Transcript

What Dentistry Teaches us About Curbing Racism | Monica Anderson | TEDxOshkosh

Transcriber: Mario Muchacho
Reviewer: Michael Nystrom Do I look scary to you? (Laughter) I hope not, but worldwide,
60% of people are afraid of me. Why? I’m a dentist. (Laughter) I know, right? What was I thinking at the age of 14 when I chose a profession
that most people dread more than a zombie apocalypse? (Laughter) I love dentistry. For me, it is an exquisite combination
of art, science, and helping people. It makes me feel “ooey gooey” inside. But that is not what most people feel
when they hear the word dentist, is it? They feel fear, dread, terror. Why do people feel dental fear? Why do they have dental phobia?
Well, there are a number of reasons. There’s the obvious potential pain, loss of control, the economic impact,
and distrust of strangers. And that’s understandable, but we know toddlers come here
insanely, comically fearless, right? They’ll try anything.
So this phobia must be inherited. Passed down from generation to generation,
like a toxic heirloom. We also learned to be prejudiced. It is not natural. Ironically, those same reasons: potential pain, loss of control, the economic impact,
and distrust of people who are not like us apply to the 60% of us who do not have
one close friend of another race. And if that number seems
a little off to you, think about who you spend time with
off work and offline, when it’s non-mandatory. Who do you have
emotional connections with? Because those are your friends. I was midway through dental school
when I had an encounter with a patient that just shook me, changed me. In the 30+ years that have followed, I have not had an experience like that,
and I hope I never do. I’ll never forget it. It was the first day of clinic,
and I was excited because we were finally going to do
some more complicated procedures. Real dentistry. So I bounce into the operatory
and stick out my hand to my new patient. I say, “Hi, Bobby. I’m Moe,
your student dentist.” Bobby looks at me and does this: (Gasp) Okay. That’s not the greeting
I was expecting, but one I’ve become very familiar with. At a loss for words, I decided
I’d take his blood pressure because he looked like he was
about to have a heart attack, and I wasn’t real good at CPR yet. (Laughter) So I’m pumping air
into the cuff on his arm, old-school, desperately trying to figure out a way
to establish rapport with him, when I spied his green and gold
baseball cap on the countertop. I took the cuff off and I said, “Bobby, I know that cap.
That’s the Baylor Bears. Are you a Baylor fan? I went to Baylor. Heyyy... Sic ’em, Bears!” His teeny smile encouraged me. So I went on and I said, “Bobby, I can see from your X-rays
that you have an abscessed tooth, and I want to tell you how that occurred, and then we’ll talk about
your options for treatment. We all have plaque in our mouth, right? It is germs, it’s bacteria
that combine with sugar, and it sticks to your teeth. It’s a film that you should brush
and floss off every day, but when you don’t, those bacteria can create
a hole in your tooth called a cavity. They work their way
to the center of the tooth, the heart of the tooth. It’s called the pulp. And they destroy the nerves
and blood vessels there. They go down the canal
in the root of the tooth and begin destroying the bone
around the tooth. That’s called an abscess. I know it’s painful, but I can help you.
I need to take a look first.” So I pick up my instruments
to do the exam, and Bobby says, “I hate the dentist.
My mama says y’all hurt people. She hates y’all, too.” I look at his mother
and her companion in the corner. I said nothing. I turn back to Bobby.
He’s opening his mouth. I’m leaning in when his mama blurts, “Bobby Earl, don’t let that negro
put her hand in your mouth.” I was hurt. I was appalled.
They hadn’t trained us for that moment. I tried to keep my composure,
but I had to lean back on my stool and turn away because
my eyes don’t lie so well. And at that moment, my heart quaked
with this painful revelation. Racism is not just
antagonism against another because of their racial or ethnic group. It is a disease, like tooth decay. Racism is contagious, like tooth decay. Racism is contagious social cancer. And I use that metaphor as someone
who is literally a cancer patient. Racism is contagious social cancer,
and it is deadly left untreated. People should fear it, not me. Because racism negatively impacts
every area of our lives. Our mental health, our relationships, our safety, our world standing,
our economy. And not only is this
a global public health crisis, it is expensive. A 2020 analysis by Citigroup proved that the United States economy
has lost trillions of dollars and millions of potential jobs
because of discriminatory practices. The story that we told ourselves
is that “changes.” Changes in legislation,
federal policy, judicial decisions, workplace mandates will level
the discrimination playing field, fostering cross-cultural relationships. (Laughter) But that’s not working, is it? It’s not working because we are calling
these programs “systemic changes,” when at this point
they are more like topical anesthetic temporarily numbing us
to the growing pain, the disease beneath our skins. We need a new approach to curbing racism, and what we practice
in dentistry offers a guide. That day with Bobby,
the first thing I did was clear the room. I asked his mother and his wife to leave.
