Dentistry

[Brother in Arms]

Hello everyone
wish I could say I was up at 2Am because I want to be but unfortunately I am being kept awake by an bad wisdom tooth that I never had removed when I was a teenager. Now at 28 I am remind that I am not anymore and the thing needs to come out. Which made me think of field dentists in y2k....of ourse after the twilight war the world will sort of revert to almost 19th or early 20th century like technology in many places and thus much of the modern dentistry of the 1990's will be catapulted backward.

Of course I know most western armies have soldiers wisdom teeth removed if they aren't already but other tooth related injuries can occur in the field without much difficulty. Extractions at the very least would become quite popular. Perhaps a character with dentistry as his MOS would be good as many t2k soldiers who become front line fighters where originally support troops it all depended on who survived and where. I am thinking a skill like that could come in extremely handy when dealing with rural settlements and cantons. Anyway just thought I would share given this is directly affecting me and could be used in a game in one way or another.

Given that the pain involved it pretty unpleasant, I have had headaches and of course pain in my mouth, difficulty eating and it even causes my right eye to hurt. I have slept most of the weekend when I could. I can't imagine having to deal with something like this out in the field. currently I only have access to over the counter medicines and they really don't do much. If I am not able to get a dental appointment for Monday or Tuesday I am going to be tempted to self medicate. But perhaps I am just a sissy and people would be tougher in T2k.

Brother in Arms

[Mohoender]

In the fields of T2K, you'll simply take the tooth out. It will hurt bad and gone, much in the ways of medieval age. Good luck even for the tough guys.;) You can also pray for a wild bullet to take the tooth out.:D

[General Pain]

after loads of painkillers
a bootle of whiskey (red label)
and loads of cold water to "cool" the tooth -
after waiting 3 days in pain!!

I atlast got it out...well the dentist did....it was a blessing!!!

so...would dentists automatically get points in interrogation/torture?

...they know how to inflict a decent amount of pain.

http://www.zanyvideos.com/uploads/dentist_patient_nightmare.jpg

[Snake Eyes]

I'd say I feel your pain, but - never having had any wisdom teeth - I can't really relate. I suspect most dentistry in the post-apocalypse will involve not much more than pliers and bourbon. Feel better soon.

[headquarters]

I saw on our national news a program to bring dentist to the Afghan population - they gave these "field dentists" /civillian Afghans a 6 month course led by professionals and then they furnished them with chairs and "tools of the trade" and set them up as ambulatory dentists in villages etc .

Obviously they would not undertake complex cases -but nevertheless its would be an advantage to have one if those teeth should start to act up.

(remember when the army dentist took my wisdom tooth - after 1 hour of excruciating pain -a pain that would more than double after the shots wore off - he yanked my tooth out and said -" well now,this one you could have just kept in there " (!)

I can laugh now -but seeing as this was in the AO they would only give me paracetamols for the pain .

Thanks for reminding me about post apocalyptic dentistry though -must remember to subject characters to tooth aches etc
:)

[pmulcahy11b]

Dentistry and oral hygiene are some more of those really overlooked things in T2K. People in such a situation would have their oral hygiene go to crap, along with the rest of their hygiene...though the fact that the junk food is going to run out quickly might help! But historically, people have even died from poor oral hygiene, from abscesses that started as simple cavities, then went septic.

As an aside, I had all my wisdom teeth removed as various time when I was in the Army. The first was easy -- the doctor was the KATUSA-equivalent of an orthodontist, he used a minimum of painkillers, and literally had it out before I noticed. He told me he used an acupressure point during most of the procedure. The third was the absolute worst -- took forever, and hurt like hell the entire time (the doctor said I was doing "tiger growls" the whole time). Then he prescribed me Valium, and we quickly discovered I had an allergy to it -- I spent six hours in the latrine crouched over a toilet, and I had to go back to the dental clinic to get my mouth and the empty socket cleaned out again.

The fourth was the best -- they stuck an IV in me, I knew what was going on but didn't care, and when they were done, all I needed was Motrin.

[Brother in Arms]

thanks for the kinds words everyone. while I was awake last night I read one of the most interesting articles about dentistry.

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html

granted this study was done on the 1930's but it some of what Weston Price wrote really makes sense. It makes me want to seriously consider my own diet and eating natural foods. Anyway its a little OT but there are some great pictures of people with severe tooth decay problems gives you an idea of what you might see in T2K.

Also its notes that one of the only causes of suicide among Native peoples was tooth abscess's. That is how painful it can be without pain killers. I am sure it could also make eating almost impossible. Abscess's can definitely lead to death.

