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Emergency Dental Kits for Home, Office and Camping

Brian — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:34:58 +0000

Let’s say that you’re going out camping with your family. You’re miles away from the nearest city and you’ve prepared everything that you might possibly need…or so you think. Suddenly, your little boy runs around in a frenzy, trips over a rock and falls to the ground with a thud. Then, he starts crying and crying, and you notice that his mouth is bleeding. You ask him to open his mouth and you see that his tooth is dislodged. And suddenly, you’re at a loss about what to do.

But there is a solution that’s often overlooked. People buy everything from first aid kits to mosquito repellent kits, but they always neglect to buy the emergency dental kit.

Contents of the Kit

The emergency dental kit contains several items that will help you become a sorta-kinda dentist. It contains a pair of dental examining gloves for the prevention of infection through transmission. It contains a dental examining mirror so that you could see all those hard-to-reach teeth and have a better assessment of the ‘patient’s’ condition. It contains some dental tweezers for all those debris. It has a dental spatula, dental wax and a dental floss. It also has a temporary filling material so that the tooth won’t collapse easily and will last at least until you get to a proper dentist. It contains a dental ointment for any cold sores and canker sores that your gums may have. It contains salt sticks for those oral ulcers and, more importantly, for cleaning the part before proceeding with the treatment. A cotton stick for cleaning, some cotton rolls, cotton gauze pads, and cotton balls, and, of course, it contains a toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste. It also has some toothache drops for all those excruciating toothaches. Also, you can’t be an amateur dentist if you don’t know what to do. So, every kit comes with a customary Emergency Dental Treatment Instruction Manual that contains all the necessary information you may need for any possible scenario.

Purposes of the Kit

You can use the emergency dental kit for any pain that’s caused by a lost filling, a fractured tooth, a throbbing nerve, or any kind of persistent toothache. Also, the ointments in the kit could be used to heal those sores whether they’re caused by lacerations or if they’re caused by any burns. The kit could also be used for any lost crowns or fixed bridges. Just be careful of the items in the kit if you’re allergic to any of them.

Dental Treatment with Hygiene Instruments and Surgical Instruments

Brian — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:34:41 +0000

If you have complained of sore and bleeding gums or if you have felt a nodule in some parts of your mouth, it may be time to consult your dentist. Sometimes, it’s just a simple case of gingivitis or an unattended tooth with abscess, which could easily be treated by simple dental procedures. However, in some cases, you may need to undergo dental surgery to resolve this problem and keep the pain away.

Simple Surgery

Extraction is the simplest form of dental procedure some of us may have undergone. If you’ve had your tooth pulled out, you may have seen some of the equipment laid out on the dental tray before the dentist treats you. The basic instruments you would usually find on the dental tray are the mouth mirror, explorer and cotton pliers. These instruments are used during exploratory procedures to peek and probe structures inside your mouth.

Now, when the dentist is ready to extract your tooth or teeth, you will then find a syringe loaded with anesthesia, needle, elevators, forceps, bone file, and maybe a surgical thread in a curved needle. The elevators and forceps are primarily used to help ease out the problem tooth from your gums. The bone file is used to trim sharp edges of the bone where the tooth was pulled out from. This way, when the gums heal and cover the extraction site, you won’t feel any sharp bone in that area. Now, the needles and surgical thread may be used if the extraction site is too big, and it may need a thread to keep the gum together for optimal healing.

Specialized Forceps

One forceps may look the same as the next forceps to a patient like you and me. But the dentist sure has reason to study the course longer. Did you know that there’s a forceps used to pull out front teeth from upper gums and a different forceps for the front teeth located on the lower gums. Now, when the dentist plans to pull out molars, aside from having a different instrument for the upper and lower back teeth, the left and right location of the teeth also help define further which particular forceps to use, so that you have a forceps for the upper right hand side molars, another one for the lower right hand side molars, upper left hand side molars and lower left hand side molars.

