Today, Elizabeth Palmer Hill DMD visited and talked to us about dentistry. There are different types of it, and they all take three to six years of residency. There is oral surgery, which usually takes six years of residency. Endodontics deals with root canals and takes three years of residency, as well as periodontics (which deals with gum diseases and bone loss), orthodontics (which gives you braces), pedodontics (which is pediatric dentistry specially trained for baby teeth and squirmy children), and prosthodontics (one of the least common dentistry professions because it deals with more complex full mouth restoration cases). Although dentists help you have a healthy mouth, most of us hate going there. I hate it because they use a vibrating toothbrush, and those give me chills. It’s like an out-of-body experience kind of chills. The plus side of going to the dentist for me is they use that strawberry cheesecake-flavored foam mouthwash, and it tastes delicious! To avoid having to go there for a reason other than the usual six-month visit, it is recommended to brush twice a day, floss daily, and use mouthwash for clean-smelling breath. Whitening is also a good idea for squeaky clean teeth. If you don’t follow this routine, your teeth will build up plaque and tartar that will lead your teeth to decay or become infected because of lactic acid and bad bacteria from food and grime left on the teeth. Tooth decay causes inflammation of the gums too and this causes bleeding in the mouth. Poor oral health can lead to heart disease, stroke, low birth weight, premature birth, arteriosclerosis, poor nutrition, prosthetic joint failure, endocarditis, and diabetes. Bad bacteria and bleeding in the mouth go into the bloodstream and cause disease, infection, and blood clots in the whole body. As long as you take care of your teeth, you’ll be good most of the time. Wisdom teeth are an example of something you can’t really prevent. They are your molars all the way in the back of your mouth that we inherited over time from ancient cavemen who needed them to eat meat. Now our mouths and jaws are smaller, so they don’t fit in our mouths as well and cause lots of pain by pushing around teeth. We go to the dentist to remove wisdom teeth and to relieve the pain or the procedure, they give you anesthesia.
Hill’s visit today gave me an idea. She talked about how in one profession(dentistry), you can specialize in any one subsection of it and not have to do anything you don’t feel comfortable with. I want to become a dermatologist when I grow up, but I don't want to have to deal with removing moles or surgeries. I don’t trust myself yet with a needle. I’d probably poke someone’s eye out of something. Now I know that I can choose instead of being forced to do something I don’t want to do in my future career.
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