DIY Dentistry

Seems like you might need your teeth in order to survive the best. Plus with the right stuff you might be able to save a ton of money only needing the dentist for extreme problems.

So lets discuss dentristry techniques, tools and alternatives to overpriced dental equipment.

Dental Equipment @ Wikipedia:
en.wikipedia.org...

Old School Dentistry books in downloadable PDF, via Google Books:
books.google.com...

It's been awhile since I've delt with a dentist so I'll need some help in remembering some of the stuff they use enough to find viable alternatives to everything.


Cleansing:
Mouth Mirror used to help spot plaque etc which is then scraped with Dental Probes / Picks. Alternatives to all of the above can be found in quite similar form in various places as 'tools'. I already possess a full array for some of the work I do. I've found tools for less than a dollar that are virtually identical to some of the dental picks I've seen that would cost more like $15.

SCALER: The other part I remember was the ultrasonic "Scaler" to blast off the plaque. I think I recall her scraping off with the tools to a certain degree and then she used the Scaler to finish up. These can be had for $275. It doesnt make sense to me that the average household wouldnt all already contain one of these.


Cavities:

Basic procedure: Cavities identified, drilled out, and filled in with special UV activated epoxy.

DRILL: AKA "Dental Handpiece". Looking around on Ebay these appear to start at $400. Last time I went to the dentist was for a couple cavities. They used the infamous 'drill', which is a slim pneumatic powered rotary tool. Basically a real fancy 'Dremel'. The key feature of the proper tool is the right angle head, and the slim shape. Good luck using an actual dremal in its place, but I'm pretty sure there are many dremal bits that can have their shafts shortened to retrofit into a proper 'handpiece'.

A quick search for pneumatic rotary tool found me this:
www.toolbarn.com...
It's not ideal, obviously, but it is a step in the right direction away from and actual dremel. Perhaps it or another like it could be modified, but cannot ascertain without hands-on inspection.

UV Fillings:
This sounds like the easiest part, especially if a UV Curer could be built DIY. There is an 'economy' device I found for $275, but the rest are way too much to consider.

I'm trying to figure out how to build one. One mention of the light source I've noticed with one model uses a halogen bulb, and I'm not sure how they're getting UV output. Maybe they expect you to have epoxy designed for their light?

Another design uses visible blue light:
visiblecure.com...
At first I thought they use LED technology, but reading the Bluewave 200 PDF it uses a "200w mercury bulb". It "is an arc, not filament blub". The light is inside the box, and the pen connects via a 'light tube'. I'm uncertain if the tube uses fiber optics or something else.

Medicine
DISCUSS!

Others:
DISCUSS!

Unless it's a total SHTF situation and the world is in mass chaos I think I will go to a board certified dentist or a board certified medical doctor should I need one.

If I don't even trust some board certified doctors, I certainly wouldent do it myself.

Thanks for the post. I pull my own teeth, but I have never tried to drill or fill a cavity. That sounds dangerous.

Chris:
You dont have Dentist-Phobia do you??

I can see not liking the DIY drilling & filling type stuff, but the rest seems silly to pay a dentist to do it and even more silly to depend on an overpriced dentist to do it. After a few tries you and your spouse or whatever could be pro at scraping what the Scaler couldn't get off. I know I'm good with my hands. And I recall thinking the lady dentist was being too rough last time I had it done.


[edit on 31-8-2009 by IgnoranceIsntBlisss]

Another key item is the "3 way syringe", the 'ancillary tool' water / air device(s) part of the 'dental engine' (the appliance that all the tools plug into). Not to be confused with something like a hypodermic needle.

Right now there's one of these on Ebay for $30. This isnt the device that sucks the water out of your mouth. Instead it blows water or air, and the middle setting sprays a mist. I could see it being rather easy to hook it into the tap water (or better) system of your house with nylon tubing and compression fittings for easy removal, but the air part could be the catch.

Harbor Freight has oiless airbrush air compressors for $60 new:


Looking at a $2,200 all in one (includes the drill) compressor unit, it uses an oiless compressor. Below I'll show you how to get the same functionality for about $250.


In fact looking at another item in the same Ebay store, a "Dental Turbine Unit is what you would normally hook the 3 Way Syringe into. It's designed to hook to a compressor, not an air bottle. For $80 it comes with the 3 Way Syringe, all the valving and tubing, and a water bottle that you can fill with good RO water, negating the need to hook into the water system. I'd post the link but it will go down too soon for history.

That particular ad has $19 shipping.

