Healthy systems
Oct. 26th, 2012 09:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pktechgirlbackupAt the end of a 4 visit, $1200 dollar deep teeth cleaning sequence, we discovered I have a deep gum infection. My dentist is sending me to a specialist, who she predicts will want to do minor surgery to clean out whatever the source of the infection is. And while I'm deeply unhappy about this for many reasons, I am still secure in my ability to pay for it, and that is a gift.
The thing is, I believe in the concept of exchange, and that relationships that are out of balance cause problems. My relationship with my dentist is totally square: I gave her money, she gave me use of equipment and her employee's time. But my relationship with dentistry-as-a-concept is deeply out of balance. It is offering me the potential for a longer, less painful life. I am offering nothing in return.
The only way I can think of to fix this is donating to a dental charity, so someone else can benefit from the same level of care I get. I don't know why I think that benefits dentistry-as-a-concept in a way alleviating my own suffering does not, but I do. I looked around, and while there are dedicated dental charities, and free clinics that do dental work, none of them are big enough to be on charity navigator.
At first, I rejected modest needs because none of the dental cases were the maximum impact kind- i.e. otherwise healthy young adult or child suffers from a single, uncomplicated issue that requires a one time grant to fix. They were all elderly, or disabled, or very sick. Funding their dental care has a substantially smaller snowball effect than removing someone's last big problem. But I think I was wrong about that, and was in some ways falling into the trap I discussed yesterday. The value of dental care is most obvious when nothing else is going wrong, but that doesn't lessen its value to people with many problems.
As it happens, the first case on modest need's website was for partial dentures, and needed only $35 to complete.
The thing is, I believe in the concept of exchange, and that relationships that are out of balance cause problems. My relationship with my dentist is totally square: I gave her money, she gave me use of equipment and her employee's time. But my relationship with dentistry-as-a-concept is deeply out of balance. It is offering me the potential for a longer, less painful life. I am offering nothing in return.
The only way I can think of to fix this is donating to a dental charity, so someone else can benefit from the same level of care I get. I don't know why I think that benefits dentistry-as-a-concept in a way alleviating my own suffering does not, but I do. I looked around, and while there are dedicated dental charities, and free clinics that do dental work, none of them are big enough to be on charity navigator.
At first, I rejected modest needs because none of the dental cases were the maximum impact kind- i.e. otherwise healthy young adult or child suffers from a single, uncomplicated issue that requires a one time grant to fix. They were all elderly, or disabled, or very sick. Funding their dental care has a substantially smaller snowball effect than removing someone's last big problem. But I think I was wrong about that, and was in some ways falling into the trap I discussed yesterday. The value of dental care is most obvious when nothing else is going wrong, but that doesn't lessen its value to people with many problems.
As it happens, the first case on modest need's website was for partial dentures, and needed only $35 to complete.
