“This is not a book about brushing and flossing,” writes Dr. Kami Hoss in the introduction to IF YOUR MOUTH COULD TALK. The only rational response to such an opening is, “Good.” Dentistry is like taxes, college, or eating broccoli: we do it because it’s good for us, not because we enjoy it. This is exactly the sort of fatalism that Hoss seeks to overcome, both in his dental practice, which involves “theme park-like offices with superheroes, games, dress-up areas, [and] toy stores” (one worries about disturbing such fun with the mundanity of dental work), and in this book. There is a long tradition of doctors-turned-wordsmiths–Lewis Thomas, Walker Percy, Kay Redfield Jamison, Oliver Sacks, Atul Gawande, Michael Crichton, Lauren Slater. Hoss joins this guild with a deep dive into the “mouth-body connection”–i.e., how oral health influences overall health. For instance, he calls cavities “the most common chronic disease of children” before revealing that tooth decay is four times more common than childhood obesity, five times more common than asthma, and twenty times more common than diabetes.
Why don’t statistics like this get more attention? Because, he writes, of “the historical separation of dentistry and medicine.” Other writers might use such an observation as the entrée to a rant, but Hoss takes an educational approach. Everyone knows that medieval barbers were also surgeons. Hoss explains that there were two classes of barber-surgeon: real doctors and those who did “hygienic services” like tooth extraction. His background in pediatrics sometimes peeks through in cringeworthy fashion, as when he opens one section with, “Hello, mouth! How did you get that way?” By and large, though, Hoss’s tone is one of passionate interlocutor. “Oral care is medical care,” he argues, then goes a step further: “It’s a basic need and should be a human right.” The right to health care is an urgent topic in 2022. Hoss reminds us that it starts between the gums.
Combining history, policy analysis, and advocacy, Dr. Kami Hoss makes an undeniable appeal for greater emphasis on oral care in IF YOUR MOUTH COULD TALK.
~Anthony Aycock for IndieReader