Yes, he was a grown man. And he and I discussed his options. He selected extraction, and I prepared for that procedure
by choosing the right tools. Dentists have used
forceps, dental forceps, since the 17th century to extract teeth. With forceps, we can grasp
the crown of the tooth and uniformly apply pressure
in a way that doesn’t break off the top. And what we want to do
once we grasp the tooth, we rock it from side to side. If you’ve had a tooth extracted,
they did that, and you were wondering, “What the heck?
Pull the thing out, man.” Right? (Laughter) But we are mechanically expanding
the bony boundaries so that when we pull or deliver the tooth,
we extract the entire tooth. And once we remove the source of disease, healing begins. I gave Bobby instructions for home care:
brushing and flossing. We made an appointment for his next visit, and he was gone. And I can tell you
from that day with Bobby and thousands of patients thereafter, that the same strategies I used with him
worked well for changing behavior and developing meaningful relationships. There are three parts. There’s daily hygiene,
regular visits and prevention. Daily hygiene. You all know about brushing and flossing.
You know how important that is. But most of us just brush, right?
Let’s be honest. Did you know that brushing
cleans only about 50% of the tooth? The visible surfaces. We want you to floss
because that is how you clean the hidden surfaces of the teeth, between the teeth,
and just beneath the gums, where disease most often begins. These are important
components of self-care. You should also practice
daily mental hygiene. Biases exist in all of us
and impact our behavior. Self-reflection is when we go
into the unexposed grooves of our minds and cleanse them
of irrational fears we have because someone has a different
appearance or a different accent. Then there’s visits. It’s important that you see your dentist
twice a year, right? We want to ensure
that nothing gets out of hand. We're checking to prevent disease, but we also want to
build a relationship with you. That’s the other component. And I found over the years that patients
who visited regularly had fewer problems, and they lost their fear
of coming to the dentist. In our personal lives,
we should strive for this as well. I like to say,
“Eat lunch with a stranger.” Spend quality time with a stranger.
That may be at an event like this. You sit next to someone you don't know. It may be that the next time
you go to the mailbox, you actually talk to your neighbor
and you don't wave at them and run back in the house. And it may be that when
you’re in the company of people who are using vile, negative
language about other cultures, who are telling horrible jokes,
that you stop them in their tracks. That’s called bystander
intervention by the experts, or as I like to say: “Call an -ism what it -ism.” Diversity is important. Diversity of opinions,
diversity of relationships. It leads to better decision-making. Another way that
you can have more diversity is accept those invitations. This is me and some colleagues. Dr. Fortunato was getting married. She sent invitations to all of us
all over the country. Normally, I would just send
a gift and an excuse. But this time, I went. We had a wonderful time,
and now we’re not just virtual friends. We’re friends. And then there’s prevention. We know that fluoride prevents decay. We like fluoride now,
but that wasn’t always the case. It was 1945 when Grand Rapids, Michigan,
became the first city in the world to put fluoride in their water. It was controversial but so successful. Within a short period of time, they saw a 65% decrease in decay
among their school-aged children. That is frickin’ awesome. It was so awesome that
the US Center for Disease Control, the CDC, called it one of the ten greatest
public health achievements of the 20th century. That’s how the CDC says
something is frickin’ awesome. (Laughter) Prevention works, guys. We know this. That is why my idea -
my prescription, if you will, is that we begin early
ongoing unconscious bias training, age-appropriate for our youth,
grades K through 12, at home and at school to prevent infection
by all variants of discrimination. And to teach them early to recognize the warning signs
of this awful contagious disease. We know it takes years and countless hours, right,
to master a skill. Ten thousand hours, they say. So why are we waiting
until our young people enter the military, or the workforce, or college
to teach them about discrimination? To teach them about equity,
cultural sensitivity, about bias? That’s too late. At that point, they are either
infected or they are carriers. We’ve got to do it earlier. And you may say, “Well, they don’t need this.
They won’t understand it.” But listen, it’s already happening. If you’re looking at the news,
they’re already part of it, but they don’t have the tools
or strategies to deal with it. And I know that they can understand it
because my sons and my grandchildren from a very early age could tell me
with a high degree of accuracy when someone was being mean or unfair
or not taking turns or using bad words. Okay, that was usually me. But they were still - (Laughter) My point being, they can understand these concepts
when they are demonstrated or reinforced. And if they can understand that,
they can also understand that the language of equality
should never include spelling words that are sexist, ableist, xenophobic,
homophobic or racist. By helping them, we help ourselves with better
economies and less violence. I believe - I know we have the tools
to achieve racial equity as a society. But first, we must grasp the status quo and rock it hard
to expand our moral boundaries so that we can extract the fear
festering at the roots of our souls. Imagine the day
each of us confidently commit to a non-racist environment everywhere, anywhere, everywhere we are. That is the day ... healing begins. Thank you. (Applause)