I cant believe I dont have any of these
Posted on 12/24/2007 7:18:58 PM PST by neverdem
BARBOURVILLE, Ky. — In the 18 years he has been visiting nursing homes, seeing patients in his private practice and, more recently, driving his mobile dental clinic through Appalachian hills and hollows, Dr. Edwin E. Smith has seen the extremes of neglect.
He has seen the shame of a 14-year-old girl who would not lift her head because she had lost most of her teeth from malnutrition, and the do-it-yourself pride of an elderly mountain man who, unable to afford a dentist, pulled his own infected teeth with a pair of pliers and a swig of peroxide.
He has seen the brutal result of angry husbands hitting their wives and the end game of pill-poppers who crack healthy teeth, one by one, to get dentists to prescribe pain medications.
But mostly he has seen everyday people who are too busy putting food on the table to worry about oral hygiene. Many of them savor their sweets, drink well water without fluoride and long ago started ruining their teeth by chewing tobacco and smoking.
Dr. Smith has a rare window on a state with the highest proportion of adults under 65 without teeth, where about half the population does not have dental insurance. He struggles to counter the effects of the drastic shortage of dentists in rural areas and oral hygiene habits that have been slow to change.
“The level of need is hard to believe until you see it up close,” said Dr. Smith, who runs a free dental clinic at a high school in one of Kentucky’s poorest counties. He also provides free care to about half of the patients who visit his private practice in Barbourville.
Kentucky is among the worst states nationally in the proportion of low-income residents served by free or subsidized dental clinics, and less...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I cant believe I dont have any of these
If you see someone with pretty teeth in Ga., they’re bought, borrowed, or rented.
Merry Christmas
Obviously you've seen the same documentary or lib news blurb about some poor, feckless hillbilly who can't find a job in his neck of the woods or top of the mountain. The tv narrator tries to make your heart bleed with the sad tale of Cletus who just can't seem to find any luck. As you have stated the suggestion that maybe Cletus should head for the big city and jobs is totally ignored.
By the way I've also seen that same narrative in other areas of the country...like Merlin in northern Wisconsin my home state. Again the obvious solution for Cletus and Merlin to leave their jobless areas and move to areas with jobs is not part of the "news" story. Apparently big business is supposed to build huge factories in these relatively poorer areas whether it's practical or not.
Ah but everyone who IS healthy in America is fortunate. If there are few or no opportunities in their part of the country, people can pull up stakes and move to parts of the country that have jobs. Moving to where the jobs are has been the historical pattern for every person and group of people in history. That's one reason why this country is great.
In east Kentucky beating the hell out of your wife is a local pastime, too. I spent about 9 months working in the "coal field" of east Kentucky building the original Cellular One system there. It was a sad sight to see every time I went to a grocery store. I'd usually see several women with fresh bruises, or wearing dark sunglasses indoors. Some of the poverty I saw in certain areas was on par with what I saw in Nicaragua, too. Most of the people I met there had never been beyond the county they were born in either.....
“This traveling dentist is simply encouraging them to stay in those hills and hollows and glory in their poverty and ignorance.”
Yes they should be forced to move to where they are more easily controlled. Do it for the children ya know.
You can find them less than 50 miles from nyc in rural nj. I know since I grew up there. Wiki or google jacks n’ whites or jaxlson whites.
“Normally I look with a healthy dose of suspicion anything the Slimes has to say.”
Same here.
IMO, The real problem behind the dreadful poverty on parts of Kentucky, West Virginia and in this region is government policy. Government policies have shoved industry away from rural America. Much of it has gone overseas but the rest moves to big cities. Big cities where the costs are much higher but where people can be controlled.
WOW, thats screwed up. And they call the hillbillies ignorant.
Do you mean the wonder of New York,the birth place of abortion!
Singing about it has made Loretta and Dolly very wealthy.
Amen. I will take a toothless,no shoes,Kentuckian over a flaming liberal pro-choice,pro-gay California or New Yorker any day.
I was just in central KY looking at adairy farm with my brother. In a couple of years, he may very well move there in the quest to create his own job...I may join him at the rate FL is going...
Those poor people.
Geez and I was feeling guilty for not spending $300 when the vet told me my cat had a tooth that needed pulling and he needed his teeth cleaned.
We are moving to N. Kentucky next month (just south of Cincy). I am looking forward to getting out this frozen tundra of N. Illinois.
I happened once to visit with a man who was a route driver for a company that supplied snack (i.e. junk)foods to gas stations and convenience stores. His route encompassed one of our local Indian reservations and he boasted that his sales of snack items were the highest in a three state region solely because of sales on the reservation.
Sorry, I was raised in mostly rural areas. I live in one now—well water, no flouridation. Yet strangely, since the age of 9 I’ve had ONE cavity. Another case of the NY Times telling those poor bastards in flyover country how dumb they are not to live in “enlightened” socialist areas like NYC.
As if there aren’t crack addicts with rotting teeth sleeping in the doorways of the Times Building.
BTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Moving to a town with jobs and a dentist is hardly bowing down to tyranny.
The problem is much deeper than that. The people are connected to their piece of land in a way I don't understand. I have known Kentuckians who would rather starve on their side hill than move 100 miles and live comfortably. Don't ask me to explain it. It might simply be the known versus the unknown.
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