Behind the Scenes Minis: All the Teeth

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class, A production of I Heart Radio. Happy Friday, Everybody. I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy Wilson. Oh, Tracy. We talked about so much dental stuff this week we did It's a There's so much history, and there's so much we couldn't cover. I feel like you could do a whole history podcast about dentistry. I don't know that people that aren't dentists would really be super into it because it might get pretty grisily in a hurry. But I wanted to cover at least the high points in how far, as you said at the end of episode two, how far we've come, and the gaps we have yet to fill in because there are still people not getting adequate dental care. UM. I promised I would tell the story of how I stopped being afraid of the sound sound tell me so I UM will confess. I'm not proud of this, but I really let like my dental care not get addressed by a professional for quite some time, for like over a decade, because I was just I had had a couple of bad experiences. I associated it with misery. I didn't want any part of it. I didn't want to get yelled at. I didn't want to be treated like I was stupid because I had failed in this theoretical responsibility I had as a human. So I found a dentist who I hope you will not mind me sharing. I did not know what the time was also your dentist. Oh no, I started going to him because you recommended him. No, I thought that was how it worked. No, I will tell you how I know that wasn't the case. After I talked about how I met him and loved him. So the first time I went to him, I literally said, my teeth are a train wreck if you do not bust my chops. Although I said that in a slightly filthier way. I will be your star pupil, and I will do everything you tell me too, but you gotta be cool. And he looked at me and said you are very direct, and I said that is correct, and he said we're going to get along great, and we did, and he was super gentle and lovely with me. And here is how I know you went to him first, because that day I had just come from a job interview and I said that, and he said, where did you interview? And I said, how stuff works, and he said, I have another patient that I think works there, and it was you, how funny, I like, how our memories on this are just like so divergent. Well, if you were going to him before I started working in how stuff works, yeah, then we know for sure you were going to him before me. Yeah, I think I started to go. I started going to him after moving into a house that was very nearby, and like proximity to where I was was a big part of it. And I had had a bad experience at a different practice I had been to in the Atlanta Air you know, like I felt like the hygienists um was saying very judgy things to me about cosmetic things that made me very uncomfortable, and I did not want to go back anymore after feeling like I had had uh these loaded questions about what my teeth and my face and my jaw looked like, and I was like, I don't I don't want to go back there, and like a period of time passed. I don't know if I have ever really been afraid of the dentist, but there have been times where something happened and I didn't go for a long time because of the thing that had happened, like shortly after I graduated from college, and you know, I was making eleven dollars an hour doing administrative work. I remember going to the dentist and it was a practice I had been to you since my childhood. And the dentist was like, you have all these teeth that have hairline cracks in them, and you need to get crowds on all of them and it will call twelve hundred dollars. And I was like, how am I supposed to pay for that? Um? And I might have even had dental insurance for work, and it was still like I was like, I don't I don't have a hundred and twenty dollars, Like I don't have this number that you've told me. Um. And so my solution to this was just not to go to the dentist until I had moved to another city. I think that is how a lot of people deal with that moment. No, no other dentists I have ever ever seen has been like, you have hairline cracks and all these teeth and we need to put crowns on them all. Yeah. Can you imagine if you had been like, okay, yeah, the amount of just misery. And I will say that dentist has since retired, So shout out to my current dentist who was one of his his people that took his patience daughter Juanni, thanks for being awesome. Um and my orthodonis dr Green very great, love them both delightful. I now have no fear about going to the dentist. He was to be very direct with yeah, and be very much myself at the dentist and they're like, oh, we get you. You're a slightly crazy person. And will my orthodonist thinks I'm hilarious because I laugh when the drill gets turned on. It's some physiological response. I find the whole thing absurd, especially if you put a rasp in my mouth and I can hear it. It makes me laugh so hard, which I know is a very strange reaction, but my Orthodonis finds that hilarious. Yeah. Um. I did also have an idea that I don't know if it will become a shirt or what, but as we were discussing the early treatments and beliefs about tooth decay and how it might be caused by demons, I thought it would be fun to do a demon dentiferous kind of advertisement. Oh that seems great. It's like part exorcism, part toothpaste. It could be very, very fun. Um. I did not know prior to doing this research that Paul Revere was a dentist. I think I probably learned that at one of the there's a I'm pretty sure I'm remembering this correctly. It's been forever since I've been to the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, but there's a silver some silver work that he had done, uh in the collection, and I feel like I read on the signs about the silver work that he was also a dentist. Yeah. I had no idea for some reason, if I had ever learned that, it had vanished from my knowledge bank And so I was like, what what? Um? I did like reading his ads that were like, no, no, it's normal for your teeth that have been lashed to other teeth to get a little loose over time. I've been trained off except for you, no problem. Boy. Am I glad for novocaine? That's another I hate the shot, but then it's over it like a second, and then everything gets better. Yeah. Um, yeah, I won't tell any dental horror stories. We all have them, but um, yeah, I feel very lucky that I have now a dentists in a dental practice. Everyone at that dental