Opportunistic interview with a Dentist....

I had a filling fall out an had to have a dental visit.  I use a local community dental clinic.  I asked the Dentist if she had time for a few questions to help a student out ;-) .  It worked!  It really helped that the appointment following mine cancelled at the last minute, also.  It turns out this dentist is active in legislature and policy making within her field and was very interested in our project.
I have her email address as she would like to be informed of our public happenings regarding this class.

Interview with  a dentist:

1.     What is the time in your life that you felt the most at home, centered, yourself and why?

Around the holidays, coming home from college, with family gathered together, Christmas eve, “this is where I belong; this is who I am”, comforting being home for the holidays.

2.     What is the time in your life that you either experienced a version of homelessness or felt the least secure regarding your living situation?

Right after coming home from first year of college; siblings had moved into my room and I had no space to call my own.  I slept on the couch until I left for school again, all summer long. I feel so out of place.  I can’t live at school, I don’t live there, and I don’t have a space here, and don’t live here anymore. I have no bed; it felt really, really uncomfortable and weird; it was really hard.

3.     What’s one way that gentrification affected you or your family/community personally?

             Please define gentrification for me? 

“Revitalized area that is now only financially accessible to people of higher class income than those who lived there before; previous tenants cannot afford the area any longer”

I don’t think I have any experience that I can immediately think of…

4.     What is one way that you/your family/community has been personally affected by homelessness?

I have to say, I see it most here, at the dental clinic.  I worked in private practice and had no contact with homeless clients.  I see a lot more here, working in Waterville.  I see how their health is adversely affected, on their dental health specifically. Especially people who don’t qualify for certain programs that you would think that they should qualify for and it breaks your heart when you see that they can’t afford what they need.

           

5.     What is a question you have relating to the issue of homelessness that you don’t ask out loud because it may be seen as either politically incorrect or ignorant?

I don’t understand…. I mean, my version of homelessness is very very different from what those who truly are experience.  I don’t understand the situations that lead them to be in the position that they are in. I know personally a previously very successful person, who ended up falling into a situation an became homeless.  You wouldn't specifically ask him “Hey, how’d you get this way? What happened?” You obviously know there is some kind of situation that precipitated their situation.  I wonder about some of the programs that we have and whether they could be better targeted to help this population more than they do.  Especially regarding how cold it is here; people are allowed to be there at night, but then must leave during the day; go out into the cold with really no place to be.  We have situations in this building where homeless people come in from the cold and the building owners shoo them back outside or call the police to ask them to have them move along. People are uncomfortable with it, don’t want to be faced with it and don’t want to see it.  It’s very sad.

6.     If you had a magic wand, what is one way you would you use it to address gentrification?

I suppose I would use it to change people’s thoughts and minds to where they are less self centered, to where they are a little bit more “how can I help someone else” instead of how can I help myself. I think if everybody had a little more of that, it doesn't have to be a lot, but that this world would be a lot better.

7.     If you had a magic wand, what is one way you would use it to address homelessness?

Oh, I’d take it away.  Give everybody at least a place to stay, something to eat, you know. I think our communities have failed a lot.  It used to be more of the individual community rather than the whole big government and legislature deciding how to help others.  The community would come forth and help people who were down and out.  A lot of times that would occur in churches and local groups, but I think that we've lost the sense of community so we don’t see it as our problem anymore we see it as somebody else’s and their issues, and so we think somebody else should take care of it and not us. 

8.     This is a definite ‘first thought’ question so I’m happy to ask it twice if you’d like to help you catch that ‘first thought’. What is one thing in your life that would be different if you knew for certain that from this moment on everyone everywhere would always have safe affordable housing – first thought?

            I wouldn't be giving so many donations if they already had it!

Afterthought on homelessness experience with a family member –

As a first thought it didn't even occur to me that it had affected me in my life, but when you were talking about homelessness and how it affects you, um my brother used to live with me in my house, and he developed a severe drug problem.  It got to the point where he had and was doing drugs in my home, ... needles and so forth.  I have a license with the DEA; I’m not allowed to have that kind of stuff in my house or support it. I actually had to seek some psychological help to help me deal with my brothers’ addiction.  Because, I actually had to say you can’t live here any more. While he was never homeless, he always found someplace to stay or to be; my family took him in after I said you can’t live here anymore.  It was something that we kind of had to do; he was stealing from us; it became very, very, very difficult.  It was heartbreaking. It was the worst…. In  my whole life and I, I think I try to forget about it a lot.  I am able to talk with him about it, in terms of… he’s much better now; he’s gotten treatment for himself.  He’s been clean for I think going on three years, which is fantastic and he’s had I think one relapse and then gone right back to where he was supposed to be. But that was really, really horrifying and it could have turn into a homelessness situation so I do understand that element.  You have to want it.  I respect programs that are there to help.

My thoughts:
This interview was the highlight of my day.  Obviously, being told I needed to have an extraction wasn't.  Listening to her voice and seeing her wring her hands as she relate the last bit about her brother and how she and her family wrestled with a family member experiencing active addiction was a real nugget of gold.  Her compassion for people is what placed her where she is; in a clinic setting versus private practice.  One of the colors that stood out in this interview were that lovely greenish-blueish scrubs color, the color that reminds me of those truly useless emesis basins shaped like a kidney that hold about a half cup of anything.  And the other color was red.  Mario Brothers decals were on the wall in the room where I got my broken tooth looked at.  The smell was of clean disinfectant, and the office I interviewed her in was cluttery compared to the neat treatment areas. 

I could see that the fact that she suppressed thoughts of her brother surprised her.  She had a quizzical contemplative look on her face just before she brought it up and asked if she could share one more thought.