Our daughter has been known, on occasion, to exhibit extreme sensitivity to... let's call it "sensation." Ever since she has been old enough to talk, she has recoiled in horror from all sorts of foods that she called too "spicy." In my gentle, nurturing form of parenting, I routinely and openly mock her, telling her that what she is sensing is "flavor." Brushing her hair is a grim exercise of pain management. Brushing her teeth with anything more than the lightest pressure sends her into paroxysms of agony.
I have not always been terribly sympathetic to her plight. It will take her all of her teen years to catch up to me in the eye-rolling department.
Now it turns out I may have been more of a jerk than I realized. According to a new study conducted by a dental organization, redheads are significantly more likely to feel pain, and be less responsive to anesthesia, than anyone else. According to the study, redheads need 20 percent more anesthesia than people of other hair colors to achieve the same result. Conventional local anesthetics are far less effective on redheads. Apparently, there may be connection between a gene that affects hair and skin color and pain sensitivity.
One of the phrases that I never like to hear from my kids is "I can't help it." It turns out that to some degree, they really can't help it. Nobody tell Kelly, okay?
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1 comment:
This does explain a lot. ; ) One day, though, she's going to google "red heads" and find this. : )
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