The Story of How Writing My Senior Thesis on Developmental Disorders Made My Teeth Pretty Shiny
I wrote my senior thesis on the theme of developmental disorders. As a result, my teeth became pretty shiny. It was a surprising effect.
Why is that?
As is common with developmental disorders, I have repeatedly been late or made mistakes with time since I was a child. When I looked into what I could do about this, the theory of 'time perception' dysfunction seemed to be a trend in the field of developmental disorder research. It was in English, so I didn't really understand what it was saying, but I felt like I could vaguely grasp that it was popular, that they were measuring things in excessive detail, and that providing feedback on that seemed like a good idea.
So!
I started using a stopwatch to measure and record every single thing: getting a drink and coming back, going to the bathroom and returning, lounging around and taking naps. Then, I gradually began to realize that time 'exists' there. This is a truly strange sensation.
I became able to 'brush my teeth'...!?
Previously, I would brush just one tooth enthusiastically and do the rest haphazardly, which led to tartar buildup, brown tea stains, cavities, and a lot of trouble. So, after a lot of trial and error, I started using a timer to brush for 30 seconds each on the upper right, upper left, lower right, lower left, front upper, front lower, flossing, and rinsing. This allowed me to brush evenly, and my cavities and staining decreased. They aren't perfectly white, but they are reasonably, pretty shiny.
And, it was featured in the developmental disorders special issue of last month's Newton, the November issue.
Neurotypical people can easily perform tasks like 'predicting a certain length of time (time reproduction)' and 'feeling the length of a stimulus (time discrimination)' even without cues like clocks. However, multiple experiments have shown that for many people with ADHD, both time reproduction and time discrimination are difficult.
It means that I was completely unable to 'predict a certain length of time' or 'feel the length of a stimulus,' and that by using a timer to assist me, I was able to brush properly.
By measuring with a timer and keeping records, I can finally vaguely sense that time 'exists.' This is time... A new sensation... It makes sense why I couldn't do it no matter how hard I tried. When I try brushing without a timer, it ends in an instant. I put the brush in my mouth, scrub a little, and feel satisfied.
This means that people whose time perception works well might be able to brush in a balanced way even without a timer. I would like to conduct an empirical experiment comparing myself to people who brush well.
Wow, I never expected that writing a senior thesis would make my teeth reasonably shiny. I thought, the power of science is amazing.