Next time you visit your dentist, it wouldn’t hurt to look around so that you keep you mind off the operation. But if you’re too scared to even do that, just forget it and pray the treatment goes successful.

Guide to Dental Consumables, Supplies and Products

Brian — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:34:18 +0000

When a dentist goes into practice, he or she must treat their profession like any other business, carefully balancing income against expenses and also making plans for future growth. Dentistry is a profitable job. There were some 150,000 dentists of all stripes in the US alone in 2004 according to Bureau of Labor statistics. About a third of these were self-employed and almost all in private practice. Most privately practicing dentists are sole owners.

According to the American Dental Association, for solo dentists expenses related to their practice take up the largest chunk of gross billings, followed by wages, lab payments, and dental supplies.

Expenses and Income

When a person sits down in a dentist’s chair, he or she represents expenses as well as income. These expenses are in the form of electricity for the lights and to power the various dental instruments and furniture such as the chair, the pump which drives the aspirator, the evacuator, the air turbine drill, the amalgamator, the composite curing apparatus, water for rinsing and cleaning, and so on. As such, this demand for dental supplies has to be fed, and many businesses worldwide have sprung up to fill this need.

Competition for business in dental equipment and supplies is keen. More than 600 manufacturers in the US service the 4-billion-dollar market, last year earning almost 2 billion in profit. Top traders with the US in the dental equipment and supplies market in 2006 were Germany, accounting for 21.42%; Canada, 12.88%; Japan, 10.23%; Switzerland, 9.49%; and Italy with 3.23%. These five countries account for more than half the imports and exports of dental equipment and supplies to the US.

Dental Supplies

Dental supplies include such consumables as medical gases such as oxygen. Other dental supplies are as follows – napkins, paper towels, cotton balls to absorb fluid; Lidocaine, Novocain and other anesthetics for anesthesia purposes; tongue depressors; tie-on and ear-loop masks; composite and amalgam compounds as well as compounds to create bridges; curing equipment; goggles, face shields, gloves, and aprons; mouthwash; antiseptics such as alcohol and iodine and antibiotics (some countries allow dentists to stock and dispense medication while other countries others don’t); dental hygiene products such as toothpastes, toothbrushes, toothpicks, floss, dental dams, scrapers, and dental mirrors; materials to make impressions and casts such as calcined gypsum; bonding agents and related materials like denture paste; tooth whitening supplies; and x-ray film and developing chemicals.

Dental Microscope for Diagnosis and Laboratory Tests

Brian — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:33:59 +0000

One may wonder why physicians would usually require laboratory tests to be done on patients for further diagnosis of existing conditions presented by a patient. Then one notes that many dentists do not use the services of clinical laboratories to run blood studies, urinalysis and bacteriologic tests. The simple reason is that very few of these tests will find practical use in dental diagnosis and treatment planning. In addition to that, having patients undergo these supplementary tests are not advised especially if the condition is obvious and exact, making it impractical to have them spend too much on these.

Feasibility of Tests with Dental Microscope

Like general medical practitioners, it may also be imperative in some instances to run extra diagnostic tests especially if we’re looking at conditions that are rarely encountered in the dental office. More often than not, these patients go to hospitals instead of dental offices thinking that these medical conditions can be addressed by a medical practitioner but later finds out that this is actually a job for the dentist.

More often than not, the hospital dentist may encounter these patients. An example is a patient with giant cell tumor. In these cases, dental microscopes will help one differentiate this one with finality from an osteitis fibrosa cystica generalisata or even diabetes mellitus. Microscopic findings from this condition will help one find the correct formula in treating a patient.

Laboratory Tests Requiring Dental Microscopes

Dental microscopes are a must with laboratory tests such as biopsy, exfoliative cytology and aspiration to name a few. Biopsy is one of the most commonly utilized diagnostic tests for patients presenting with ulcers that won’t seem to heal or lesions suspected to be cancerous in nature. Normal and abnormal tissues are removed then examined microscopically using these test. The methodology is consistent with that these specimens are prepared for microscopic testing. The use of dental microscope will be relatively easy to do in the dental office is the practitioner is trained on the use of microscopes and that they have a good working knowledge of microscopic anatomy. Knowing these will help one differentiate a normal from abnormal tissue.

