Where There Is No Dentist, by DVM

As promised here is a review of Where There Is No Dentist by Murray Dickson, copyrighted in 1983 and updated in 2020 (ISBN: 978-0-942364-05-7) by Hesperian Health Guides.

This book is aimed at health care workers and non-medical people that have an interest in, and burden for, underserved people of the world. Part One is for what I call village health care workers in (third world) countries. If you aren’t doing that kind of work then skip directly to Part 2. Many have predicted that the skills taught in Part Two of this book will be used in the USA during any kind of prolonged civil unrest. For that reason Part Two can be thought of as a self-help manual or guidebook for post-apocalyptic dentistry. What follows are my brief notes from each of the chapters.

Intro

Overview of the importance of teeth. Oral care as a part of overall primary care of individuals and communities. The need to train community workers to handle simpler tasks (drilling, filling, and pulling). The need for community education, especially about preventative care.

PART ONE: LEARNING AND TEACHING ABOUT TEETH AND GUMS

Chap 1 Your Own Teeth and Gums

Eat more traditional foods and avoid sweet, packaged foods.

Basic cleaning, basic problems. Care of gums.

Chap 2 Teaching Family and Friends in Your Community

Traditional foods best, not modern sugary foods. Be a good example yourself. Each person can teach someone else.

Chap 3 Teaching Children at School

Teach so that kids learn, building on what they do know. Use hands-on activities whenever possible. Use lots of visual aids to teach in schools and communities.

Chap 4 School Activities for Learning About Teeth and Gums

Ideas especially for school programs and school kids.

Chap 5 Taking Care of Teeth and Gums

Prevention and early treatment are always best. Good nutrition and cleaning are important.

PART TWO: TREATING DENTAL PROBLEMS

Chap 6 Examination and Diagnosis

Oral exams, instruments, making proper diagnoses.

Chap 7 Treating Some Common Problems

Cleanliness and sterile technique. Cavities, abscesses, sinus problems, tooth trauma, loose teeth, teething in babies, gum disease, fever blisters, thrush, canker sores, broken or dislocated jaws, pain , blood, infection, noma, tumors, cancer, meth mouth.

Chap 8 Scaling Teeth

How to remove tartar by hand.

Chap 9 Injecting Inside the Mouth

Equipment, where and when to inject, injecting upper teeth, injecting lower teeth.

Chap 10 How to Fill a Cavity

When to fill teeth and the types of fillings. Using temporary dental cement, ART filling material, and permanent fillings with a dental drill.

Chap 11 Taking Out a Tooth

Instruments and techniques of tooth removal and post-operative care.

Chap 12 HIV and Care of the Teeth and Gums

Appendices

Dental kits, suggestions for supplies, antibiotics, making your own instruments, recordkeeping.

In summary I thought Part Two was very helpful. It is a good book to have for your group’s medical/dental team.

Blessings,

DVM

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By Published On: November 17, 2020Categories: AP Staff, Medical24 Comments on Where There Is No Dentist, by DVM

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About the Author: NC Scout

NC Scout is the nom de guerre of a former Infantry Scout and Sergeant in one of the Army’s best Reconnaissance Units. He has combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He teaches a series of courses focusing on small unit skills rarely if ever taught anywhere else in the prepping and survival field, including his RTO Course which focuses on small unit communications. In his free time he is an avid hunter, bushcrafter, writer, long range shooter, prepper, amateur radio operator and Libertarian activist. He can be contacted at [email protected] or via his blog at brushbeater.wordpress.com .

24 Comments

  1. Adam November 17, 2020 at 14:03

    I bought paper copies of the Dr and Dentist versions long ago. Along with many other similar type books. I tel people that buy the digital book anything that gets put on your devices by a company can be taken off if they wanted.

    • James Carpenter aka "Felix" November 17, 2020 at 15:34

      Ordered the book.
      Paper copies of _everything_ in _all_ cases.
      The amount of information and knowledge that will go irretrievably “poof” when the electricity fails will be a staggering loss for many.

