Make Medicine Better

If you have a broken leg – you go to a hospital.
If you are about to give birth – you go to a hospital.
If you have a heart attack – you go to a hospital.
If you have the flu – you go to a hospital.
If you have cancer – you go to the hospital.
But if you have a cavity – you don’t go to a hospital.
If you have problems seeing clearly – you don’t go to a hospital.
At a hospital, they have an “Ear, Nose, and Throat” specialist. That doctor is known as a Otolaryngologist, it’s sometimes abbreviated ENT. But a Mouth specialist? An Eye specialist? Nope – not at the hospital. They have to be somewhere else. Why is that?
Heart specialists, brain specialists, skin specialists, stomach specialists…. All in the same hospital. All covered by the same insurance. But – whoa nelly – if you need glasses, you have to have a special insurance to cover that, and you’re more likely to find that Medical Doctor inside of a mall or a supercenter than you will inside of a hospital. And if you have teeth – or if you used to have teeth – you have to have a special insurance for that and go find their special teeth doctor shops somewhere else, too.
Why are Optometrists and Dentists treated like second class doctors? Why are they excluded from the ultra-broad label of “Medicine”? Why is a plastic surgeon more likely to be accepted in a hospital than someone who actually has a purpose for existing? Why are eyes and teeth treated like they are not a normal part of the body? Sure, we might not all be born with teeth – but the vast majority of us were born with EYES.
It is incredibly mind-boggling to me that these two branches of mainstream medicine are excluded from the rest of the group.
I’m not talking about herbal home remedies here. I’m not talking about sticking needles randomly around your body, or even glorified massage parlors. I’m talking about actual doctors who actually affect the overall health of a human being.
Did you know that bad teeth are directly related to increased risk of heart disease?
Did you know that poor sight can be an indicator of diabetes?
The eyes and teeth are not somehow magically different from the rest of our bodies. If I have a broken jaw I go to the hospital, but a broken tooth – nope – that’s somebody else’s department.
It is insane that these random exclusions apply to what a “Doctor” is and what is covered by “Medical” insurance. And, to make medicine better – these arbitrary walls of separation needs to be torn down.
[And before you ask – neither I, nor any in my immediate family, or known extended family, are dentists or optometrists. But most of us do have eyes and teeth.)