Dental microscopes will always find its place in the office especially in the identification of uncommon conditions presented by patients. If a dentist is absolutely sure of the condition bugging a patient, only then will resolution be found. While it is true that symptomatic treatment may make it pain-free for patients, this will only be short-term resolution.

Buying, Cleaning and Managing Your Dental Chairs

Brian — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:33:40 +0000

A dental chair is a must have for any dental clinic. You can’t practice dentistry if you don’t have a dental chair. Otherwise, where would you put the patient? Either way, as a dentist, your responsibility does not end at simply buying one. You’ve got to know how to take care of it, too. You have the responsibility to provide optimum care to your patient, and that means making sure that the equipment that you’re going to use is going to work properly. You can’t afford any mistakes when you’re handling a patient. Just imagine if something goes wrong, and electric sparks shoot up your patient’s mouth. That would be hell, wouldn’t it?

Check the Equipment

The first thing that you ought to do is to perform an operational check every time you open your clinic. You should make sure that you’ve personally checked it before you operate on your first patient for the day. Most dental chairs have the basic utilities for a dental operation. They usually come equipped with their own water systems, bracket tray, tubing flush system, syringes, and suction. Always check if each part is working properly. You may want to check the hand-held control if the buttons work properly and if they correspond to the proper command. There might be an error in the system which could cause accidents. For example, the ‘lift’ button might cause the chair to move to the left. Also, it’s highly important to check if the water from the hose is running freely. Check everything from the syringes to the light to the saliva ejector.

Clean the Equipment

Also, as a dentist, it’s your responsibility to make sure that the patient is protected from any microorganisms. Most dental chairs have water systems that are connected to the clinic’s main water system. Meaning that the water they use on patients comes from the faucet. Now, as you may know, tap water isn’t exactly sterile. And if you’re going to wash your patient’s mouth with tap water, then that means that the tap water will be coming into contact with open wounds like that from an extracted tooth. Also, you have to clean the chair itself once in a while. Some dentists completely neglect this. But really, if you’re a patient, you wouldn’t want to sit in a dirty chair. So, what you could do is to clean the chair with a soft cloth dipped into soapy water. Afterwards, dry it with a soft cloth so as to avoid damaging the upholstery.

History of Dental Health, Dental Products and Dentistry

Brian — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:33:21 +0000

Dentistry as a science, art and profession has developed by leaps and bounds since antiquity. There is evidence, both written and archaeological, that man has been performing dental procedures since prehistory.

Brief History of Dentistry

There is evidence of Stone Age man using flint drills to work on teeth 9,000 years ago. Old texts such as Hammurabi’s Code and the Ebers and Edwin Smith papyri – the latter being the oldest extant written medical treatise – mention dental procedures, recommending substances such as green lead, dates, onions, and beans to be mixed and applied against the blisters of the teeth. Egyptian remains show evidence of oral surgery. The idea of extracting teeth is credited to the Greek physician, Aesculapius, who lived sometime in 1300 to 1200 BC. Writers such as Aristotle also mentioned tooth extraction and wrote about ointments and salves for oral diseases and fixing broken jaws and loose teeth with wire. In Roman times, narcotics and astringents were used in dental procedures. In Arabia, a stick with a soft, prepared end was used to apply mouthwash and preparations inside the oral cavity. This was the precursor to today’s toothbrush. Toothpaste-type mixtures were in use in China and India as long ago as 500 BC.

Dentistry in the Middle Ages in Europe was practiced as part of general medicine. Physicians would travel round to a wealthy client’s home to perform tooth extractions and the like, while for the common folk a similar service was the province of barbers.

