Emergency dental course?

[gra_farmer]

So I am still preparing and training myself and the family in the skills we need, but so often dental skills are missed out.

So does anyone know or can provide up-to-date and reliable resources on emergency dental DIY skills, either book/pdf or short courses (I don't want to do a degree here).

Many thanks Gra

 

[TeeDee]

Where there is No Dentist.

Where There Is No Dentist - Hesperian Health Guides

en.hesperian.org

Its the accompanying document to Where there is no Doctor.

 

[TeeDee]

So I am still preparing and training myself and the family in the skills we need, but so often dental skills are missed out.

So does anyone know or can provide up-to-date and reliable resources on emergency dental DIY skills, either book/pdf or short courses (I don't want to do a degree here).

Many thanks Gra

Whilst part of me thinks its somewhat admirable to want to pick up new skills and be self reliant I don't know if the time spent on Dental training maybe the best use of time and energy? At best you'll have the basic knowledge ( after study ) to be the level of a medieval leechlord capable of rudimentary dental practice - would you have the tools? or would you be looking to get in there with a leathermans and some mole grips??

Basic dental repair kits can be obtained now and a little knowledge into what a dental issue would be maybe useful but I can't imagine the time and energy spent into studying dental practice and method Vs probability of needing it in an 'event' is a good return on investment of time and energy - where that time and energy could be better spent elsewhere??


In short ( my opinion which I appreciate you've not asked for ) - I think ( unless bad teeth run in the family ) that there are more important subjects to matter that can have immediate payback and are far more likely to give positive return on quality of life NOW and become part of a high value lifestyle than going down a rabbit hole of more obscure less useful skillsets.

YMMV

 

[Broch]

I'm with TeeDee on this one. There are some really good emergency dental kits out there (not the SurvivalAids one - though that's OK for a start) that almost do too good a job. I had to use a 'temporary' filling during lockdown that my dentist had difficulty getting out

Without anaesthetic, there's not a lot one can do. Good hygiene, no sugars, no cracking hazel nuts with your teeth ... will get you a long way. Mesolithic man had relatively good teeth; later Neolithic man had worn down teeth from the grit in the flour - but neither, typically, had rotten teeth.

 

[Chris]

Fuji IX, recommended by Bob Mortimer.

 

[Suffolkrafter]

medieval leechlord

I'd aspire to that.

Mesolithic man had relatively good teeth; later Neolithic man had worn down teeth from the grit in the flour - but neither, typically, had rotten teeth.

Interesting. There was a time in our history where bad teeth was a leading (or at least significant?) cause of death, if I'm not mistaken. Presumably this coincided with trade and an increased consumption of sugar?

 

[Wayne]

I think dental health is over looked in outdoor first aid.

Many expeditions have been blighted with teeth and gum issues. The pain of infected gums and a broken tooth is hard to ignore and will often take stronger pain relief than most folk have access to without a prescription.
Antibiotics take time to work.
Good oral hygiene is important as it having a thorough dental health check a few weeks before going on a wilderness adventure.

 

[Chainsaw]

Mrs Chainsaw is a dentist and has been training dentists for about 15 years. She laughed and shook her head but gave it some thought. You wont be able to pull a tooth without anaesthetic or 4 large burly men. She's seen a 'little girl' push a rugby playing student across the room when he forgot to check the anaesthetic had worked. Even if you do, the chance of you snapping the root, damaging/infecting the bone, damaging other teeth is massive. Bottom line, don't do it, as the consequences may be worse than the problem you are trying to solve. Remember a couple of hundred years ago death through a dental disease was a major killer. When sugar came in to our diets, teeth were doomed without regular cleaning.

Diagnosing dental problems can be straightforward but can be a nightmare especially if patient is distressed with pain. Same as for normal first aid. You can read a bunch of stuff about the different factors but without the experience/training to put it all together then it's tough.

