(Me and a classmate in 2005 posing with Dexter, the head/teeth model)
When Lori came to speak, she said something that struck me. Being in recreation and competing for resources and respect is difficult when you are 'under' health care. She said they market with buzz words common in health promotion now to interest people who are thinking only in the health care realm.
As a dental hygienist, people often think my job is to 'clean teeth'. Don't get me wrong, debridement is a very large part of my job, but there are so many other facets to my profession. In dentistry, we're constantly trying to prove to the public and other health professionals that oral health is incredibly important to your overall health. With periodontal disease being linked now to heart disease and pre-term low birth weight babies among other serious medical complications, the science is finally backing up what we've been saying all along. Oral health is important! Yet, I completely understand Lori's point of view - being 2nd fiddle to Health Care.
It's easy to get lost in your own professional bubble. I think about teeth so often that I forget sometimes that people don't care about oral health as much as I do (although watch out when a group of hygienists get together - you can't stop us from sharing work experiences and talking for hours about teeth! Thank goodness our husbands are all IT professionals and they can relate to each other ;)) I was completely oblivious to the fact that we might not be the only profession that feels marginalized in the health community.
I'm writing my paper about how professionals can work together to form a better, more holistic focused medical system. Part of being able to work together involves being aware and respectful of other's practices. Lori helped to open my eyes to the fact that there are other professions that contribute to a healthy society that may not be strictly under the 'health care' agenda.