In the 17th century, the Frenchman Pierre Fauchard started dental science as we know it. His endeavors included a book named “The Surgeon Dentist,” which was a landmark in orthodontics, the branch of dentistry that deals with preventing or correcting irregularities in teeth.

Dentistry Today

Today, dentistry, the branch of medicine that specifically deals with diagnosing and treating disorders and diseases that are local to the human mouth and its surrounding regions, is a formalized profession with practitioners that have graduated with a medical degree, have postgraduate units and have specialized training in dental surgery, dental medicine, dental science, and/or dental dentistry.

To help them in their profession, dentists have a wide array of tools to use. These range from the appliances they actually hold in their hands, to the medicines and chemicals they employ, to the special furniture that you can see in their offices. Advances in technology have also meant advances in dental techniques and treatment.

Dental Laboratory Equipment for Making Different Dentures

Brian — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:32:41 +0000

We visit the dentist for a number of reasons. Some might have met an accident where they hurt themselves and chipped off a few teeth. It can also be because of old age where you have lost a few or all of your teeth. Commonly, the dentist can provide some quick fixes for you when you go to their office for treatment. At other times, you would need to come back for a series of treatments before the treatment is made final.

Dental Laboratories for Removable Dentures

Many patients are aware that dental laboratories provide assistance to dentists especially with prosthesis work. Many times you would see a variety of tools and equipment in these offices designed to create and shape materials into tooth-like form.

When making removable dentures, you will find denture flasks, bench presses and huge containers where resin materials are combined with pontics to help create a removable partial or full denture. The false teeth you see worn by your grandparent is made of synthetic resin materials which went through a series of steps to make it into what you see now, including molding and curing procedures. Finally, when the denture is cured, it passes through especially designed trimmers. Finally, after the denture is trimmed down to the right size, a polisher is then used to make sure that the final product is free of sharp and rough edges that will hurt the patient’s soft oral structures. Technicians have to be extra careful about the polisher because too much pressure may cause damage to the false teeth, which compromises the quality and strength of the product.

Dental Laboratories for Fixed Dentures

Dentists also rely on dental laboratories for jacket crowns and restorative onlays and inlays. These are fixed dentures and restorative materials. Dental technicians are master artists when it comes to creating jacket crowns. From a base of metal, the technician carefully adds layer upon layer of different types of porcelain or fiberoptic materials to simulate the outside appearance of a tooth. After which, it is placed in curing equipment which looks like ovens where the material hardens and is eventually shipped to dental offices for initial fitting.

In a way, you could say that dental laboratories are like factories where you find man and machines in one place to create masterpieces. That is why dentistry is both a science and an art for practitioners and dental technicians.

Dental Hygiene Products for Asepsis and Sterilization

Brian — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:32:22 +0000

One of the three major areas in dental surgery is asepsis. Asepsis is prevalent in hospitals where patients are usually housed together in one room or area instead of isolating them, so there is less possibility of transferring bacteria from one patient to the next. This observation led to the development of aseptic techniques with the prefix “a” attached to sepsis to indicate absence of the condition. In simple terms, dental practitioners would like to make sure that there is less risk of transferring bacteria between several patients.

Simple Acts of Asepsis

As a child, we were always told to wash our hands before we take to the dining table. This should minimize invisible bacteria a child might have taken from playing with other kids outdoors or touching dirty stuff here and there. The same rule applies, all the more so if you are a dentist about to work on your patients.

Gloves are made disposable so that the dentist not only protects himself from possible contamination but also from passing the same to his patient. Dentists would usually tap the patient’s teeth or touch the gum portion which appears red and swollen and more. Before putting their hands inside the mouth, it is a must for a dentist to wear gloves first. After he’s done with this patient, the gloves automatically go to the trash bin for proper disposal.

