Dear Editor,
After combing through the dental information on your blog, I’m hoping you might report a new and comprehensive article on dental care and how to be prepared. I think it important to address this issue because dental woes can render a person unable to function. As one of your blog entries noted, broken bones and other injuries of the body will eventually knit up, but a tooth abscess will only get worse and can actually become fatal. I’m looking to know what equipment is needed to address tooth extractions whether I have to do it myself, or, in a changed world, will need those instruments to bring to any available dentist still practicing. I don’t see that any of your advertisers carry extraction instruments. There are many tools on the market, but what tools are reliable and of good quality? And how about info on surgical tool sterilization in a grid down situation? What about lidocaine for addressing pain in dental surgery? Can it be obtained through a veterinary site? Can the syringe and needles at least be obtained? Thanks for your informative blog. – KB
HJL’s Comment: SurvivalBlog implemented a new search engine this week, and you may want to try your search again. Every word in the 27,000+ articles on SurvivalBlog is now indexed (minus the ridiculously common words like “the” end “therefore”, which would just clutter a search). You might also look at our advertisers as several carry emergency dental kits. I consulted with Sarah Latimer on this and determined that we would like to hear from dentists on recommendations for extraction instruments. It is our understanding that injection lidocaine requires a prescription for humans and animals and is not included in emergency kits and that topical lidocaine has its limits and should not be ingested. The book Where There Is No Dentist makes some recommendations on supplies but also makes some assumptions that people have access to medications, such as lidocaine, that are typically provided by doctors and nurse practitioners because they require prescriptions. In its absence, we may have to suffer, using whatever form of pain relief is available to us, and treat infections with antibiotics or remove the tooth with whatever tools we have available. Dentists, we would like to hear from you on best available resources, in the absence of available prescription medication for TEOTWAWKI.