It's The Shoes...

The Maven was stunned by a recent survey concerning women in the UK and high heels.  In the MyNews.IN article “High heels injure over 3 million women,” researchers report that women sustained injuries ranging from twisted ankles, torn tendons, fractured wrists and broken teeth. It states that a third of these women (1 million) have fallen flat on their faces!

In the 20-plus years The Mave has practiced dentistry She’s seen her fair share of trauma…and heard some interesting stories about how that trauma was sustained. But She can’t recall anyone blaming a busted out grill on their shoes.

None of the articles carrying this story cited the original research, so The Mave doesn’t know if other factors were considered. However, The Maven did find another piece of research which could explain some of these accidents.

An article in the July 2, 2010 guardian.co.uk states that 1 in 7 UK women “over the age of 16 drink more than double the recommended daily allowance of alcohol once a week.”  

(Kudos to the Brits for having an “RDA” for alcohol)

Consider this:

• ·         Current UK population: approximately 61,800,000.
• ·         Roughly half are female:  30,900,000.
• ·         The stiletto study says 3,000,000 women sustain high heeled injuries annually.  That’s about 10% of the female population. 
• ·       And…a look at the statistics from the drinking, drugging and gluttony study, one in seven women drinking too much alcohol is roughly 14%...you see where I’m going with this? 

Are the 3 million twisted ankles or 1 million busted up grillz really a shoe problem?  The Maven thinks not. Anyone who falls “flat on their face” is typically suffering from a medical issue or a blood alcohol level greater than .20.  Unimpaired individuals generally “brace” a fall with their hands or arms.

That’s probably why when asked, 60% of the injured women said they’d continue to wear high heels.


Because, it would be the rare Emergency Room patient who writes "S***faced," in answer to the question of "how accident occurred." 

Stupid Parent Tricks

Spotted this piece of creative genius at my son's hockey practice the other evening and had to share.

Has to be parental innovation.  It's the rare hockey player who gives a crap about sharing a water bottle with his teammates. And BTW?  Youth hockey players ALL wear helmets with cages...so the water is squirted through the cage and doesn't touch the players mouth. Furthermore, if you bothered to step inside the locker room you'd realize the bottle should be the least of your worries.

Sorry, Hockey-mom.  No ones buying your brand.

Cuz in the few moments The Maven spent gazing at this bottle? Three different players ignored the warning and rehydrated with your cleverly labeled ewer.

 

A Very Lost Tooth

After 33 years of excruciating ear pain, infections and ultimately deafness, Stephen Hirst of Great Britain finally has relief.  At a recent medical visit a nurse spotted and extracted a baby tooth from his ear canal.  Both patient and nurse were baffled as to how the tooth got there. 

But honestly, folks?  In a world where kids wind up in emergency rooms with M&M’s stuck up their noses, it’s not too difficult to speculate as to how a baby tooth could have gotten into Mr. Hirst’s ear, now is it? Yet that was the prevailing question amongst the medical staff at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield.

The Maven believes the more troubling question is how something like that could have been missed for 33 years!!  Mr. Hirst reports countless “hospital appointments” since age 14 spent looking for the source of his pain and infections.  Did no one ever bother to use an otoscope on poor Stephen and look in his ear?  How about an x-ray?  Teeth show up realllllly well on x-rays!  Then, with the advent of CT scans or MRI….nothing there?  Were those tests deemed too expensive for someone who was diagnosed with what seemed like chronic otitis media?

Hirst stated, “When I was younger I used to just sit and bang my head on the wall because it hurt that much. I would be screaming in pain, that's not exaggerating… I've lost count of the times I have been examined but no one spotted the tooth.”

Good Gravy!  If that was The Maven’s son, she’d move heaven and earth to find out why he was in such horrible pain.  If one doctor didn’t find the reason The Maven would move on to the next doctor and then the next.

The Maven hopes that, like many most stories written by today’s journalists, some key facts are missing from this report.  As told, it’s not the prettiest piece of advertisement for a healthcare system.  Despite Her great affection for the Brits, The Mave is not a big fan of the NHS model of healthcare.  However, She remains hopeful that the real story is more reflective of the journalists ineptitude and less so of the incompetence of the NHS.