Sterilization Techniques

Boiling water? Unfortunately, this simplest method no longer works because it can only kill a particular set of bacteria. The best sterilization technique nowadays is called autoclaving. Autoclaves are high pressurized equipment where all dental instruments which dentists will use inside a patient’s mouth are placed for proper sterilization before they are actually utilized. Be careful though and make sure that the instrument has cooled off before taking out the instruments from the autoclave itself.

There’s also cold sterilization where instruments are chemically treated. This is what is usually used to sterilize non-critical instruments such as impression trays and a few plastic instruments. Usually, these instruments are soaked in this chemical solution for a few hours and then stored appropriately in cabinets so that they’re ready to use when the treatment calls for it.

There are several more sterilization products available in the market, but the ones mentioned are those most commonly seen in dental offices. One goes to the dental office for treatment and consultations. It would be good to see that all these simple steps are followed so that the patient goes home healthy and pain-free.

Dental Machines for Cleaning, X-Ray and More

Brian — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:32:02 +0000

The dentist is often the stuff of nightmares for some people. More often than not, in nightmares, dentists are perceived as psychos carrying a humongous drill that’s buzzing and whirling as they laugh hysterically. But we all know that dentists really aren’t psychotic or anything. Still, we can’t help but feel a bit apprehensive when the dentist takes out that scary-looking drill that looks like it came straight from our nightmares. So, in an attempt to dissipate that fear, there must be at least minimum understanding of what these monstrous machines do. If you know what it does, then you’ll be less afraid.

The Drill

That whirling and buzzing thing – that’s called a drill. This dental machine is compact and high-speed, making it highly effective for dental procedures. Drills are used to remove any debris of decayed teeth. It’s what the dentists use to remove the decayed core of a tooth and make it hollow so that it could be filled with a dental restorative material that maintains the integrity of the tooth by making it stronger. So, you may think that the drill is your enemy but really, it’s not. Next time you hear that shrill sound, try not to be afraid. Hearing that sound only means that your toothache is going to go away pretty soon.

X-Ray Machine

There are some cases when the damage to the teeth are too extensive that the dentist needs more information before he can proceed with what he has to do. X-rays provide better and clearer pictures pertaining to the problem. Most people are afraid of x-rays because of the radiation, but rest assured that it’s all safe unless you undergo it excessively. X-rays allow the dentist to see if you have any cavities or if your nerve endings have any problems. Also, dental x-ray machines emit a specific dose of radiation that’s different from those typical x-ray machines.

Water Distill Machine

The Water Distill Machine does exactly what its name implies. It distills the water that enters your mouth. You see, during some dental procedures like tooth extraction, there are open wounds created. Of course, if your tooth is extracted, then your gums get exposed and your gums bleed, meaning that any bacteria in the water could get into that opening and possibly cause an infection. Water distillers are installed in most dental chairs because the WHO is continually emphasizing protection from germs for the prevention of infection.

sethson.com » Dental Equipment

Emergency Dental Kits for Home, Office and Camping

Contents of the Kit

Purposes of the Kit

Related Posts

Dental Treatment with Hygiene Instruments and Surgical Instruments

Simple Surgery

Specialized Forceps

Related Posts

Guide to Dental Consumables, Supplies and Products

Expenses and Income

Dental Supplies

Related Posts

Dental Microscope for Diagnosis and Laboratory Tests

Feasibility of Tests with Dental Microscope

Laboratory Tests Requiring Dental Microscopes

Related Posts

Buying, Cleaning and Managing Your Dental Chairs

Check the Equipment

Clean the Equipment

Related Posts

History of Dental Health, Dental Products and Dentistry

Brief History of Dentistry

Dentistry Today

Related Posts

Dental Laboratory Equipment for Making Different Dentures

Dental Laboratories for Removable Dentures

Dental Laboratories for Fixed Dentures

Related Posts

Dental Hygiene Products for Asepsis and Sterilization

Simple Acts of Asepsis

Sterilization Techniques

Related Posts

Dental Machines for Cleaning, X-Ray and More

The Drill

X-Ray Machine

Water Distill Machine

Related Posts