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[bobf <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

One thing I just noticed was that the dentist says something that James 
mentioned in a post a week or so ago; that toothpaste itself is not the 
important thing, the 'brushing' is the important thing.  I don't know where a 
person could get the two products he mentions, maybe from the internet?

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--- On Thu, 12/18/08, bobf <bobford79 AT yahoo.com> wrote:

> From: bobf <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>
> Subject: [Homestead] Survival Dentistry
> To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Thursday, December 18, 2008, 7:06 PM
> There might be an idea or two in this short article that
> could be helpful in a dental emergency.  I can not vouch for
> the article though the author does sound knowledgeable and
> is a practicing Dentist
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Survival Dentistry, by The Army Dentist
> 
> Dentistry may be one of the least exciting topics under
> preparedness. You will never see a television show on the
> daily life and death struggles in a dental office and you
> won’t find too many stories “from the front” on the
> dental team. But a dental emergency can quickly complicate
> or even bring to a standstill, daily living and tasks.
> 
>  In a SHTF scenario, this is not something you want to deal
> with. The confederate army was the first army to recognize
> this and fielded a dentist for their troops. In Vietnam,
> dental disease accounted for 11% of Disease and Non-Battle
> Injury (DNBI). Today, the military recognizes this and has
> provided more and more dental support closer to the forward
> line of troops (FLOT ) in an effort to keep troops on duty
> and out of sick call.
> 
> I have been practicing dentistry for 12 years now. I am
> currently in private practice but I served on active duty in
> the army for four and one half years and have been in the
> reserves the balance of my career. I have performed dental
> procedures in the third world as both a civilian and a
> soldier in places such as rural Jamaica, Guatemala and
> Kosovo (and in a few months I will add Iraq to the list but
> I doubt I will ever leave the wire to treat civilians). 
> 
> Most of these procedures involved nothing more than tooth
> extractions because it is the fastest way to help the most
> people. And most of these people recognized that follow up
> dental care was tenuous at best, and were not willing to
> gamble on a questionable tooth. On each of the medical
> civilian aid missions (MEDCAPs) in which I participated, the
> line to see the dentist was always at least as long as the
> line to see the physician's assistants (PAs) and
> physicians. 
> 
> I would like to present a summary of the caries process and
> the best way to prevent dental pathology in the first place,
> a simple way to recognize and or loosely categorize dental
> symptoms, and some simple treatment alternatives until
> definitive care can be reached.
> 
> The first place I would start, would be to go to your
> dentist and have everything taken care of immediately. Think
> of Tom Hank’s character in the movie “Lost” who ended
> up extracting an abscessed tooth with an old ice skate. Need
> I say more? Sometimes in dentistry, we will treat a
> questionable tooth in an effort to save it but the tooth has
> a poor prognosis and we instruct the patient to return if
> problems persist.
> 
>  If you feel that you will be remote to dental care for an
> extended period of time, then I would attempt to limit these
> “watch and wait” procedures. Always ask for the
> dentist’s prognosis. You don’t want to find out that the
> procedure has failed after you no longer have access to the
> dentist.
> 
> After all existing problems have been addressed, begin and
> maintain (make it a habit) a preventive dental program. It
> is not a very difficult thing to do and you can save untold
> thousands of dollars and a lot of pain by doing it. Believe
> me, I’ll take your money to fix the problems but its
> better if you just avoid the problems in the first place.
> 
> Caries begins when bacteria in your mouth, digests sugar
> and creates acid, which dissolves tooth structure. As this
> process progresses towards the pulp of the tooth, you will
> experience pain. I know you all have heard this a million
> times but I’ll say it again because if you do this, you
> will have very few problems. Brush your teeth nd limit your
> sugar intake. . It really does work. If you can remove the
> bacteria, which predominantly resides in plaque, from your
> mouth, you will limit its ability to create acid.
> 
>  Also, the sugar intake frequency is more important than
> the amount of sugar. Every time you put sugar in your mouth,
> the bacteria will create acid for thirty minutes. If you
> drink one soda in 10 minutes, and then consume no more sugar
> the rest of the day, then you will only have acid in your
> mouth for about 40 minutes. If you take the same soda, and
> sip on it all day long, then you will have acid in your
> mouth all day long. 
> 
> Certainly limit the amount of sugar you ingest, but more
> importantly, limit the frequency with which you ingest it.
> Also, use a fluoride rinse every night. You should brush
> your teeth, then rinse your mouth, drink water if you want,
> and then rinse with the fluoride. Then don’t put anything
