My lesson in dentistry. The following is not a complaint or criticism necessarily. It is sharing something I learned yesterday that I had not realized. I was born.......

My lesson in dentistry. The following is not a complaint or criticism necessarily. It is sharing something I learned yesterday that I had not realized. I was born and raised in the medical system for the over-privileged. Yesterday is the clearest view I have had yet the medical system for most of us which is not the one I was brought up in. In our sick culture even as a poor person I have been over privileged by receiving Medical Care in Washington DC which for the poor and homeless is far more extensive than a medical system for the poor and homeless in most parts of this hideous United States of 2017. But what I realized yesterday is that the dental care I have received graciously in Washington DC, well-intended, even heroically  overcoming the neglect that our society wants to visit on WE poor, what I realized yesterday is that it is health care for the poor. Specifically I mean, with all the best of intentions the dentists in Washington DC attending to the poor administer to us care to compassionately slow but not stop the destruction of our mouths. They assume that in our system to slow or stop, to arrest destruction of our mouths is too expensive. Yesterday I went to two dentists. Both were very competent. One, the later, was very compassionate. The first was in a Nationwide Dental Care firm called Aspen. Easily the most comprehensive exam that I have received in 20 years. They assumed or hoped I was one of the over pillage that would pay any reasonable price to protect my mouth from further erosion. I am cursed by grinding my teeth with all of my might when I sleep. I know this is been destroying my mouth. For the last three years when I have gone to a dentist for the poor they have commented on what good care I take of my teeth, no bleeding of the gums for example. What they weren't telling me was that they were not doing a rich person's exam, they were not doing the Deep evaluation to see if there was bacteria destroying the bone  that holds the teeth in place. I have lost three teeth so far. It is only yesterday that I realized why, each time I have seen a dentist I have tried to find out why so I can prevent it from happening again. It is not my lack of care for my teeth. It is the fact that they had not checked to see if bacteria was destroying the bone. healthcare for the rich assumes that one wants a healthy body until they die. The most compassionate health care for the poor assumes that the poor will suffer and die much earlier, and very honestly and compassionately simply tries to slow the process and make it less painful. If there is a condemnation in order, and there is, it is not of the individual practitioners, but we as a culture That accepts that only a few will have a decent quality of life.