My Autism Insights

Prompt by Mo at Manic Monday

Got home too late to write a post yesterday, unfortunately, but I wanted to post anyway about the apparent tradition in the healthcare field to dismiss or discount what a patient is feeling (or conversely, not feeling). It has always amazed me that so many professionals can tell a patient that there’s nothing wrong because they don’t see what the textbook says they should; it’s easier to say the patient is imagining things.  “That’s not pain you’re feeling; it’s pressure.”  That’s my favorite line.  But, for someone with sensory processing issues, they may feel things differently than the average person.  Pressure, vibration, sound…those things may all equate to pain.

My visit to the dentist yesterday was one example of this tradition in action.  I went in to have a tiny cavity filled - should have been a very quick and fairly painless thing, and mostly it was.  I told the dentist that my mouth is very sensitive - I’ve lived with it all my life, I think I should know by now what I can and cannot tolerate, right?

I dealt with the injection, but apparently Dr. Dentist decided that he didn’t need to wait for me to get numb and started drilling away.  Of course I felt everything.  Then he figured he could wait another ten seconds.  I was more numb, but here’s the thing - it wasn’t just the physical sensation that was hurting me.  The sound of the drill felt like a rusty train spike going through my head.  It very nearly brought me to tears each time he used the small drill.  I wasn’t annoyed with the dentist at first.  He really had no way of knowing.

But once he was done, I gave a small apology for all the ‘jumpiness’ and tried to explain that even after my tooth went numb, the sound of the drill was still painful to me.  “I think you’re more sensitive than your teeth are.”  His tone was dismissive, derisive.  I did not appreciate it.

There really needs to be a nationwide training program for healthcare providers about things like sensory differences and the autism spectrum.  It would hopefully serve to make those providers who like to sneer at the silliness of their patients a little more compassionate.  Needless to say, Gus, who can’t tolerate the electric toothbrush, won’t be going to that dentist anytime ever.

P.S.  This is not to imply that I have ever been diagnosed with a sensory integration disorder, simply that I have enough sensitivities to things that have been discounted by healthcare professionals that I can empathize.

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