One of my wisdom teeth is officially coming in. I was getting frustrated by a little flap of my gum that always felt like it had food stuck in it and got sore when I would try to clear it out. Then I counted my teeth, and sure enough, it's the eighth one back. I looked at it in the mirror and it's a lot more embedded, too.
Now that the health insurance is worked out, I should go to a dentist, because I know wisdom teeth sometimes have to be pulled and I already have teeth out of line, plus I can't imagine I'm cavity-free after the last ten years.
A week or two ago, Reed put a bunch of hand sanitizer in the dining hall, in front of the salad bar and in front of the silverware. I raised my eyebrow a little at that, but it's probably a good idea. Tons of people touch that stuff. This is too much though: a little bottle of Purell in my mailbox. I'm almost sure this is a swine flu reaction, and I'm skeptical whether ethanol even works against flu viruses. It depends on if they have a membrane, I believe, but it's only guaranteed against cellular microbes. I hope the people behind this have done their research.
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Whether explicit or not, the swine-flu overtones of that sort of policy (how can the campus health officials not understand people are going to draw that connection?) point away from an actual concern with preventing swine-flu and suggest a more general public health response. In other words, t'is the time of year for people to get sick -- when the season compromises our immune system some; when because of holidays and increased travel due to school years starting up we are both around each other a lot more in close quarters and with potentially foreign pathogens -- and so it would be good if we could give people a reason to take care of themselves. I just don't see people caring all that much about a public health campaign to battle seasonal colds, though they should, so some other, more glamorous public health fantasy is needed.
This reminds me that I need to re-read Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business." Great book, even if from 1985, about how tele-media constrain our ability to think rationally.
I recently heard a debunking of hand sanitizer on Science Friday. The guest said that the quick-dry stuff has no effect on the flu, and that a wipe format might be effective only because it gets to rub your hands on something.
So you might encourage people to alternately a) wash their hands the normal way before eating LIKE ANY TWO YEAR OLD, or b) wipe them on a napkin or something after applying the useless chemical provided.
And yes, go to dentist.
Also, I agree with Joe that it may be more of a public relations ploy to widely deploy sanitizer in public places.
If food often gets stuck between your teeth and it causes discomfort, then I guess you have to have your teeth examined by a dentist. Sometimes, it's a hint that there's an underlying problem. It's one thing if you only get food in places where you can take it out with clean nails, and it's another if your gums get sore. I hope all is well now, K! :)
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