time, by so doing they have already diagnosed and formulated their own treatment plan. This happens every day and it’s demeaning. What you do not know is that there are many causes for a toothache or a headache for example and the human body is so complex that there is no one stop fix for all types of pains.

Some take this phone thing to another level by snapping the tooth and sending a picture to the Dentist. Doctors are trained to treat people, not pictures! a picture cannot be examined or palpated. it does not represent your condition as more often than not there are other associated symptoms which help pinpoint your diagnosis and guide treatment, which your picture cannot show.

Also in a world where everybody is a mini “doctor” and gives unsolicited treatment to all who are an easy victim, so many people fall victims every day. We ask our neighbours, some even go to the various social media platforms and pose ridiculous questions to the general public about their oral health. Some responses are funny, but even more laughable is the fact that people go ahead to do as suggested. For example, patients have put battery acid, fuel, engine oil etc on aching teeth as these were suggested to them. Of course, they ended up worse than they were initially.

Having examined all the wrong response to our oral health issues, let’s do what is right. Do not wait until you have done all the above and you still don’t feel better before you go to the Dentist. Your mouth is way more important than the best of cars, be more responsible and take better care of it!

As always we like to hear from you. Come back next time as we discuss more on our oral health attitudes.

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