Tooth Care and Culture Shock

I read somewhere that dentists have the highest suicide rate of any profession. I am not sure if this is true. However, I can understand why dentists might leave their offices with a highly developed sense of slightedness.  They see people who are cranky and not too happy to be visiting. They also almost inevitably recieve an angsty "yerrrrsss" when asking if his/her patient is uncomfortable, in pain, unhappy, etc. Sure, they get weekends off but I always imagined that time spent doing yoga or golfing--anything to rid his/her mind of the complaining sissies they will soon have to lecture on issues of flossing and cavities.I bring this because today I completed yet one more step of the seemingly never-ending "Close of Service" process--the dental exam. As you have probably gathered , I have never been a big fan of dentist visits. However, two years of Peace Corps service in the regions of Azerbaijan have compelled me to reconsider (at least in theory) the importance of such exercises in oral health. 

If there is one thing I have learned from my time as a student and Volunteer abroad, it is we are all products of our culture. For me, "culture" may mean anything from the place in which we are raised to the language we speak to the social norms we come to internalize. Perhaps it is the result of my undergraduate solidarity with post-modern theorizing and deconstructive perspectives, but before Peace Corps I assumed the possibility of separating myself from my own cultural biases. While not a relativist by any stretch of the imagination, I generally prefer to err on the side of complexity rather than self-righteous preaching. Hence, when speaking of human rights, gender equality and other charged subjects, I have attempted to maintain something of a balanced--though certainly not neutral--public persona. However, anyone who has spent a substantive amount of time abroad has probably found that it is the little and unexpected things that invariably bring out one's "inner"--though not necessarily "ugly"-- American. Early in my service, I spoke to a friend working as a dentist in the regions. She told me that of all her patients, only one brushed her teeth with any regularity and 99% of her appointments were for the purpose of extracting rotting teeth. I asked if she had ever thought to go to local schools and give some presentations on the importance of oral health--after all, it was plays like "Tilly the Tooth" that really drove the oral health message home for my third grade self. She told me no, the schools would not allow such presentations because they were considered too reminiscent of "youth education" programs enacted during the Soviet Union. When I asked my own students to identify the most important area of health, the response was unanimous: The heart. Teeth? No, it is normal to loose them early--they have no relationship to one's overall health. The next day I went guesting and watched a neighbor feed her three month-old infant sweet tea through a bottle. Engage culture shock...now.

As I took my seat in the cushy Baku ex-pat dental office, I was struck by the degree of my own cultural bias. The neutral tones, smooth jazz, magazines clearly aimed at a middle aged soccer mom readership all made me feel at home. Granted, the last time I was made to wear foot scrub slippers over my shoes, I was at the Taj Mahal but still...There was something familiar about it. Even the interrogation regarding the frequency of my flossing was somewhat comforting. However, my dentist then proceeded to speak Russian at an aggressively quick clip and blinded me with an overhead light before poking at my gums with no questions regarding my comfort level. Clearly not home yet.