She does recommend the emergency dental kits you get. With proper moisture control and proper application, the materials in the kit will do a decent job on a filling or chip or reseating a crown for some time. Think of it as gluing or patching with a 2 part epoxy (usually glass ionomer.) The instructions are quite good but most materials will go off after a while so will need replaced. We have one and it goes on holiday with us and is probably as much as you can do without a degree, 3 years practical experience and 1 years vocational training

 

[dwardo]

I managed to split the side off a tooth during the "Covid Years" and when the dentists closed their doors. So armed with a mirror and a repair kit I set to work. The filling lasted just over two years until the dentist removed it and replaced it with his own.

Two years due to my old dentist shedding NHS clients using the excuse that we hadn't had a check-up in 18 months,, over the covid period, when they were closed..

 

[TeeDee]

I'd aspire to that.

Agreed - its does sound snappy doesn't it? I'm sure if I dropped that as a title enough I'd be getting tables in the Ivy with no problem at all.

 

[TeeDee]

Interesting. There was a time in our history where bad teeth was a leading (or at least significant?) cause of death, if I'm not mistaken. Presumably this coincided with trade and an increased consumption of sugar?

The other thing that apparently is affecting our facial and mandible health as well as the way we look is the lack of chewy / rough foods we are consuming.

There seems to be a train of thought that our faces are being undeveloped due to a lack of chewing - which I can actually believe.

The current 'fix' seems to be to have a regular chew on what appears to be a sort of Human dog chew.
Now I know that will look silly but if you get better health over the long term ( and it would promote healthy bloodflow to the gum line and strengthening of the teeth ) for 5 mins gurning in the mirror three times a week - why not??

 

[TeeDee]

If there was another skill set in this area of 'good health' I'd be tempted to look up and i think more attainable it would be BASIC chiropody - a lot of 1st world feet issues seem to stem from us wearing shoes and not letting our feet breath.

I quite like watching Mr ToeHead on Youtube as he wrenches an ingrowing toe nail out.

Bunions, Corns , Ingrowing toe nails.. ( Oh my!!! ) - lots of things to play with.

 

[Toddy]

I broke the side off a molar the first week into lock down.
The Dentist's surgery was closed, but the Dentist's practice had put up an email address for emergency enquiries.
I contacted them and asked, and was advised that I could buy and use the two part 'filler', and that it wouldn't cause problems when I could actually get an appointment.

Well, the tooth was duly covered, and seemed stable, but during the next lock down it eventually it developed into aching pain in the jaw
So, back on to the Dentist, and was told that they were running a very, very scant emergency service, and that if I was prepared to follow all guidelines then yes, they'd have a look at it....but it could only be done privately because the NHS wouldn't cover them for the reality of totally suiting up and totally sterilising the room, etc.,
I happily paid. The root canal treatment was done and it worked

I am an NHS baby, and the NHS is a godsend, it is one of those truly good things that we don't appreciate enough.
That I could afford to do this is I know contentious, because so many can't, but I could, and I did, and I was incredibly grateful that my Dentist was prepared to organise this, because they are very much NHS dentists, but their reality is that they too have bills to pay, and staff to support, etc., etc.,

Hospitals were prepared to offer emergency dental appointments, but they were doing extractions rather than the time consuming and laborious processes of dealing with infected roots, stablising them, letting those heal and then fitting crowns.

Hard times, hard decisions.

Honestly ? from my age I wish we grew three sets of teeth, I really do, because so many of us would just simply know better and take better care than we did.

My children have no fillings, no crowns, no gaps.....because we knew better, and they were healthy.

That ought to be normal. We know it's not, there are many reasons for tooth damage, but I think that's the aim.

Teach your children to take better care than older generations did.

The NHS now only pays for an annual check up, I don't think that's enough, and my Dentist agrees. So, I pay privately for the one in the middle, just to keep on top of things.
It's not expensive, about the cost of a meal out. ....to be able to eat happily for the rest of the year, to catch anything unbenign in good time, it's worth it to me.

In an ideal world the work the Dentists do (and really, they are specialist Doctors) would be properly funded by the NHS. I'd like to see that, I really would, because decent teeth, decent oral care, are a fundamental thing to good health.

Anyway, my recommendation is the book that @TeeDee mentioned, 'Where there is no Dentist', do the regular dental check ups, and keep the toothy peg things to hand in the first aid kit when away from home.

