The article Poor Teeth was written by Sarah Smarsh with the goal in mind being to shed light on the issue between upper and lower class society in a particularly concrete way. Teeth and dental health are an easy thing for people to imagine in their head because everyone has a set whether they’re white and shiny or black and rotted. This makes it easy to draw a comparison between people that care for their teeth and those who don’t. However, access to dental knowledge and services which the lower class often times doesn’t have is very different between the poor and the rich. While the rich stroll through life showing off their perfect glossy white rows of teeth, there are less privileged people out there with barren mouths whose weak pale gums …show more content…
Poor Teeth tells the story of a little girl who was raised in the low down trailer park community, used to wearing ragged non fitting clothes to school, and constantly bringing brown paper bags to school in lieu of an actual backpack. She was the same as all kids around her in every way except for one, she grew into an almost perfect straight and white set of teeth despite living among people who don’t take care of their teeth and having minimal dental care and knowledge of mouth health. Now why would Smarsh include this unique girl in her narrative that has a main focus of drawing comparisons? Wouldn’t including someone who was so contrasting to the main message of the essay diminish the point the author is trying to make? No, our little girl turns out to be Smarsh as a child. This intriguing way of comparing the poor and rich community by focusing on their teeth draws people in in a way that comparing cars or houses could never do, and by introducing this girl as an outlier, Smarsh can intrigue all possible audience members as well as correctly inform them due to her personal …show more content…
The little girl in the writing is written about how she was brought up and does not seem to be any different than her lower-class counterparts in anyway because Smarsh chooses to withhold the portion about the girl growing into perfect teeth until the middle of the story. I see this as a genius way to draw the reader into the story by making them wonder why the story is focused around this girl, and make them ask why this girl is different from anyone else? If Smarsh came right out and said that this girl is different because she has great teeth, then the reader would eventually lose interest in why the girl is unique throughout the story. It was also very smart of her to include herself in the narrative as she has first-hand experience in the subject she’s speaking of. This reassures the readers that the information being presented is correct and
She brings past experiences of her life in so the reader can understand that biases and racial misinterpretations can affect poor citizens on a personal scale regardless of the fact that the intrinsic dignity that was placed upon them in their upbringing blatantly opposes the media’s opinion of them. The poor are now heavily judged. They are viewed as unworthy because they do not have as much as the middle to upper class. Media controls more than we know especially when it comes to the way we think and view things. The way the media talks about the poor is horrible. We think of homeless people or the people on the streets. There is so much more to than just being poor. The media needs to stop placing people by what they have but who they are. Integrity plays a much bigger place. I believe overall Hooks was trying to get these ideas across. She wants change and it is up to us to bring it. The article has great points supported and Hooks makes you want to take a stand and change other perspectives on the
We’ve probably all seen a poor, homeless man on the streets. How do we know that he is poor? Is it his personality? I think we all know that the reason we assume that this man is poor is because of his appearance. If we see a man whose clothes are old, torn or dirty, we assume that theman is poor, and because of this, many people view himas a lower form oflife, and not as an equal. Throughout the historyofhuman civilization,dirt has been a very common symbol that humans havecometo associate withthe poor or lower classes in our society. In AldousHuxley’s "Hyperionto a Satyr", he addresses this symbol in our society. The research questionthat I will address in this essay is:Why is therea connectionbetweenuncleanliness and the gap in our societybetween the richand the poor? The reason that I have asked and researchedthis questionis that the mainthemeof this selection seems to be the ongoingprocess oftrying to "bridgethe gulf"between social classes by the abolition(or atleast control) offilth.
Throughout the book, Anse is constantly complaining about not having teeth. He wants them so he can look nicer and hopefully find another wife. To get the money, Anse argues with Dewey Dell because she has money that he can use. The argument ends with Dewey Dell narrating, “He took the money and went out” (Faulkner, page 257). Anse took the money so he look fancier with teeth and impress a woman from the city. Dewey Dell also struggles with herself internally for the duration of the novel. She has sex with a man from town, Lafe, and becomes pregnant. The only support he offers her is giving her ten dollars to get an abortion, which Anse eventually takes from her. Dewey Dell is forced to try and hide her pregnancy without any help from Lafe. Vardaman too struggles with the fact of being underprivileged. He wants to purchase a toy train set from a store in town, but the family can’t afford it. He is constantly nagging about it; the train set represents wealth and prosperity, but Vardaman can’t understand why the family can’t purchase it. All of these points show the internal conflicts that the characters face throughout the novel and how their needs and wants exemplify their want to escape this lower class feeling and become more alike the
I am fortunate that my experiences have made me aware of these things so that when I do return to these communities as a dentist, I can not only better serve my patients as a provider, but I can also be a leading advocate for the change that is so desperately needed by the individuals in these communities. As I continue along my career path in dentistry, I intend to keep volunteering in dental clinics in underserved communities as well as participating in formal organizations such as Saving Smiles to more effectively address these issues as well as enhance my understanding of the dental field. Perhaps while I serve in these communities, I can inspire and support future health professionals that will continue to advance the incredible changes that our health fields are currently
People living in poverty can be thought of as a “them” who can be easily ignored and forgotten; when, in reality, poverty can affect anyone. When people are living in poverty, sometimes it is not their fault. Often, unfortunate events that are out of someone’s control can set them up for failure. For example, the poverty rate for disabled adults from the age of 18-64 is 28.5%, while disabled 18-64 year olds only make up 7.7% of America’s population (Proctor, Semega, and Kollar 16). Therefore, poverty disproportionately affects disabled adults. The stories of those living in poverty are incredibly diverse, as Sasha Abramsky points out in The American Way of Poverty:
