We live in strange, strange world. Full of complexity, confusion and contradiction. Even the oft-quoted Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times” isn’t Chinese.

This apocryphal has been in use since 1936, with nothing having ever verified its Sinitic origin; certainly the Chinese don’t use it. The closest expression they have, translated from a 1627 book of short stories is, “Better to be a dog in times of tranquility than a human in times of chaos”.

Woof to that.

In this land in which the life of a calm canine crushes that of a harassed Homo sapien, the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of the Tibetan people and revered by many as the embodiment of compassion is considered a separatist nuisance.

In the secular West, where credit, consumerism and convenience are the 21st century Trinity, the hypocrisy of this hunger is the contradictory craving it creates for all that this trio cannot provide. Enter the avuncular and engaging Dalai Lama: panacea for Occidental tenebrous.

Although he has his critics, the knowledge and wisdom of this spiritual Santa is highly regarded and highly sought. His smiling face and infectious laugh lightens and brighten enlightenment transcends the not-other-wordly aspect of his Rolex Day-Date.

Or the Roosevelt gift of a Patek Philippe pocket watch.

For many it’s a timely reminder (heh) that enlightenment has nothing to do with how rich or poor one is: it’s about in what regard the ego identifies with that wealth or poverty, and detachment from the material world. No doubt he gains much pleasure from them, but were they to suddenly disappear there’d be no change to how he lives in joy and finds peace in inner peace.

We are perennially fascinated by anyone who can do that.

His observations are plentiful, philosophical and often whimsical. For low-risk existentialists somebodies wanting to understand ‘I am nobody’ impermanence, Dalai Lama quotes are trusted Treasury Notes.

When a never-identified person asked him what it was about humanity that surprised him most, his response was, “Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future. He lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”

It’s not dissimilar to the assertion: “They get bored in childhood and they hurry to grow up, but then they miss their childhood. They lose their health to earn money but they pay money to regain their health. Worried about tomorrow they forget about today. In the end they neither live today nor tomorrow. They live as if they’ll never die, but they die as if they never lived.”

It’s a quote that’s been attributed to the Ancient Greek philosopher Plato; inarguably one of the greatest foundational thinkers of the Western world.

And it’s patently untrue.

Plato wrote about Socrates – as was the genre of the dialogues of the time. He never speaks explicitly of himself. The quote is from Brazilian novelist and lyricist Paulo Coelho’s 2006 book, Like the Flowering River.

But hey, Paulo/Plato; Brazilian/Greek; 2006/mid 4th century BCE… all so easy to confuse in this post-truth, non-thinking fugue where everything’s believed as long as a 10100 search engine says so. Slap up some synthetic Sinitec, serve Plato on a takeaway plate, why not? As they say, it’s all Greek to me.
And precisely what makes the answer to whether receding gums can be properly treated holistically, or with home remedies a distinctly challenging one.

DIY dentistry is fraught with fakery and failure.

Certainly worldwide, dentists are seeing patients with impaired teeth and gums from the likes of at-home aligners, and rubber band ‘braces’; they’re treating enamel damage from do-it-yourself tooth whitening pastes, and the permanent consequences of shaping teeth with metal nail manicure tools and emery boards.

File that in the bin.

Dodgy ‘experts’, fake news, mendacious media, anomalous anecdotes: now more than ever, it’s crucial to be able to work out what’s true, ourselves. And to do that means overcoming our own biases.

Digital music for instance, encourages us to pay for, and compile personal audio libraries without ever possessing a physical copy of the recordings – so do we ‘own’ them? Not at all: and that’ll be news to some. Does it matter? It does. Because in a complex society, we don’t realise how reliant we are on the knowledge of others.

The confidence we have in our own cognisance is largely based on the certainty that somebody else knows. Argumentum ad Populum – simplified to Bandwagon Fallacy – argues that whatever the beliefs or behaviours of someone of influence, ‘everyone’, ‘people’, or ‘the majority’ must be indeed right, and invariably true.

It’s how misinformation catches on, and the asinine is applauded.

Abandon the idea of alternative facts. To know how we know what we know, is the science of knowledge itself. Hardcore relativist philosophers maintain there is no such thing as an objective truth existing outside our own mind.

American analytic philosopher and the John Cardinal O’Hara Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, Peter van Inwagen, disputes that. He devised a new position of free will, which refutes compatibilism (where free will and determinism are mutually compatible), without committing to the truth or fiction of determinism. (Being the belief that all events and actions are the result of causes external to free will.)

Confused?

Try this: The incompatibilist believes that if determinism turned out to be true, then the idea of free will is false. The compatibilist denies that the truth of determinism is so consequentially drastic.

Accept the challenge that in this post-truth era (as it was pre-post-truth) it’s necessary to ensure that as far as is possible, our inside knowledge is aligned with outside truth.

Now figure out how true gingival recession home remedies are for you.

There are a number of them. They can be found in research-based white papers, on dental practitioner sites; and in medical journals and publications. They include salt water, clove, basil and tea tree oils, aloe vera gel, oil pulling, mouthwash recipes and other combinations.

Most recently, matcha powder – the essence of green tea – has proven very beneficial in the prevention and treatment of periodontal disease.

Since other research has found the universe to be remarkably structurally similar to the human brain – raising the question of whether in fact the cosmos has its own consciousness – everything is possible.

Taking a natural approach to your gum health doesn’t preclude the professional knowledge and experience of a dentist. Like tenets of philosophy, they don’t have to be mutually exclusive if, to you, that’s what makes it make no sense.

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