hmmm...dental stories...
Due to popular demand, I will share what dental stories I've accumulated so far...
One older woman came into the slum night clinic complaining of an ear ache - the right side of her face and around her ear was swollen, when she opened her mouth, there was a buckle abcess the size of a kiwi and the tooth was just a yellow shard. The primary doctor prescribed antibiotics and told her the tooth caused the ear pain, but she did not believe that were possible for a tooth to make her ear hurt. I wanted to extract her tooth myself because it needed to come out so badly. I'm not sure if the doctor stressed enough that she should see the dentist... We had several abcessed teeth, decayed teeth, and recession complaints at that clinic - I hope they all made their way to the dentist...
people have a variety of smiles here - some have dark teeth with red outlines due to their paan consumption (which I tried recently and almost vomited). I'll try to explain paan later when I post the pictures of it - I don't have my memory card thingie with me right now.
apparently, there are dentists widely available in India just as the doctors are widely available, but just like the states, people don't like to go and they often don't go until something hurts really bad. Nice smiles are few and far between - I think the curry stains the teeth and sugar consumption is high. Children smile and I see a whole row of decayed teeth... diabetes is also at least as if not more prevalent here.
The pollution is terrible especially from the autorickshaws and the trucks, so as you would expect asthma is also common along with other upper respiratory infections and bronchial troubles.
I've had about 25 mosquito bites and I seen about 30 malaria patients, and the doctor here said the malaria meds I'm taking (doxycycline) are no good for prevention of malaria here - so pray that I don't get malaria - the people who have it look so sick and like they're in so much pain.
I had sushi last night - it was good, but too expensive, so I won't be having it again - it's so much cheaper in Seattle... I'll muster up the will power to wait until I get home to have any more sushi...
I should tell the story about the AIDS patient that I cried with - we were in the inpatient AIDS clinic - a small, open-air clinic with hard cots and roosters and dogs and cats running around and laundry hanging to dry. There were only 7 patients in the small clinic and just one of them could speak english, so I sat down at his bedside and chatted with him - he was laying on his side not moving, looking weak and miserable, he was as thin as you can get. He was very intelligent and we had a little small talk, then he said, "pray to your god that I get better" and tears rolled down his face. I touched his shoulder and said, "I will. Take your medicines and get lots of rest and I'll pray that you get better," and my eyes teared up. When I walked out of the clinic and got to the courtyard, I had a full blown cry for a few minutes. The next day, we visited the same clinic, when the patient, Stan, saw me, he jumped up out of bed and had a huge smile on his face and he said over and over again, "I feel so much better today, I am better today." He said that he was better because we talked to him and gave healed hime with love. I talked to him more and found out that he's had HIV/AIDS since he was 19 and he is 44 now. Amazing. I gave him a hug when I left, but in Indian culture, men don't touch women, so he just stood there uncomfortably - ha ha.
We are working in a hospital run by a cult now - they have meditation rooms where patients and staff meditate to a giant photograph of the leader's face and there's all this trippy lighting. Tomorrow, I will watch surgery there all day - I might see my first cleft lip/palate because this hospital is Mumbai's center for that.
I should go eat lunch now.
This evening, we are going to the homosexual clinic - homosexuality is swept under the rug here and the homosexuals have to go to a separate clinic - should be interesting.
Could someone do some research for me please? Look up the percentage of men vs. women in India and more specifically in Mumbai - I swear there are sooooo many more men here due to the abortions of females.
Tonight, after clinic, I'm picking up some saris I had made - I'm going to dress really weird when I get back - ha ha - but I'm used to people staring at me now all the time so it souldn't phase me.
sala!
One older woman came into the slum night clinic complaining of an ear ache - the right side of her face and around her ear was swollen, when she opened her mouth, there was a buckle abcess the size of a kiwi and the tooth was just a yellow shard. The primary doctor prescribed antibiotics and told her the tooth caused the ear pain, but she did not believe that were possible for a tooth to make her ear hurt. I wanted to extract her tooth myself because it needed to come out so badly. I'm not sure if the doctor stressed enough that she should see the dentist... We had several abcessed teeth, decayed teeth, and recession complaints at that clinic - I hope they all made their way to the dentist...
people have a variety of smiles here - some have dark teeth with red outlines due to their paan consumption (which I tried recently and almost vomited). I'll try to explain paan later when I post the pictures of it - I don't have my memory card thingie with me right now.
apparently, there are dentists widely available in India just as the doctors are widely available, but just like the states, people don't like to go and they often don't go until something hurts really bad. Nice smiles are few and far between - I think the curry stains the teeth and sugar consumption is high. Children smile and I see a whole row of decayed teeth... diabetes is also at least as if not more prevalent here.
The pollution is terrible especially from the autorickshaws and the trucks, so as you would expect asthma is also common along with other upper respiratory infections and bronchial troubles.
I've had about 25 mosquito bites and I seen about 30 malaria patients, and the doctor here said the malaria meds I'm taking (doxycycline) are no good for prevention of malaria here - so pray that I don't get malaria - the people who have it look so sick and like they're in so much pain.
I had sushi last night - it was good, but too expensive, so I won't be having it again - it's so much cheaper in Seattle... I'll muster up the will power to wait until I get home to have any more sushi...
I should tell the story about the AIDS patient that I cried with - we were in the inpatient AIDS clinic - a small, open-air clinic with hard cots and roosters and dogs and cats running around and laundry hanging to dry. There were only 7 patients in the small clinic and just one of them could speak english, so I sat down at his bedside and chatted with him - he was laying on his side not moving, looking weak and miserable, he was as thin as you can get. He was very intelligent and we had a little small talk, then he said, "pray to your god that I get better" and tears rolled down his face. I touched his shoulder and said, "I will. Take your medicines and get lots of rest and I'll pray that you get better," and my eyes teared up. When I walked out of the clinic and got to the courtyard, I had a full blown cry for a few minutes. The next day, we visited the same clinic, when the patient, Stan, saw me, he jumped up out of bed and had a huge smile on his face and he said over and over again, "I feel so much better today, I am better today." He said that he was better because we talked to him and gave healed hime with love. I talked to him more and found out that he's had HIV/AIDS since he was 19 and he is 44 now. Amazing. I gave him a hug when I left, but in Indian culture, men don't touch women, so he just stood there uncomfortably - ha ha.
We are working in a hospital run by a cult now - they have meditation rooms where patients and staff meditate to a giant photograph of the leader's face and there's all this trippy lighting. Tomorrow, I will watch surgery there all day - I might see my first cleft lip/palate because this hospital is Mumbai's center for that.
I should go eat lunch now.
This evening, we are going to the homosexual clinic - homosexuality is swept under the rug here and the homosexuals have to go to a separate clinic - should be interesting.
Could someone do some research for me please? Look up the percentage of men vs. women in India and more specifically in Mumbai - I swear there are sooooo many more men here due to the abortions of females.
Tonight, after clinic, I'm picking up some saris I had made - I'm going to dress really weird when I get back - ha ha - but I'm used to people staring at me now all the time so it souldn't phase me.
sala!
posted by mavis | 4:50 PM
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