> else in your mouth and go to bed. The fluoride will sit on
> your teeth and make the enamel less soluble. It works.|
> 
> Toothpaste is not necessary in this regimen either. It is
> good but not necessary. Toothpaste is nothing more than a
> mild abrasive, flavoring and fluoride. If you want to make
> your own, you can use fluoride rinse and baking soda
> although baking soda is much more abrasive than commercially
> made tooth paste and can irritate your tissues. It is fine
> to use every now and then and just use fluoride rinse or
> water if that’s all you have the rest of the time.
> 
> If you do develop a carious lesion (a cavity), you can
> expect the following, which can take months or years to
> fully develop. These symptoms are never written in stone and
> vary greatly between individuals and even between teeth in
> the same person. But this should provide a general guideline
> so you can estimate what you are dealing with, what symptom
> may be expected with time and what treatment you may need. 
> 
> When the tooth structure has been sufficiently weakened, it
> will break and leave a hole (the cavity). At first you may
> have no pain and only experience a gingival irritation as
> food gets packed in it. You may have trouble getting all of
> the food out. Soon it will start to ache when you chew and
> possibly will be very cold sensitive. This decay is
> approaching the pulp of the tooth and is starting to
> irritate the nerves within the tooth. This is called
> reversible pulpitis, literally a reversible irritated pulp. 
> 
> This can be treated with a filling. When the tooth begins
> to hurt spontaneously, wakes you up at night and is
> sensitive to hot, then you most likely have an irreversible
> pulpitis. At this point, the tooth requires a root canal or
> an extraction. The toxins from the decay have reached the
> nerve and essentially have mortally wounded it. This may
> last for several weeks and if you gut it out, the pain will
> eventually go away. When the pain goes away, the nerve has
> died. Do not leave this tooth untreated! As the nerve
> decomposes, the body is unable to get inside the tooth to
> take care of it and you will eventually end up with an
> abscess. The pain will return with a vengeance. This tooth
> will no longer be sensitive to hot and cold but it will be
> extremely painfully to the touch. You may begin to run a
> fever and experience swelling. Some people say it feels like
> the tooth has “raised up”. It has. The infection is
> pushing it up. The infection will seek the
>  path of least resistance in an effort to relieve pressure.
> 
>  If you are lucky it will establish drainage toward your
> cheeks or lips through the gums. Once the drainage is
> established, the pain may resolve somewhat. Again, don’t
> leave this untreated. If the infection, however, travels
> toward the tongue, neck or sinuses, to name a few places, it
> can become very dangerous, very quickly. Possible sequelae
> include septicemia, airway obstruction and pericardial
> infections. These complications are not common but are very
> dangerous and need to be treated by a medical professional. 
> 
> Some of the symptoms of these very serious infections will
> include increased temperature, swelling under your jaw,
> under your tongue and around your chin, swelling extending
> toward your neck, swelling in your throat that may begin to
> push your uvula aside, difficulty swallowing and/or
> breathing. Do not ignore these! Seek medical care
> immediately!
> 
> As far as field dentistry for non-dental personnel, you are
> pretty much limited to prevention, and possibly temporarily
> treating a reversible pulpitis. I have in the past taught
> 18Ds [The Army MOS for Special Operations Medical Sergeants]
> to extract teeth and even perform root canals but they are
> exceptional men in exceptional circumstances and we had a
> lot of time to work on it. In this venue I will suggest the
> names and techniques and perhaps you can fill in the gaps
> with a willing local dentist. 
> 
> Two long-standing temporary filling materials are Cavit and
> IRM. Both of these are a powder and liquid that when mixed
> will become very hard. The benefit of IRM is that it
> contains eugenol (clove oil), which is a sedative and can
> sooth a sensitive tooth. These will keep food and “cold”
> out of a cavity until you can reach definitive care. If you
> are somehow able to secure it, Fuji IX is a wonderful
> restorative material that will also release fluoride and can
> slow down/stop the decay process. 
> 
> I don’t know how you can get it without a dental license
> but if you are resourceful…please, I am not advocating
> non-dentists treating tooth pathology in any way, shape or
> form (i.e. don’t sue me if you try something and it
> doesn’t work). I am simply offering some observations from
> my own experiences that may be helpful when dental care is
> not available. In the end, you will need to find a dentist
> but hopefully these tips can help you prevent, treat or
> recognize the severity of dental pathology that you may
> encounter in remote areas.
> 
>  This is about four years of school crammed into a few
> pages so there are huge gaps of course, and there are as
> many ways to treat disease as there are dentists. Others may
> have different opinions and better treatment alternatives
> but I think this can at least organize a discussion or be a
> good stimulus for questions. 
> 
> 
> 
>       
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