I recently had some dental work done. Serious dental work. For some reason I don’t feel anything wrong with my teeth until it is a root canal. Ugh. Anyway, of course it got me thinking about how glad I was to get that done and over with and how much it would stink to have teeth hurting if there was no dentist available. So, on that happy note, here are some quick tips on preparing for dental work in an emergency.
1. Avoid the dentist in an emergency altogether by having your regular checkups and getting needed work done now. Most of us can go awhile without needing a filling or dental work, but suppose you’ve put your checkups off for two years when a disaster hits and dental work slows to a crawl if it’s available at all. Wouldn’t you rather have had a clean dental bill of health within the last 6 months?
1 1/2. Another dentist avoidance tactic is to keep your teeth clean. You know, brush, floss, etc. regularly. We’re all adults here and hopefully already in the habit of regular brushing, so I only gave this half a number.
2. Make friends with your dentist. They might be willing to do something for you even in a long term emergency if they know who you are.
3. Make friends with an old dentist. The older dentist generation still know how to do things without computers or much technology. I actually had to have real x-rays done a month or so ago when the computers at the dentist’s office went down. Good thing he knew how to develop those x-rays instead of just waiting for them to show up on the computer right after being taken! Really any dentist will have skills and knowledge that will be useful in a survival situation, even retired dentists.
4. Look into planting the toothache plant. Okay, it’s kind of strange and a funny burning numb feeling, but it’s a fine distraction from toothache pain anyway.
5. Check out the book Where There is No Dentist. It is available as an online download or if you don’t want to pay for a new ink cartridge after printing the thing, you can also purchase it online here: Where There Is No Dentist
Being in any type of pain deteriorates a person’s ability to function and be helpful in a survival situation. Tooth pain can be even worse as it can affect your ability to eat the foods that are available to you. So give some thought to emergency dental care and taking care of your teeth now so you won’t need dental care in an emergency.
Keep preparing! Angela
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Laura and I recently went to some medical corp training and emergency dentistry was discussed. I hope to never need to use that training or to be the recipient of it!
One major take-away was that many dental issues in a post-TEOTWAWKI world will require extraction and you should not use pliers for the task. Pliers apply pressure to the tooth and frequently shatter it. Dental instruments apply the pressure to the roots and help it to pop out.
Joe
A great purchase is the Army Special Forces Medical guide. It covers almost everything and how to treat it in the field…including minor dental surgery.
That and a small field surgery kit with sutures is more than worth its weight in gold!