 

[demented dale]

So I am still preparing and training myself and the family in the skills we need, but so often dental skills are missed out.

So does anyone know or can provide up-to-date and reliable resources on emergency dental DIY skills, either book/pdf or short courses (I don't want to do a degree here).

Many thanks Gra

Here is a Pdf I keep about DIY dentistry. its quite informative and not for the faint hearted.

 

[Chainsaw]

just some bullet points;

• The number 1 cause of tooth decay in kids is... their parents. No blame, the education for parents is simply not there and is still not there.
• Dentists are Surgeons which is why they use the Mr/Mrs/Ms/Miss title rather than Doctor. They do extra training to be qualified as surgeons, same as medical surgeons.
• NHS dentists were paid 75% of their income while on furlough/unable to work. Most put their nurses on furlough ie what the state gave people.
• NHS dentists are using this opportunity to move towards the private sector due to continued underfunding of the NHS dental service by previous governments. They will not come back to the NHS so better get used to it!
• There has been a recent change to the SDR, Statement of Dental Renumeration ie what treatment they can do and how much an NHS dentist can charge. Let's just say neither the patient or the dentist benefits. The treatments allowed have been cut and the dentist doesn't get much more money (6% the first increase since 2016 IIRC) Moving to yearly check ups is one thing. I am not sure what else was impacted but there was talk about things like major root treatments being too expensive etc. I've not been on the course to teach dentists on what is in and what is out these days.
• Mrs C loves working in the NHS, if she'd kept her practice and sold it when she retires next year I would be retiring next year too!! The prices have rocketed with the move to privatisation so you'll see a lot more 'corporate' dentists where a corpo owns the practice and employs dentists to work there.

Anyway back to the OP, the above docs look good for learning about teeth and the folks on the mercy ships train local people to do basic dental care fairly successfully so the it can be done. Some of the more experienced and well trained locals even do injections and extractions! Got to be better than nothing I guess!

 

[Laurentius]

Don't worry a rotten tooth will fall out eventually. I had a skilled dentist who managed to leave part of the root of a molar in place when extracting it. It took twenty years for the stump to finally come out, by that time the dentist had retired

 

[demented dale]

So I am still preparing and training myself and the family in the skills we need, but so often dental skills are missed out.

So does anyone know or can provide up-to-date and reliable resources on emergency dental DIY skills, either book/pdf or short courses (I don't want to do a degree here).

Many thanks Gra

https://bushcraftuk.com/community/threads/surviving-toothache.163037/ this is a link I posted about toothache and what to do in absence of dentist. you might find some good tips etc. I am going to inbox you also.

 

[TeeDee]

at the OP. Maybe worth a look.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jaws-Sandra-Kahn/dp/1503613585/ref=sr_1_1?crid=EUSCV90J0M7B&keywords=jaws+book&qid=1706704939&sprefix=jaws+%2Caps%2C70&sr=8-1

 

[matarius777]

I bought an excellent book from a charity shop. I’m away at the moment, so can’t check the title, but it’s a medical reference book for sailors on long voyages, quite dated but covers a multitude of issues including fractures, serious wounds, bleeding, even the use of antibiotics, pain killers, food poisoning (including botulism). Basically any eventuality on board a ship, so really anywhere there’s no medical help. I can’t remember, but pretty sure it will cover dentistry as well. When I get back, I’ll post the title although I think it was published in the 60/70s.

 

[TeeDee]

I bought an excellent book from a charity shop. I’m away at the moment, so can’t check the title, but it’s a medical reference book for sailors on long voyages, quite dated but covers a multitude of issues including fractures, serious wounds, bleeding, even the use of antibiotics, pain killers, food poisoning (including botulism). Basically any eventuality on board a ship, so really anywhere there’s no medical help. I can’t remember, but pretty sure it will cover dentistry as well. When I get back, I’ll post the title although I think it was published in the 60/70s.

Ship Captains Medical Guide??

I think that maybe the one - and if one was inclined one could find PDFs copies on line.