practice is ridiculously nice and kind and will like stop periodically and be like are you stressed? How are you doing? What can we do for you? Which is why I bring them baked goods that Yeah. Yeah, when I was there, everybody was really nice. Um to the point that after I had moved to Massachusetts and I was having trouble figuring because like, that's one of the things that will just cause me to lapse in dental care is I've moved and I got to find a new dentist, and I was like, what if I just kept going there when I go to Atlanta on business And then it was like, but I'm gonna at some point need like an urgent dental issue and I should have someone local. Yes, I had a surprise dental issue. I've ben going so much lately because I had to have a fresh crown party going on, and that meant that orthodonic stuff had to get shifted and then that fresh crown popped off and I had to run back. They have been marvelous at getting me in really quickly and taking care of all of it. But again, if I have to go, that's where I want to go because they're so lovely so and it's hard to find a dentist that you click with and that you like, which is why I'm so delighted that everyone there is wonderful. Um. And I really like talking to my current dentist because he is very big on like always being up to date on the latest stuff, and he'll talk to me about what he's learning about, like reconstruction and stuff, which I find fascinating. So it's good stuff. Um. Yes, Crawford Long I was from, was from Georgia Hospital named after him. That hospital was bought by Emery and became Emory Midtown uh and is no longer Crawford Long, but they do, like I said in the episode, they do still have signage up that includes his name kind of as a way to still nod to that. Yeah, it's still Emory Crawford Long in my head. Oh yeah, because it was for a long long time. Yeah, Crawford Long. And then they had the crossover for a while. And if you're it's uh it speaks to the residents and frequency of like they're advertising and brand awareness that, like, I think most people in Atlanta would be like, yes, Emory Crawford long like you put those ruts together. Yeah, um, that hospital is really close to where I would often stay coming to the Atlanta office. And I can't remember what happened, Like maybe it was one time that I had had something at lunch where I was like something maybe was not quite correct with my meal. There am I going to have a problem? And I was like the hospitals literally across the street from the second time, that was fine. I didn't have to go to the hospital. Whatever it was that had caused me to wonder that. I'm sorry to laugh at your chugrined, but I'm I'm just glad that like your brain logic through, like, well, there it is some hospitals right there rock cross the street. I'm gonna be okay. Yes, dental stuff so much dread because there are people doing things in your head. Yeah, and I I have a gag reflex that makes everything much harder. Yeah, Um, I have the my tongue is possessed by a demon that doesn't care what I tell it to do. Oh yeah, yeah, I have that all up in their business. No matter what they're attempting and I don't know what you're talking about, Like it's totally relaxed, dude, and they're like, oh, no, it is not. I always worry that I will be the the person that leaves and they're like, oh, that dang dong in that tongue. I don't know what to do. But um, I also just want to head off well. Meeting emails from people with tips and tricks about the gag reflex, I assure you, I have tried so many things and emails about will stress me out right. Um yeah, yeah, most most of us that have had something like that have probably worked through all of the tried a whole lot of things. Um. I feel like I should thank everyone that goes into the dental fields yet it's kind and caring to their patients. Yeah. There was a moment in my in my life where I was like, this was many many years ago, and I was like, I'm not satisfied with what I'm doing. I'm what should I do next? And dental higienists pay was pretty good amount of money compared to what I was making at the time, and I was like, maybe I could be a dental higenism and I was like, I don't think I could do, because I don't think I could be in people's mouths that much. I could not get up that early on the regular. Sure I did speak with a dental hygienists. And again, this is a data set of one, so don't take this as any kind of um, you know, gospel truism or anything, but um. She was telling me that that field, at least in Atlanta in recent years, has become so competitive for people needing hygienists that she stopped working for one specific office and she kind of works as a freelancer. And she was saying, like, every night when I get home, I have like a minimum of three calls of offices that are like can you come in tomorrow? Wow? And she was saying for her, that works better because she can set her own schedule completely. If she wants a day off, she just isn't available that day for calls and that for her, this has been a way more effective way to manage her life and her time. And I was like, whoh, I didn't realize that, Like that is a career that almost never wants for a job. It's like my friend who's a nurse, right, we always need them. Um, this has been dent a week on history. I didn't mean to do that, but like I said, I got curious about it, and then I suddenly was just like, I'm in too deep, Tracy, this isn't too yet. I totally get it. Which took me so long to like refine and peel out what was extraneous and didn't make sense and make sure I was covering all the bases that I turned this outline over to Tracy at a shocking hour of the morning this morning that we were very shocking. It was I think possibly the most shocking hour you have ever sent me an out right, and I am a little bit of a vampire hour keeper, so they've been pretty late, but this really was like, alright, I'm just gonna send this. I don't have to stop touching it. Um. But I hope it has been informative and enjoyable and not too square me for anybody. If this is your weekend, I hope that your teeth feel great and that you and then if you have time off, that you get to enjoy it and relax. If you don't have time off and you're busy with things that you are required to do, I hope that those are as relaxed and pain free as possible. Uh. We will be right back here tomorrow with a classic and then on Monday with brand new stuff, so we'll see you then. Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.