      • goatmoag November 17, 2020 at 16:20

        Unless you have stored them on optical media (even with an emp you still have a copy if not secured) with a way to read them (a portable blu ray player and a cell phone or tablet for example), and stored them in in a simple faraday cage. How are you going to avoid losing all the hard copies? Are you going to carry them with you when you have to move out or bug out? Are they going to survive when the enemy comes to burn down your home?

        • NC Scout November 17, 2020 at 17:35

          This mythical bugout scenario is exactly that. A myth.

          Now cut out the sideshow.

          • SOG November 17, 2020 at 18:50

            emp aint knocking out your thumbdrive

            get an emp shield on ur house and car. NC you should affiliate link with them they are US.

          • NC Scout November 17, 2020 at 19:07

            We have one.

          • goatmoag November 17, 2020 at 18:56

            Really? So the goons are coming up the road to you position in overwhelming odds, and you have to retreat?: That is somehow mythical? Are you going to carry your harback library on you back? And yet all through history, we have seen people having to flee, mainly from war.

          • NC Scout November 17, 2020 at 19:09

            Literally when? When have you ever personally been involved in conflict areas?

            I’m fairly certain, based on my own experience, what you’re saying here is straight bullshit. People don’t “bug out” or “get overrun” the way you’re describing. Ever. And if you did, the last thing you’re gonna worry about is an e-reader.

            Get books, get it on digits, but for Pete’s sake lose the idiotic fantasy land crap.

            Your next reply will tell me when you’ve experienced what your saying. Anything else gets shit-canned.

        • Johnny Paratrooper November 17, 2020 at 20:33

          There are 20+ miles of suburbs between me and the enemy outpost down the street.
          They ain’t gonna pop out of the woodwork.
          Cause I’m gonna be in the woodline.
          Everywhere and nowhere. I am the Reaper and I am the Ghost. I mince and I melt.
          There are two things I am truly worried about.
          25 million Chinese Paratrooper/Air Assault All Male Colonists.
          And the Tanks and APC’s they are gonna be landing at every airfield in the U.S.
          Everything else is a fantastic waste of time to worry about.
          Any action by communists and socialists will result in an extraordinary level of casualties.

          These new swarming drones and loitering smart-munitions are pretty scary. But, I cannot do anything about that.

          The real challenge is finding a nice woman and raising a proper family.

        • James Carpenter aka "Felix" November 18, 2020 at 07:59

          goatmoag… ever heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls?
          The Library of Alexandria?
          Some stuff survives, some stuff doesn’t.
          Draw conclusions, make a plan, act on it.

    • goatmoag November 17, 2020 at 16:13

      I have hard copies too. But if I have to bug out do I want to take potentially 10000s of books, x multiple copies even, on something the size of my fingernail (and / or pre deployed in may locations stroied on a vast array of electronic media) or just one or two books that I can cart with me in my pack? Both books are available right from the publisher in pdf format (they are likely two of the most available books anywhere on the web in pdf). Nobody has to put them on any device but you.

  2. Doc C November 17, 2020 at 14:30

    I have had hard copies of this and it’s companion “ Where There Is No Doctor “ for years. As a dentist, I solidly recommend both!

    • James November 17, 2020 at 17:04

      Doc C,you really feel the average person can get something out of this?I can rebuild carburetors/houses/cars ect. but have very minimal first aid skills.I wanted to take the WEMT course but they wanted me to get about 12 or so vacc.s even though was not looking at being a EMT for a living ect.,thus I passed.

      • Adam November 17, 2020 at 18:17

        Never know when a neighbor or someone locally around you may need it. Not just for you but a resource for others that may wind up being part of your community

    • DVM November 17, 2020 at 19:13

      Doc, I am curious if you have been able to cache away any filling materials, local anesthetics, etc or if you are planning to, ahem, raid your own practice if the shtf? When I was in practice it was comforting to me to think about being able to run down to my clinic and unlock the doors and obtain useful supplies if looters didn’t beat me to it, but I am retired now. Thoughts? If you are not comfortable responding via Comments I understand.