Gans wrote an essay on the uses of poverty (Gans, 1971). He came to the conclusion that our society needs the poor to function. Gans gave thirteen different reasons as to why we need the poor, and what their functions are. The first is that we need poverty to make sure that the “dirty work” gets done. By dirty work, he means jobs that are dangerous, underpaid, menial, temporary, undignified, and physically dirty. Both the Neumann family and the Stanley family had to take up jobs that fit in with Gans’ first point. They took up jobs that barely gave them any money and they were physically dirty, such as basement waterproofing by Claude Stanley. The second function is that the poor subsidize economic activities to benefit the affluent by working at low wages. It apparently makes life for their employers easier because they have to pay them less. The two families in the documentary were paid very low wages. They knew exactly how it felt. The third function is that the poor create jobs for the rest of society to serve or protect those in poverty. Welfare, food stamps, and homeless shelters are examples of services that help to protect the poor. Without the poor, those jobs would not be necessary. Both families could have used help from those services to get them through their rough patch of poverty. The fourth function is that the poor prolong the economic usefulness of items like day old bread and old fruit and vegetable. They buy the stuff that others do not want to buy. Secondhand clothes and deteriorating building are also included. The Stanley family went to thrift shops to buy their clothes. They couldn’t afford to buy the clothes from regular stores. The fifth function is that the poor are a deviant subculture that help uphold the legitimacy of societal norms. Gans says that the rest of the society can use the poor to be punished for being lazy, promiscuous, and dishonest. They are most likely to be caught for it. Some
Imagine having to spend half your fortune on correcting your teeth.”Tooth decay was a perennial national problem that meant a mouthful of silver for patients, and for dentists a pocketful of gold.” (Wallis, 17) If patients don’t take care of their teeth, many issues can start to appear later in their life. Some patients are not knowledgeable of the correct procedures toward keeping a healthy smile. In order to keep a healthy smile patients must be better informed about the knowledge to achieve that success and also maintain.
Another example of their poverty is when the family goes to the slumps to pick up a plow that Mr. Slump had borrowed. The author explains that the Slumps just left their tools where they unhitched but, the little girl’s family had a shed where they put the machinery when it was not being used. Obviously the Slumps are not as openhanded as the little girl’s family, and are being treated as inferior because of this.
I can remember being a little boy sitting at the piano in church, listening to the preacher talk of how Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, which symbolizes the idea that we are here to serve. That message profoundly resonated with me throughout life. It was not until I began accompanying my grandmother to her multiple dental visits that I was able to see how I could put this calling of service into action. I saw firsthand the significant positive impact my grandmother’s dentist was able to make in her life, which encouraged me to want to learn about the field of dentistry. I then started researching dental health and learning of the importance of oral healthcare and how it affects the entire body. I then began to learn of how patient access to proper dental care was limited because of several factors such as, financial barriers, transportation, and dental fear, especially in the underserved minority communities. Given the shortage of black dentists, I realized I could make a positive difference by being an inspiration to those in the community, as well as serve in a professional career that would provide needed healthcare to the community. This is when I began to develop such a strong passion for
In the Dental Hygiene field, many challenges come about every day and during different situations. Every day there are new challenges and unusual situations that occur in the dental field, but one challenge that continues to come about and has been a big dispute over the years is the ability to provide beneficial information about oral health care for the underprivileged. For the individuals that are not fortunate enough to pay to have services done in the dental office, lack the knowledge of how important good oral health care is. They do not receive the one on one conversations explaining the significance of taking care of your teeth and gums that the patients who can afford to make appointments and receive essential services do. That
(1) LOW INCOME AND LACK OF INSURANCE: A number of studies have linked poor oral health with low socioeconomic status. Affordability is identified as major challenge in accessing dental care. “For instance, 17.3 per cent of the whole population (i.e., approximately
The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder illustrates a family dodging one catastrophe after another. By the skin of their teeth, they will defeat ice, flood, and war. The main characters of this play are George and Maggie Antrobus, their two children, Henry and Gladys, and Sabina, who appears as the family's maid in the first and third acts, as well as a beauty queen seductress in the second act. The Skin of Our Teeth takes place at the Antrobus home in Excelsior, New Jersey; and the Atlantic City boardwalk.
Then, the sand was sunk. She shows poverty as a curse, as a "chisel that chips on honor. " honor is worn away (Parker 239). " Parker starts almost every paragraph with a new definition of what poverty is.
Those who are at the bottom 20 percent don’t have access to things like health care and proper education. Health care is a major issue in most cities in America. While watching the movie “Poor America” there was a scene when the people making the movie decided to film outside a center where doctors and dentists would be performing free services. The line was extremely long and people would be camped outside just so they could see a doctor. Many people who were there had serious injuries and sicknesses and hadn’t seen a doctor or a dentist in a very long time. One gentleman in particular was so sick that the doctors strongly suggested he go to the emergency room, that his sickens could be fatal. However at the end the gentlemen refused to go to the emergency because the medical bill would be extremely
... three quarters of all public expenditures for dental care in Canada is associated with treatment in a private dental facilities, where public insurance is billed as a third-party payer (9). However, only 30% of dentists deal with public insurance (8). The delivery method causes problems between dental service providers and public insurance. Public vs. private setting for dental care is also important to consider due to the disparity that exist with oral health and its access. Low-income and high-risk children (i.e. Aboriginal children) are unable to acquire dental care suffering medically and socially since they cannot afford the cost. Additionally seniors, individuals in long-term care, the homeless etc. are also in this category. Thus, sometimes delivering would be more appropriate in private dental setting, while in others, a public setting would be more ideal.