When you approach old age, your body systems begin to deteriorate and you begin to get ailments of various kinds.
I am no exception. I am fast nearing to the accepted age when every one would formally or informally designate you as a senior citizen- a clever nomenclature to designate people who are branded for obscurity in some short period of time ahead.
Let me admit this. I am comfortable with that condition as I understand the destiny that is certain for all who have born as humans in this world.
Perhaps the politicians of all nations would be the only exception. They are the only kind in the world who are not comfortable with the thought of thinking about their sunset years. They are not comfortable to make way to those who march forward behind them.
That is the problem with those who have made much wealth and money too. The few decades of less than a century are not enough for them. They are willing to spend any amount of money to any hospitals and medicos just for keeping them alive and to escape the dread of death.
The fear of old age debility , pain and death by such people give enough opportunity for medical and pharmaceutical business to flourish in leaps and bounds.
So a celebrity is not hesitant to spend billions for transplanting or transfusions of body parts and fluids from the incapacitated bodies of the less privileged and accept it as their own. Perhaps the same living body of the underprivileged might have been a repulsive thing for the celebrity on all previous occasions!
Then there are the medical researchers and the medical scientists and the celebrity medical doctors of modern age who do not forgo any opportunity to make cash by trading human flesh and blood, though they may glorify it in the name of advanced medical science.
Then there are the bio-medical engineers and the pharmaceutical bio technologists who keep discovering, patenting and selling all kinds of substances and equipment under the umbrella of unscrupulous businessmen and business women who have sold out their human nature and humanity for greed.
They join hands with the paid media to terrorize the common people and draw them to them encouraging them to spend money for all medical panacea even at the cost of all their savings of life just as the fearful celebrities do for saving their lives.
When celebrities and the powerful ones do all these, that is the order of the day. The inferior lots do not have enough brains to think. They are followers always!
Some time ago, a friend quoted a philosopher who said like this: Money begets money; work begets work.
Perhaps the philosopher had observed the world around him. He had observed that those fellows who keep making money keep on making money. He had also observed that some people are always busy with work as either they keep on getting some work always or they cannot get out of their work even for some time to relax. They are in the look out for some work to keep them busy always! These two kinds of people end up their whole life either making money or doing some work whether important in life or otherwise!
In a similar way some others are perennial patients. For them disease begets disease. The medical doctors call them as having hypochondriasis. That simply means that they are always worried about some ailment affecting and troubling them and they would not get any comfort unless they visit the doctor or the hospital every day! A good majority of modern men and women are affected by this medical anxiety syndrome that they form a good market for the unscrupulous medical business fraternity. The latter may some times do all such things that the former are kept under the same condition as long as they can!
The internet search engines provide enough material for all hypochondria men and women fully engaged. The medical advice sites they finally land would enhance their fears and anxieties several fold, instead of giving them any reassuring confidence.
For example their minor headache could be due to a tumor in the brain which also cannot be over ruled unless it is thoroughly examined under a total head computer aided tomography (CAT) scan or magnetic resonance imaging (MMI) scan, the modern medical diagnostic equipment invented by some medical research companies in the past decade. These machines cost millions and unless they are fully engaged without lose of even a minute, those who had invested those millions could not possibly recover their investments and make profits.
I am not against research or advancements in the field of medicine or medical technology. But so long as there exist unscrupulous and greedy persons among us, all good could turn out to do more harm than good. And that applies not only to this field, but in all fields of human endeavors.
You may be wondering why all this sermons that is not relevant to the title of this blog. After all who has the time to listen to sermons in these age of fast food and fast culture? Come to the point, buddy! You might say.
Do you have some thing to discuss about the world cup? You may ask. No, I have nothing to say. But I pity all those who become prey to the big money makers who know how to trap the millions like you to get glued to the big event just as the short lived moths who live for a few minutes before they flock to the bright lights for a short lived enjoyment of their life time! Are you moths of that kind?
Okay, I do not want to test your short temper any more.
As old age progressed I got a severe tooth ache and a swelling around the affected molar tooth of my upper jaw. I was affected by a similar problem for my canine teeth of either side on my lower jaw a decade ago. I visited my dentist who was pretty renowned of our locality at that time.
