A Mouthful of Sky

June 06, 2013 14 Comments

Shyamal, 59 was very fond of eating sweets. Anything made with syrupy sugary becomes his favorite, in particular the source of all sugar- Sugar canes. Yes, Shyamal would often barge into his large sugarcane fields, pluck the most good looking, juicy piece and start indulging in the taste of the fruit. He would take pride in relishing the juicy fruit with his teeth. His wife Rumini would often ask him to go easy on his teeth while chewing the hard exterior of sugar canes but he would let her concern go unattended. He would often settle her fear by telling how no one in his family never had any dental problem.

One day, while piercing the skin of the sugar cane through his teeth, some blood came out of his gums. His wife got worried and asked him to consult a doctor. he admonished her concern by telling that some raw hay of the cane would have got stuck in his gum and the bleeding will stop instantly. This happened quite a times but every time, Shymal would ignore the bleeding gums and chide away his wife to not make hill of an issue.

Six months passed and one day Shyamal visited his farm to inspect the fresh grown produce. He saw the sugarcane crops growing and touching the golden skies. He couldn't help but sigh and thrown a very hungry look over the violet-green sugarcane laden fields. He wanted to open his mouth and sink his teeth on the sugary, fresh skin of new harvest but Alas his painful jaws prevented him from opening his mouth. 

"Shamu baba! see Ramsingh uncle has got me a basket of sugarcane to eat. They are very juicy. Let's do a competition of who eats more sugarcane"? asked his 6 year old grand daughter Radha.

Shyamal thrown a longing looks over the bright, pearly piece of the fruit, ready to be popped in mouth but suddenly remembered his tooth problem and withdrawn his hands from the basket. He signaled Radha to have it whole and sat back watching her eat. "If only I have paid heed to my bleeding gums and consulted doctor on time, I wouldn't be suffering with this grave dental disease" he thought. "If only, I have paid heed to the signs".

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Rushima, 6 year old was very lenient when it comes to brushing her teeth. Her brushing regime was irregular and has gone worse with age. She was very fond of eating chocolates and junk food and often sleep without brushing her teeth.  Childhood bad habits dies hard. As she grew a couple of years older, she started having severe toothaches. Her father earlier dismissed this as an excuse to avoid going school but when it became regular, he took up the issue. A visit to doctor and it was confirmed that she has many cavities in her tooth which needs to be immediately attended. Few sessions at dentist and her teeth were back to good health. She started brushing regularly and then one day she came back to her old regime. Doctor advised her to brush her teeth twice a day but much to some false convenience or call it taking things for granted, she would brush only when she would sense a minor toothache.

Today Rushima is 16 year old and suffer multiple cavities. Her food contents are restricted and she often has to visit her dentist for artificial filling.

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Issac, 33 was battling from a rare kind of cancer. His food pipe was damaged and his stomach was not able to digest his food properly. He was surviving on sheer liquid diets and would often visit hospital for treatment. He was not like this few years back. A small sore in his mouth has changed his life completely. If only he had not ignored that gum problem initially.

Issac George was a passionate film maker who picked smoking during his final year of graduation from arts college. Peer force and work pressure made him habitual of tobacco and soon her started consuming all kinds of Paan Masala to get the kick. Smoking a cigarette has become mandatory for him every time he or his colleagues took a break, a tea break. Sooner smoking cigarettes during tea break converted into taking frequent breaks to smoke. Issac started puffing at least a dozen cigarettes in a day. Frequent visits at Betel stand also exposed him to the world of chewing tobacco and flavored betel nuts which became his staple food. One day, Issac found a certain pain in his jaw and the muscles there started to contradict. He thought that it is temporary symptom caused due to eating non vegetarian food at that unknown joint last night. He took some pain killers and subsided the pain for a week. One morning when he woke up he found his entire right side of ace is swollen up. On cross examination at bathroom mirror, he found there is a small wound inside his mouth just over his gum. He planned to visit a doctor soon but deferred the idea thinking it will be all right. Sooner that sore was subsided and the pain was gone but there was something wrong with Issac' voice and throat. He saw couple of local doctors who gave some medicines but nothing helped in long term untill one day when Issac started coughing blood and failed to eat anything. He was soon rushed to a good doctor who sadly informed about Issac' incurable mouth disease.

Issac's frequent mouth trouble didn't deter him from smoking and today, he is unable to eat even a normal food which is not in liquid form. Frequent smoking and chewing tobacco has caused some kind of infection in his mouth and a lack of care of which lead it to grow till his abdomen.

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Moral of the story-
All the above three narratives tell us how from time to time, our body tries to tell us about some internal anomalies going and how we fail to heed them. From Shyamal to Rushima to Issac, everyone ignored the warning signals and faced severe consequences, repercussion of their "who cares" behaviors. They forgot the fact that our body function exactly in a way a domino does. Every things, parts is linked to each other and when one thing stops, rest all severely affected too.

We take our mouth and oral care so much for granted that we forget the crucial role that it plays on our daily lives. A small little tooth can cause so many problems that has capacity of killing a white elephant.

Never ignore the signs, the warnings that body gives to you. No matter how inconsequential they may appear in beginning.

Our mouth is as precious as our face. Often we tend so much towards out face that we forget the up keeping of our mouth. And mouth is the prime source from where we consume food and send it to our body via our throats to derive energy, nutrition and fuel for body to function. The quality of life we lead often depends on quality of food we eat. Sometime a small sore that we ignore in our mouth becomes a mighty germ manifesto creating infection in mouth and throat and spoiling the food we eat. Like a germ build up that dents our teeth, similarly a mouth infection or in particular problems in gums leads to dire straits. The moral of the story is- Better safe than sorry! To be safe, we need to learn to listen and understand all the warning signals that our body throw. A healthy mouth means a healthy Body!! Remember Superman exist only in stories and even he cannot afford to ignore the warning signs.
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This post was written for Colgate total Pro gum health.
To know more about gum problems and tooth care, do visit- My Healthy Speak Blog.
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The autor is half Human, half machine. Go Figure or just revel in what I write

14 comments:

  1. Anonymous06 June

    aptly expressed !! very nicely written
    Best of Luck for the Contest !!

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  2. Anonymous06 June

    Beautiful expression.

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  3. well written; beautiful narration

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much! Glad u liked it.

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  4. Very nice. All the best for the contest! :)

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  5. Different stories with a same moral narrated well ! Liked :)

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    1. Thank you Uma. I am glad you liked it :)

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  6. The theme is deftly tackled and the message is loud and clear. ....best wishes for the contest.

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  7. Anonymous19 June

    Nice format of storytelling. Loved it. All the best for the contest.

    Do take time out to read mine as well.
    http://reveringthoughts.wordpress.com/2013/05/19/story-about-ignoring-the-warning-signs/

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much. You have written an amazing post!

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