  3. Ralph k November 17, 2020 at 16:50

    All this conjures up the scene in the “Cast Away” movie, extracting an infected tooth with an ice skate blade and rock. Once had a root canal and in the middle of removing the nerves, despite much local anesthesia, suddenly experienced a soul searching bolt of pain and felt as though my brain was on the ceiling of the office. Immediately broke out into a sweat. The dentist leaned back, looked at me quizzically and asked ‘Did you feel that ?’ I uttered something quite unintelligible. The moral of the story… regular check ups, brush and floss, LOL. BTW, the books are good, and for the squeamish, don’t ever watch “Marathon Man”.

    • DVM November 17, 2020 at 19:02

      Ralph, I had the same image from Castaway come to mind and almost wrote it into the article!! Thanks for reading and commenting.

  4. Shadow Walker November 17, 2020 at 19:07

    They say an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. This is true especially in Dentistry. Just remember this— You only have to brush AND floss the teeth you want to keep. Daily.

  5. DVM November 17, 2020 at 19:38

    Just to be clear I am advocating grabbing a hard copy or digital copy of this (and Where There is No Doctor) while you can. We all have our preferences in the form of media we like and I favor hard copies. With any type of media the principle is that you can’t use or lend or give away something you don’t have.

    Dentists are not going to need this resource, and some dental techs or even dental anesthetists may not need it. People like me get GREAT USE out of this book. I have done tons of dentistry but on animals only! This book gives me the edge I need to work on YOU PATRIOTS should the need arise. And trust me, you will be glad to have me work on you when your pain level reaches high enough. We at AP try to do the research and give you readers recommendations. Since it is available online for free I think you should get it.

    I enjoyed reading it and it helped me get straight what I might need to do to help people after the shtf. Should we have more time I am planning to use this info on my trips to Central America. Also another principle in collapsed societies is that KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS YOU HAVE INSIDE YOUR HEAD CANNOT BE TAKEN FROM YOU. I have committed parts of this book to memory for you my brethren.

    God bless.

    • vyt1az November 19, 2020 at 23:19

      Thanks for the update. I’ve got older versions of both physical and digital copies. I’ll definitely be updating my library.

      As an aside: the best part about having a Veterinarian on your team is that they’re often much better at figuring out what’s wrong with their patients than MDs are. After all, their typical patients can’t talk to them. That and the fact that all that comparative physiology they did in school makes them quite a bit smarter than your typical MD.

      Oh, and when you’re not sick, they can fix up your farm animals too. ;-)

      Nice to have met you in person not too long ago DVM. God Bless.

  6. Anonymous November 18, 2020 at 09:24

    5

  7. Rucksack Rob November 18, 2020 at 09:45

    Here is a link for free downloadable medical books incl: No Doctor and No Dentist – https://lowervalleyassembly.us/2018/01/11/survival-and-austere-medicine-3rd-edition-link/

    A few more free downloads that I think are mandatory are: Survival & Austere Medicine 3rd Ed. (614 pages) – https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/3b311a_6ef34fffc73447ce9a4d25a4d441b662.pdf and also The LDS Preparedness Manual (225 pages)- http://www.ldsemergencyresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/LDS_Preparedness_Manual_Complete.pdf (I am NOT LDS, but the info in this manual is excellent, primarily food storage which Morman’s are excellent at and no, they do not bombard you with solicitations, malware or cookies after downloading)

    I’ve literally printed thousands of pages from free downloads and my library is quite extensive (not that I’m any smarter…lol) just be sure to have lots of paper and ink for your printer.

    • Evan Rees November 18, 2020 at 16:10

      A great list of books. I have used the ships captains guide in my role as a Remote Paramedic and ships medical officer. One of my go to books, along with the special forces medical manual. The more info you have the better you are!

    • DVM November 18, 2020 at 19:41

      Rucksack Rob thanks so much for the links!! I just downloaded EVERYTHING on those websites. GREAT BOOKS. I appreciate it brother.

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