He examined it thoroughly and got them x-rayed and declared them as not salvageable. The solution is to pull them out. I had not other choice but to agree as the pain was severe and unbearable. So in a weeks time both my teeth got to the grave before me.
The doctor suggested that I should make up my lost teeth with artificial ceramic teeth that the modern technology has invented. The technology had advanced to such levels that he could fit them in such a way that they look better than the original if I was prepared to foot the high bill. More than the money, what I wanted to know was about the procedure.
He told that the permanent fixture of the teeth would be made by making a so called bridge to fix the artificial tooth. For making the bridge, he had to chisel, chip and drill my existing teeth and the jaw bone to some extent under local anesthesia. And it might take a few sittings for a couple of days. To make the existing teeth cause no pains later, he also had to remove the pain transmitting nerves which are embedded deep inside the teeth, a dental surgery procedure the dentist call as the root canal treatment.
Would it cause pain? Nothing much, but sometimes, a little bit. He re-assured me. I had my own doubts. As I am a fearful person, especially when it comes to things like this, I was not ready to swallow it fully.
So I talked to some others who underwent the procedure bravely. What I gained from is that the root canal treatment is much more painful than the actual pain of the decayed tooth. Of course, I have not experienced it. But why should I? Old age is going to create problems of this sort and I am not going to be an young person any more by getting those sparkling artificial teeth fitted in my mouth! More over the two teeth loss had not caused much problem to me including my facial appearance.
So I decided not to fit those artificial teeth to make me young.
A decade later, my upper jaw molar teeth became affected as was the situation earlier. It began with pain, numbness of the whole teeth and swelling of the jaw. The pain began to increase. I went to the doctor who as usual gave the final verdict of pulling the affected tooth as the solution and fitting new artificial one later.
This time I decided not to go as per the dentist for the time being. I decided to tolerate the pain by alleviating it by house hold techniques including some self medication with common pain killers. The teeth almost became lose from its root and began to move to and fro when I chewed food causing much discomfort. But I thought I should be patient for some time.
My logic was simple common sense. The pain is due to infected sensory nerves that connect to the teeth. In the root canal treatment the dentists artificially desensitize these nerves and drill them out to retain the affected bone structure of the teeth intact. Later the nerveless tooth start behaving as an artificial tooth with no means to transmit sensory pain signals to the brain.
If that were so, what would happen if I allow my decaying nerves to decay fully? Give it some time to complete that process naturally taking due precautions that the bacterial decaying process does not go out of hand to create other complications in and around . It would be a natural
root canal process!
I thought of giving my logic a try.
The decay has to proceed. So I should not kill the decay causing
bacteria from the inside. So a big no for using any antibiotic drugs.
But the decay should not affect other teeth and the exterior gums.
Bacteria should not make my teeth and gums their harvest field.
By this time swelling and bubbling in the affected gum area and tolerable pain have been a persistent affair. And I kept it going like that for at least two years periodically trying some bactericidal mouth wash when problems aggravated.
Then suddenly an idea came in to my mind. Why not use ordinary table salt as my tooth paste? Salt is the best known bactericide. In no time I put that thought in to practice. At first it caused some discomfort when the salt entered the depths of the bacterial infected regions hidden between the tooth and the gum.
To my surprise, in a couple of days the year long problem vanished and my my tooth got fixed on its foundation firmly. The pain and the gum swelling have gone for ever. I have finally succeeded in getting my old decayed molar teeth and the affected gums salvaged. And the great remedy was nothing but simple table salt!
Now I brush my teeth using my tooth paste covered with a layer of table salt twice daily. It is now nearing an year and the problem has not returned.
Of course it does not mean that my old teeth would not give me trouble in the future. After all, my body and its parts are aging and would no more exist after its designated life time on this earth.
Yet it has proved one thing. Modern medicine and its opinions may not be true always. Because human knowledge about his own body design is no where near the Supreme knowledge of its original Creator.
So, better accept that supreme fact and act according to the wisdom that also provided along with.
That is what my mind tells me.
And I try to follow that feeble instruction as far as possible.
