Do professionals know our secrets?

[custardlover]

Definitely lighthearted and curious!

I have been trying to stop my DNiece from picking her nose with various tactics. The one which seems to resonate most is 'the doctor can tell when you have a check-up; you are stretching your nostrils and they can see the bogeytrails on your tonsils'.

I made me wonder, are there telltale signs that professionals can use to tell things about us, either secrets or things we don't even know about ourselves? Can a hairdresser tell I use cheap shampoo? Can a manicurist spot I have a vitamin deficiency? And what on earth can the nurse infer from my smear...

I was a bit hesitant when I read the title but you have a very good point, I am curious now too

I think an MRI head scan can see if you've heavily used cocaine

A dentist can tell if you drink too much alcohol.

My old hairdresser claimed to know when I'd been using cheap shampoo and needed more of the the salon stuff (kerastase or Mitchell) I bought every month.

I’m a primary school teacher and we can tell the parents do the homework instead of the kids… 👀
(looking at you Mrs Johnson, with the papier mache life size working model of the digestive system)

*disclaimer- lighthearted and I’d never set such ridiculous homework! 😄

I heard something about pitting (?) bring a sign of a regular nose picker, but that was something said to my nephew years ago so I may have the details wrong

Umm curious. I can tell people who are pickers

I reckon dentist can tell a huge amount about someone's health?

Yeah, sure they did.

😀

@Shadowworry how!?

I've been told that a dentist can tell whether you're right- or left-handed from the pattern of deposition on your teeth. And I think they can often tell how well you look after your mouth, to some extent, but not always.

I always brush and floss my teeth really thoroughly before going to the dentist, not because I want to trick them into thinking I'm more conscientious about looking after my mouth than I really am, but because I feel it's polite to give them a clean mouth to inspect, so I'm also honest with them about my usual routine. When I was a younger adult, they were alway surprised when I said I brushed my teeth only once a day and very rarely flossed, because the evidence of it wasn't there, and my teeth and gums were in great condition. I think now that I'm older, the evidence of my imperfect general mouthcare is more obvious, though.

I've also experienced professionals seemingly thinking that I must be bending the truth about what I'm doing, because the evidence they see suggests otherwise — for example, I'm stricter and more scrupulous on my gluten-free diet than most coeliacs I come across, but because my blood tests show my body is still finding some gluten to react to, there's an assumption that I'm not being as careful as I say I am. But some coeliacs' immune systems are just more sensitive to tiny amounts of gluten that others don't react to.

So… I think there is some truth in the idea that professionals can infer things about you, but because everyone's bodies react differently, and some people can get away with things that others can't, sometimes professionals can be overconfident about how well the evidence correlates to your behaviours.

As a teacher I’m pretty confident I can identify which students have parents who have actual conversations with them and show a general interest in their lives. Usually have my suspicions confirmed at parents’ evening too. It’s not linked to money or social class either.

Depends what you mean by secrets! I have had many a person smelling strongly of cigarettes with heavily nicotine stained fingers swear to me that they don't smoke, but I don't think you need professional training to figure out "secrets" like that!
My job meant I spend a lot of time looking in people's mouths and it's usually pretty obvious who looks after their teeth and who doesn't. And let's just say that sometimes it was fairly clear what people had last eaten! And there are a few blood tests that can suggest things like that someone is say a heavy drinker or smokes. But I can't say I ever spent much time thinking about patients secrets to be honest, unless it was something that significantly impacted their health.

I don't know how true it is as I am not a dentist, but apparently they can tell when someone has recently given a blow job because you get circular bruises on the roof of your mouth

My hairdresser told me which side I usually sleep on.

How can they tell? Would they say something?

I know they can tell if someone's bulimic.

The dentist can tell whether you always brush well, or whether you've only brushed well today because of your appointment with them.

@BottleBottoms - re the gluten protein you're reacting to, I saw an Australian statistic that said 17% of coeliacs will also react to the very similar protein found in oats. So could to be that?

Yeah, currently working on a few fronts and narrowing it down, but hoping it's not that!

I know this isn't true because years ago DS's class had a decorated egg competition. DS totally forgot and to avoid a meltdown on the morning I quickly cobbled something together.

DS won and his teacher said it was because "he could tell DS had done it all by himself without any parent help" 😂🤗

Haha that’s hilarious!

I know this is lighthearted OP but I can’t resist saying that I hope your DN doesn’t develop a fear of the doctors! This kind of chat would completely freak my youngest out. And is picking their nose really that bad, mine have much more rank habits than that…