Brother in Arms

[chico20854]

Here's a handy little guide to do-it-yourself dentistry:

http://www.hesperian.org/publications_download_dentist.php

The U.S. Army has deployable dental teams. They are set up for dental emergency care, mostly combat related (not routine care), as was relayed to an evaluator from the Army Center for Lessons Learned by a pissed-off dentist as he was (roughly) performing routine care on me.

And a buddy of mine was deployed as part of the Swedish Army. She was a dental student at the time, has since graduated and also been commissioned as a 2LT in the Swedish Army. Infantry - the Swedish Army currently has ONE dentist, responsible for developing standards for entry into service and overseeing dental service contracts (for routine care of soldiers and forensic dentistry- ID'ing bodies from their dental records).

[General Pain]

Dentistry and oral hygiene are some more of those really overlooked things in T2K. People in such a situation would have their oral hygiene go to crap, along with the rest of their hygiene...though the fact that the junk food is going to run out quickly might help! But historically, people have even died from poor oral hygiene, from abscesses that started as simple cavities, then went septic.

As an aside, I had all my wisdom teeth removed as various time when I was in the Army. The first was easy -- the doctor was the KATUSA-equivalent of an orthodontist, he used a minimum of painkillers, and literally had it out before I noticed. He told me he used an acupressure point during most of the procedure. The third was the absolute worst -- took forever, and hurt like hell the entire time (the doctor said I was doing "tiger growls" the whole time). Then he prescribed me Valium, and we quickly discovered I had an allergy to it -- I spent six hours in the latrine crouched over a toilet, and I had to go back to the dental clinic to get my mouth and the empty socket cleaned out again.

The fourth was the best -- they stuck an IV in me, I knew what was going on but didn't care, and when they were done, all I needed was Motrin.

that sounds awfull beeing allergic to valium......what would be the alternative?!?!?

[weswood]

I had all four of mine pulled by a Naval Dentist in Okinawa on my 20th birthday. I spent the next 3 days on bedrest. And that's exactly what it was, I didn't get out of the rack except to hit the head. I don't think I even ate the whole time.

Bad news is: wisdom teeth can and do grow back. I've got another one, had it for several years, but it doesn't hurt like the first ones.

[pmulcahy11b]

that sounds awfull beeing allergic to valium......what would be the alternative?!?!?

At the time, I thought the best alternative was to gut it out and go back to work. Oh, to be young, dumb, and full of...well, you know.

[Graebarde]

A severe toothache will put even the strongest down for the count. It can be a useful tool for a HoG to throw at Joe Muchkin at the most in opprotune time.

And the after-affects of a tooth extraction, be it wisdom or other, is a 'dry-socket'. That makes matters even worse. Also the possibility of infections in the open wound in the mouth, which is the dirtiest place in the body according to some doctor's I've talked with.

Any ways. Good luck on your extraction. I got mine out before deployment. It was standard at the time. Though I did have a root canal go sour on me in ROK. It had a major abscess that caused the lower side of the jaw to sag and enven breathing seemed to hurt. I got to ride shot gun on a couier duece and a half for nearly 100 miles on ROUGH rock roads (they gravel a road there by breaking boulders into pea gravel with sledge hammers btw). Felt EVERY jolt. Got to the dental clinic at a few minutes before noon on a Friday. The enlisted tech tells me they were closed for the weekend and I had to wait until Monday. NOT what I wanted to hear. Then the dentist, a drafee Captain came out, took one look at me and said follow me. He extracted the tooth in THREE peices, and though I was 'deadened' I could feel when he pulled the last peice out with the abcess on it (about 1/2" or more). He cussed the AF Colonel for the shoddy work doing the root-canal a year before, "That's why he's an Air Force colonel, because he couldn't make it as a dentist in the world."

So yes, dental problems are over looked, along with the time to recover from other wounds as well. But that's another story.

Again, hope all goes well.
Grae

[fightingflamingo]

Related to this I've been thinking about trade in the period between the Carribean, South America, and the US East Coast in the 2001-2005 timeframe (V1). I think that some of the drug cartels could find a ready market for their products in the US Governments, Cocaine was a dental anathetic, and during the nineties there developed a poppy crop in south America which could be refined into Codine and Morphine by a University Chemistry Lab... so cartels possibly becoming trading partners with one of the US Governments???

[weswood]

A severe toothache might make a good adventure. "Oh Sgt So-and-so got a toothache! luckily you've heard there is a dentis in town XYZ" Days later in town XYZ "Yeah, we used to have a dentist, but he moved to town ABC". You could get the players to whatever town you wanted them to go to.