Pain Has Purpose
My boys just had their six month visit to the dentist. The news after their examination wasn't fun. Both boys had cavities. I took them back to get their cavities filled. Thankfully, it was easy and painless for them. Numbing medication is a life saver. We had to wait about 10 minutes for my son's mouth to become numb. During that period, he had to have a cotton roll inserted into the side of his mouth. I asked the doctor, "What is that for?" The dentist told me, while his mouth is going numb, kids have the tendency to bite their lip or cheek. It feels weird to them so they start nipping at it. Because there isn't any pain, they can literally chew through their lip. He told me a story about how it has happened in the past. Sure enough I saw my own son start to bite on his lip. It was at that moment it became clear, pain has purpose . Pain allows us to have a present awareness of danger that is around us . It alerts us to an impending injury. If we couldn...