One World

39) Global Toothache

Posted 27th September 2016

A man eats sugary foods and drinks sugary drinks as he pleases. One day, he notices a slight dull pain in one of his teeth. The man realises he should eat less sugar, and brush his teeth after meals. The pain soon passes and, after a little while, he forgets about it. The man continues to consume sugary food and drink as he pleases, and returns to not brushing his teeth regularly. A week or so after the first slightly painful episode, he feels it again in the same tooth, and this time the pain is a little stronger, and endures a little longer. The pain passes after a few minutes, and again the man vows to take better care of himself. However, he soon forgets this promise, and does not give his toothache much more thought only a few hours after the pain has gone. He's becoming accustomed to it. Then, only a day or so later, it happens again - this time immediately after he eats a chocolate bar. This time the pain is a bit stronger than before.

For the first time, the man seriously considers visiting the dreaded dentist for treatment. But what might this involve? Having to open his mouth wide for uncomfortable lengths of time, his mouth drying, while the dentist prods away inside. Then, if he needs a root canal, receiving an injection (the thought of which is very unnerving to the man) and being subjected to lengthy and uncomfortable drilling and scraping, then a period of subsequent numbness, followed by any final stings when the feeling returns. Worse still, what if he needs to have the tooth removed! This terrifies the man, and he decides the intermittent uncomfortable pain might go away if he consumes less sugary food and drink, and brushes his teeth after every meal. So, this time, he really promises to do just this.

The incidents of painful toothache seem to reduce in frequency, for a while. However, the irreparable damage to his tooth has been done by the years of sugar intake coupled with scant regard to his oral hygiene. So, when the man absent-mindedly eats a sweet, the pain returns immediately. Then, even when he stays away from sugar, episodes of painful toothache recur, until eventually his discomfort is present with him every waking hour. His only escape from the pain is during periods of sleep, which are also becoming more disturbed by his soreness. Eventually, the man reconsiders his options: let the almost constant painful toothache continue and perhaps worsen further still, or visit the scary dentist for treatment. Now, although still frightening to him, the man decides to go to the dentist as it is now a less unpleasant prospect than continuing in his discomfort. Without further hesitation, the man makes an appointment for emergency treatment.

As it turns out, the fear had been mostly built up in the man's own imagination. The dentist was able to apply anesthetic cream before injecting the man's gum, so the man never felt the pain of the injection. During the dental procedure, the hitherto scary dentist appeared more like a saviour to the man, helping to put an end to the miserable chronic pain he'd been suffering. And when the procedure was over, the man wondered what he had been so afraid of. The dentist gave the man advice on how to find enjoyable food and drink which isn't loaded with sugar, and instructed him on how to brush and floss his teeth regularly. Then the man went home, wiser for the whole experience, ate a healthier diet, practiced better self-dental care, and was less afraid to visit the dentist in future.

The World, at present, is like the man with toothache who is afraid to visit the dentist. The sugary food and drink is the short-term profitable and harmful ways man has chosen: dirty sources of energy, corruption, greed, exploitation of one another etc. The toothache is the consequence of those harmful practices: pollution, climate change, terrorism, war, poverty, crime, instability etc. Now, as the toothache, the consequences of destructive behaviour, increases, man lessens his sugary intake and brushes his teeth more - that is, he reduces his pollutant and carbon output, enacts measures to ease the suffering around the World, cleans up isolated parts of the environment, etc. But he avoids visiting the dentist. That is, he is afraid of the comprehensive remedial treatment that might be required to completely end his 'toothache' - to undo the unpleasant consequences of his past behaviour. He is afraid of a complete change to his society and way of life. But as his 'toothache' continues, and worsens, that fear of 'visiting the dentist' becomes less acute in comparison to the worsening and more frequent episodes of suffering caused by not visiting the 'dentist', until the least frightening prospect is just to go to the 'dentist'. That is, for man to accept to undertake all the prescribed changes necessary to return to the long lost state of comfort. So who are the dentists? It is groups like The Green Party, Friends of the Earth, The Zeitgeist Movement, The Venus Project. These are student dentists of varying ability and effectiveness. They're well intentioned, but through lack of public support perhaps have some way to go to being able to correct the errors of the past. But they represent a good beginning - a step in the right direction. Just remember, when the pain becomes unbearable, there are dentists out there, waving their arms in the darkness, who only want to help ALL of you. Global change, like dental treatment, is frightening, but it will become more and more welcome as the global pain, the 'toothache', increases in strength and frequency.

With your help, with all the World's people coming together as a unified global family and following the available advice for treating this weakening planet, you can help the 'global dentists' become more effective at helping you to put an end to 'global toothache' forever.

Jacque Fresco

"We're gonna use it up - wear it out"