Dental Care for Travelers

When you're browsing through travel brochures, dental care probably isn't the first thing on your mind. It will be, though, if you end up with tooth pain that keeps you from enjoying the vacation you spent all that time and money arranging. Fortunately, there are a number of things you can do to make sure that doesn't happen.

Get your teeth travel-ready
Before you leave, get a routine check-up and have your teeth cleaned. If you're planning on flying within a few days after a dentist appointment, let your dentist know so they don't perform any procedures that could make your teeth sensitive to air pressure changes.

If you have any major dental problems, like a wisdom tooth that needs to be pulled or a root canal to be done, needless to say, it's a good idea to get it taken care of while you're close to home. Try to have any serious dental work finished a month or, at the very least, 2 weeks before you go. Dental work takes time to heal and if you're flying, changes in air pressure can cause pain not only in cavities and loose fillings, but in recent dental work, too.

Learn what to do in emergencies
Even with the best preparation, you could still end up with a problem tooth while you're away. To make sure you know how to handle dental emergencies without further damaging your teeth, ask your dentist what you should do if something goes wrong with your dental work. With most tooth problems, you really should see a dentist as soon as possible, but there are a few temporary fixes that can prevent further damage until you can.

A lost filling or crown is one of the most common minor dental emergencies. To temporarily close the hole and prevent infection, use over-the-counter dental cement. Keep the crown, because the dentist may be able to re-attach it. Likewise, if you break or seriously chip a tooth, keep any part of it to take with you to the dentist.

More complicated dental work, such as bridges or dentures, can also cause problems. If you happen to break a dental prosthesis while you're on the road, don't throw it out. They can usually be repaired. If you wear dentures, consider taking a spare set if you're planning to be away from home more than a few weeks.

Take a dental first aid kit
While some form of dental care is available in almost any part of the world, there are times when going to a dentist just isn't feasible. If you'll be traveling to a remote wilderness area or a part of the world where healthcare or cleanliness practices are questionable, take along your own dental care kit. Dental first aid kits, also called dental emergency kits, are specially packaged kits that provide material to temporarily fix common dental problems. They range from simple kits for patching up a lost filling to veritable portable dentist offices for repairing almost any dental problem, but even the most elaborate usually cost under $30. They won't take up much room in your suitcase, either. Dental emergency kits come in re-closable bags, plastic tubes, or CD-sized cases for easy packing.

With the goodies in one of these kits, you can take care of dental problems like a toothache; a lost filling, crown or cap; a chipped, fractured, or broken tooth; and gum, tongue and cheek irritation caused by loose crowns or other dental work.

Dental emergency kits contain dentistry accessories like dental wax, temporary filling material, irrigant, sterile applicators and gloves, a mouth mirror, a container to save pieces of a broken or knocked out tooth, and even splints to stabilize a permanent tooth that's been knocked loose. Many also include some type of pain relief like a topical anaesthetic or clove oil.

While you're shopping around for a dental first aid kit, look for a one that provides detailed, step-by-step instructions for how to use the material to care for various dental problems. After all, even the best dentistry accessories are useless if you don't know what to do with them.

Remember, though, a dental first aid kit can only provide a temporary fix until you can see a dentist. In most cases, if it's at all possible to get to a dentist's office, you should do so or the problem may only get worse.

It's hard to enjoy a vacation when you've got a throbbing pain in your tooth. Take some basic precautions, though, and you won't have to worry about that happening. Dental problems are easy to avoid by getting a check- up before you travel and taking along a dental first aid kit to temporarily patch up any problems that do occur.