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It's time to help a child
You must give some time to your fellow men. Even if it's a little thing, do something for others—something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it.
—Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)
Childhood is an interesting time in our lives. While we all have had different experiences growing up and many of them are lost to fading memory, some things stand out in my memories.
Time moved slowly when I was a child. The time it took for the school week to be over was long. The time it took for summer vacation to arrive was immense. And, the time from one birthday to the next was an eternity.
I'm not sure anyone has explained to me why it was that time used to move at the speed of cold molasses then, but now it zooms along on fast forward. I have a theory, however.
I think that the apparent passage of time is slower when one is learning new things, and having new experiences. I suspect that our brains need to somehow process these novel situations and the result is the perception that time is moving slowly. As we age (and I'm aging!) less and less time in our lives is spent encountering new situations. Yes we do learn new things daily (I hope) but the sheer volume of novel input is only a fraction of that encountered by a child. As your younger self soaked up all there was to see and do and learn in your environment, there just wasn’t time to sense time.
Maybe I was impatient as a kid, but it seemed that nothing arrived fast enough. "How long 'til dinner, Mom?" "When are we gonna get there?" (for the hundredth time). "I can’t wait to see Grandma!" It took so long for things to happen. While generally, this was a benign phenomenon that led to some aggravation (more for my parents than for me, I'm sure), there were times when it was just plain bad.
Being sick was no fun and something like the flu lasted forever. I remember the first time I had a blood draw (age 6) and that was a really long event. Dental visits took forever, and, unlike today, the practitioners of my youth were not as concerned with making it a fun and painless experience!
I can't imagine how hard it is for a small child with tooth pain who has a family that either cannot recognize how the child is suffering or who does not have the knowledge or resources to get the kid to a dentist. I have heard it said that many of the children who live in underserved populations just learn to live with a toothache. They continue to go to school, play with other children, eat their meals and otherwise manage. Yes, the tooth pain at school distracts them and their grades will suffer. Sure, they may not play as vigorously as they otherwise might. Absolutely, for them eating is not enjoyable. But they manage, I'm told.
But think about time. From the time the pain starts as a minor sensitivity when they eat a candy, through to the beginnings of a throb, and on to the time when they tell their mom that something hurts, to the child, this is an age. Soothing words help a little, but now the time has come for suffering. Pushing on the tooth doesn’t help. Putting water on it doesn't help. Watching TV doesn't help. Even crying doesn't help. And it's been hurting so long ... so long!
Mom wants to help, but she doesn’t know what to do. There's no money for this, and she's got so much on her mind. The child has only one thing on his or her mind. And a lot of time to think about it, feel it, experience it. Mommy will take her to the doctor. They get there (it takes so long), but the doctor can't help. They want her to see someone else, someone called a dentist. What is that, the child thinks. It's going to take how long? An eternity. She takes some medicine that helps a little, but how long 'til it stops? She goes to school on the bus and every bump and bounce hurts. As the other children jostle and bump her in the hall, it hurts. School is forever. What did the teacher say? "No thanks, I'm not hungry." Why is my face getting bigger? I feel hot. Why does this take so long ...
Don't let a kid do this. Sign up for Give Kids A Smile or call the Arizona Dental Foundation to get involved with Donated Dental Services. Volunteer to see kids in your office through the Boys and Girls Clubs or another children’s dental program. Volunteer to conduct oral health screenings in your local elementary school. Treat these kids at a hospital-based clinic. Use some of your time to help shorten the time that a child lives like this. Only you can relieve this child’s pain. And do it all year, not just during National Children’s Dental Health Month. The time you spend giving of yourself is small, but to a child, it's all the time in the world.
Dr. Roda is the editor of Inscriptions, the Journal of the Arizona Dental Association. His comments, reprinted here with permission, originally appeared in the February issue of that publication.
Editor's note: Those interested in finding out more about Give Kids A Smile and ways to get involved can visit http://givekidsasmile.ada.org.