The store also has some ultrasonic Scalers in the $140-170 price range, Handpieces at $46, and 50 bit "Bur" tip ('Dremel' bits) lots at $23, with free shipping. Everyday Dremel tips are like $3-4 a piece, although you can get some good ones for real cheap at Harbor Freight.

The Dental Turbine has the fitting to hook the Handpiece (drill) to if you wanted to go all out. For a minute I thought the extra line might be for the suction device, but since it isnt I'm pretty sure now the water bottle is the water supply and not the suction dump.

So you could just get the 3 Way Syringe and to be cheap, and do a bunch of rigging, but I dont think there'd be much point without the air compressor. And considering the hassle the Turbine clears up I think it'd be worth the bucks.

Since the Turbine includes the 3Way, that and the compressor could be had for a little over $150, especially if you shop around. It also has the hookups for the drill, so for another $69 you could have a drill and 50 bits. But if you want to go the drill route you still have to look into the UV epoxy and curing unit, so thats another story. But the Turbine setup would be instrumental in any DIY dentistry.

I'm still working on the suction device. If I could just find the actual part that hangs in your mouth, I suspect a fish tank pump of the right arrangement could do the sucking. And I'm guessing that the mouthpiece part shouldnt be very much at all, I just havent found the right ad yet.


[edit on 31-8-2009 by IgnoranceIsntBlisss]

SUCTION DEVICE:

I thought I remembered it being shaped like a hook so it could sort of hang in your mouth, but the only ones I can find on Ebay are sort of straight with one curve.

In any case the nice stainless steel ones listed are all about $10.

The pumps they're selling are $300 and up, but I'm guessing an decent old fishtank pump could be rigged properly to serve the same purpose. I wouldn't expect to see an actual dentist go this route, but I dont see why we couldn't.

So this key device is about $10, plus how you do on the pump part. You might just have one already in the garage you're not using, and you might have some stuff where you could make your own mouthpiece and skip on that $10.

To make your own mouth suction piece you could get some 1/4" hard airline fishtank tubing, cut it, or not, and heat the end enough to bend it to the desired length. Piece might cost $1. Then get $1 worth of flexible airlibe tubing, wrap snug it over the hard tubing, and then rig the pump as needed. You might even have the parts around to do it for nothing.

BTW: Some of this stuff I'm pointing out might pop up on Craigslist from time to time for even cheaper, and I heard bitorrent might have some newer textbooks on dentistry. Luckily, I just so happen to have an oiless airbrush compressor, and I'd bet one could be had for $20 off of Craigslist.

So far, for potentially cheap price, you can clean your own teeth, thoroughly, whenever you want, forever, and especially in a SHTF long term scenario.

If you gonna consider having drill & fill capability it gets a little more complicated.

But I'm hoping for some more input in figuring out the UV epoxy curing, and medicines that would be needed (painkillers & antibiotics).


[edit on 31-8-2009 by IgnoranceIsntBlisss]

Check out the book "What to do when there is no dentist" it's by the Hesperian foundation and it has lots of good info on "home" dentistry.

Would you go with gold or silver fillings ?

Oh and if everyone in your group learns this you don't have to be your own dentist.

You may ending up having to charge a few chickens in the long run.

You don't need to be chained to a desk to learn,you just need to be self motivated

Well, silver has inherent antibacterial / antimicrobial proerties, although you'd have to chew REALLY slowly for that advantage. But in such a scenario silver would be too valuable. A few dollars spent properly today could be worth hundreds in the barter economy, so having a stockpile of UV epoxy to use instead of (somehow) melting (truly) precious metals into fillings. IN thios scenario gold is better in terms of valuie per stored weight, but damn what do you reallly think youre going to find in your daily travels / bartering with an oucne of gold? So silver is the everyday mans currency, whereas gold is for when you have so much weight in silver its time to lessen the load with some gold holdings. I wish...

I have a real phobia about dentistry and the "what if there were no dentists" scenario. I think the best piece of advice you can give anyone right now is to take damn good care of your teeth NOW.

I'm lucky, I live in the UK where dentists are subsdidized by the government (yeah the Evil NHS) so my economic situation doesn't impact on my dental health. I take regualr care of my teeth, I brush three times a day, floss regularly, and visit my dentist bi annually. If you are able to do this I highly suggest you do preventive maintenance now to avoid having to pull your own teeth or do your own fillings in a SHTF scenario.

So yeah..buy yuor own drill..errr..or make damn sure that your teeth are taken care of now through regular maintenance.

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

The movies give away all the answers ...all you need is an ice skate and you will be fine....



In all seriousness though i cannot think of much worse than home dentistry...in a shtf scenario i would need a blender a straw

Just to lower the bar a bit ... Bubbles'll fix it for ya.