Thursday, February 19, 2009

"A Hidden America/Children of the Mountains" (abc)

Boy that was moving. It wasn't my first exposure to poverty in the mountains of Appalachia. I tuned in late but saw about 1/2 hour of it. I know all about having to let your dental care go because you either don't have health insurance or your health insurance doesn't cover dental. Did you see these people's mouths? Many adults have no teeth and most of the kids have rotten teeth.

Apparently there is a man who took his own money to buy a truck and turn it into a mobile dental clinic. Now that the ceo of pepsi has seen the special they are donating another dental truck to this man so he can do even more work. The rotten teeth and missing teeth are called: "Mountain Dew mouth" since most people are addicted to this particular soda. It's very high in acid, sugar and caffeine.

Personally I haven't been to a dentist in 6 years, and have advanced periodontitis. That's where my gums are so sick that many of my teeth are loose. I won't go to the low income clinic at u of m hospital because I'm afraid to drive to that neighborhood.

You can probably access the special by going to abc.com. I'm going to try to access the entire show that way. I just learned of a site called: crackle.com which has what are called "webisodes" and let you watch t.v. over the internet. Personally I just lost channel 45 (fox) to the digital transition!

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