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