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Necessary Painful Evils in the name of Good Health

12/07/2011

There are a fair number of things we put ourselves  through voluntarily that are pretty uncomfortable, if not downright painful. Ok, hangovers qualify here, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about those ghastly tests that people like me do in my surgery under the banner of  maintaining good health.  Immunisations, blood tests, even having your blood pressure taken by a new electronic machine with a stiff cuff isn’t exactly pleasant. Men, of course, dread the gloved finger checking their prostate. But we women have it much worse. I have yet to meet a women who looked forward to having a smear test, let alone a boob-squashing mammogram.

I was prompted to write this blog after the last one on dental hygiene, because my pet ‘painful in the name of good health’ hate is  the dental pocket chart. Never had one? You don’t know how lucky you are.

The idea of a dental pocket chart is to see far your gums have receded from your teeth. The deeper the pocket, the more trouble you are in. It means there's an area all around your teeth that’s full of bacteria (and other gunk) that your gums are likely to be inflamed, and that – worse case scenario – your teeth are likely to fall out. On a more practical note, deep pockets mean you are not cleaning your teeth properly.

So my dentist – who by the way is utterly lovely – suggests that once a year it is good practice to do a pocket chart. So far, so good. But unfortunately this entails ramming a sharp probe, rather too much like a skewer, down between each tooth and the gum. Not just once, but four times. For every tooth; twice on the outer gum, twice on the inner gum. In other words, treating your gums like a pin cushion. It hurts...alot. And it just keeps on hurting. Worse still, the deeper the pocket, the worse the discomfort. 1 or 2 cm, not too bad but get to 3 or 4 cm and it’s tear- inducing time.  With the added mental  torture that you know you’re going to get a lesson afterwards that you are not cleaning your teeth properly, otherwise those pockets wouldn’t be there.

A couple of times I’ve ducked out of having a pocket chart – it’s not compulsory, after all. But in the end, I know it’s got to be done. If nothing else, to remind me that using floss is actually worthwhile.

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