It's Not What You Would Think

Our Saturday morning ritual is to go to Compton's Diner on Broadway for breakfast.  Compton's is the kind of local place that the national news likes to go to during a Presidential campaign to check the pulse of the people.

Saratoga was featured in today's New York Times because there had been talk around town of limiting the extent of the Gun Show at the City Center. Compton's was crowded yesterday because people had come from all around the area to buy guns just in case that the sale of guns at gun shows would be regulated in the future as a reaction to the Newtown killings.  The national news had been reporting that gun purchasers were willing to spend whatever money they had to buy the guns that they wanted even though prices were at an all time high.

The men that I saw in Compton's didn't look like they had much money and they resembled  many of the folks that I treated in my early years of practice. The first thing that many of these men would say when they sat in my chair was, "Well, doc, just take out the tooth because I don't have money for this stuff."

It goes without saying that there is a segment of the population that literally has no money for dental treatment. I observed that many of  the men that I saw at Compton's who were talking about going to the gun show, had poor dental home care and looked like they did not have regular dental visits.
It is not that these men did not have money for dental care but that properly caring for their teeth was just not important to them.

Obviously they had plenty of money to purchase guns that were commanding the highest prices in recent memory but that was far more important than maintaining their dental health.

No matter what most people will say...Taking care of their teeth is NOT about the money but rather about HOW and WHERE people want to spend their money.

I was brought up to know that one's health is one of the most important parts of your life and if you have to make a decision on spending money on a car, a vacation or guns, your health comes first.

Apparently many people did not have parents like mine.