MESSAGE FROM TESS

Happy Friday Everyone!

As we are moving further into our 52 week series, our focus is shifting towards long-term survival, because we never know how long a disaster will keep things from getting back to normal. During any long-term disaster situation, personal health and hygiene are essential. Healthy bodies, after all, enable us to properly care for others in our family. So, in this 25th week of preparedness, we will revisit dental preparedness. We will discuss the most common dental issues, some natural alternatives to toothpaste, and some foods beneficial in promoting dental health.

Don’t forget to share the prepared love and invite your friends and family to read Ready Nutrition to help build our community. We have made things easy for new readers to the site by having a food storage calculator to start planning your preparedness supply, and also an easy-to-access banner with access to all of the 52-Weeks to Preparedness series newsletters, to help new readers catch up.

If you haven’t already, follow us on Twitter or see what we are doing on Facebook. I love to interact with the preparedness community, because, after all, we are all in this together!

On a personal note, thanks to all of you who sent me your thoughts on the books that I ordered last week. I appreciate your feedback and feel more confidant about my purchases. And, to all the readers of this newsletter, thank you for taking the time to better prepare yourselves for life’s unexpected disasters and especially for being a part of this amazing community.

Regards,

Tess Pennington

PREP OF THE WEEK

Week 25 of 52: Dental Preparedness (List 2)

In week 10, dental preparedness was introduced and preventative dental health was stressed. This week we are taking our dental issues to another level… a longer-term level. It is important to remember that your teeth and gums are living body parts that respond to vitamins, minerals and fatty acids just as your skin, hair, muscles and organs do. And we must do all that we can do to keep them healthy. When teeth do not get the proper amounts of vitamins and nutrition, their overall health diminishes. Did you know there are foods that are both nutritious as well as good for the teeth and gums? Having access to some of these foods during a short or long-term emergency can be beneficial to your health as well as to your teeth.

As previously discussed in week 10, preventative dental health is the best type of oral care you can give your teeth and gums. Schedule regular check ups with your dentist to keep your oral health up to par. After all, we don’t want to be dealing with any existing dental problems during a long-term emergency. Having supplies and knowledge on natural alternatives to turn to during longer term emergencies will help keep you thriving.

When we think about being in a long-term emergency, the thought of having dental issues on top of everything else is a nightmare in itself. Since our goal is to create an all-encompassing preparedness supply, knowing what the most likely scenarios are and planning for them is better than going into a situation blindly. In the case of dental emergencies, the most common types of dental emergencies to prepare for are:

• Toothache
• Swollen jaw
• Dental injuries
• Prolonged bleeding after an extraction
• Painful jaw
• Painful erupting tooth
• Cold Sores, Canker Sores, Fever Blisters

Most of these issues can be eradicated through preventative maintenance, so I’ll stress again: Keep your teeth healthy. When there is an emergency, however, dentist appointments are hard to come by. So, we will learn some alternative approaches to keep our teeth and gums in top shape. When the toothpaste and toothbrushes run out of your disaster supplies, look for these dental alternatives in your emergency supplies:

• Salt
• Baking soda
• Essential oils
• Hydrogen Peroxide
• Water

These items are multi-purpose, inexpensive and can keep your teeth and gums very healthy during a long-term disaster. For more detailed information including recipes for dental pastes and rinses, click here. Also, if you plan to have any elderly family members staying with you during a short or long-term disaster, do not forget to anticipate their dental needs.

Having some dental supplies to rely on during short-or long-term emergencies would be opportunistic to say the least. Your emergency dental supplies should be all encompassing with regards to multiple dental emergency resources, first aid supplies, vitamins, pain relief, anti-inflammatory needs and antibiotics.

Preps To Buy:

• Salt (in quantity)
• Baking Soda (in quantity)
• Essential oils (in quantity) such as clove oil, cinnamon oil, or 4 thieves oil
• Hydrogen peroxide
• Toothpaste (in quantity)
• Soft bristled toothbrush (in quantity)
• Dental floss (in quantity)
• Toothpicks (the rounded end type)
• Fluoride rinse (optional, but could come in handy)
• Tweezers
• Instant hot and cold packs (in quantity)
• Dental wax (to place over sensitive areas)
• Dentemp
• Cotton balls (in quantity)
• Gauze pads (in quantity)
• Black teabags (tannic acid in tea is a natural blood clotting agent)
• Activated charcoal
• Suture kit
• Vitamins
• Additional dental resources
• Dental tool assortment
• Monofilament or suture “thread”
• Suture needles
• Celox or quikclot
• Antibiotics
• Ibuprofen or pain reliever
• Rubbing alcohol to sterilize dental tools

Action Items:

1. If you haven’t done so, get a check up with your dentist.
2. Begin stocking up on vitamins that can help dental health.
3. Click here to download a PDF version of “When There Is No Dentist” by Murray Dickson. Then begin studying this resource to familiarize yourself with how to provide care.
4. Start changing some bad eating habits (i.e., eliminating sugars, sodas, honey and molasses and junk food from the diet). If you do eat or drink any sugary items, make a habit of brushing your teeth within 30 minutes to remove any sugars left on your teeth. This can significantly reduce cavities.
5. Get in the habit of flossing.

WHAT WE’RE UP TO

Family Preps:

My husband and I are planning to make a big medical supply purchase in the next week or so, so right now, I’m doing some online wish list shopping. We are prepared for any short-term medical emergencies, but we want to stock up on gauze and celox as well as invest in some more longer-term prep items. Something that I have wanted to do is create some first response packs for my medicine closet. This way, we are not rushing and panicked if someone seriously injures themselves.

In the Garden:

One word: MOSQUITOS! After a much needed rain 2 weeks ago, the rain water made a perfect breeding ground for mosquitos and as they hatched, they were hunting us down in fervor! Needless to say, I have been staying inside until the die off occurs!

Recent Articles

SHTF Dental Care: 6 Alternatives to Toothpaste

Rat Proofing Your Food Storage Pantry in 5 Easy Steps

Top 10 Foods that Naturally Clean Teeth

STATS AND FACTS

Dealing with a painful dental emergency is bad enough, but if you don’t address the problem quickly and effectively, that problem could exacerbate. Here’s what to do if you face one of the following dental emergencies in a short-term emergency:

1. You lost a filling. The first thing to do is to rinse out the cavity with warm water. Take a cotton ball or a special dental filling product like Dentemp and press it firmly into the cavity. Arrange for someone to treat you soon.

2. You lost a crown or cap. Missing crown won’t trigger “immediate pain,” but it definitely can if you don’t do anything about it, especially as you eat and food gets in the exposed area. Don’t wait more than two days to get this treated if a cap or crown is displaced. Placing dental wax or a temporary cap can help allevieve sensitivity while you eat.

3. You have a toothache. A severe toothache is one of the most painful forms of trauma you can face with a dental emergency. If it happens to you, immediately rinse your mouth out with warm water and place a cold compress against your cheek for 20 minutes to alleviate swelling. Remove the compress and let the afflicted area warm up again or use a hot pack, then re-apply the cold compress. One mistake people make with a toothache is to apply pain medication directly against the gum. Dentists say that could inflame the gum and potentially do more damage to the teeth. In any case, make sure to visit your dentist to check for a bacterial infection that might have caused the toothache in the first place. If left untreated, bacteria can lead to serious problems.

4. You chipped or broke a tooth. The first thing to do is to save the chipped or fully dislodged tooth. Then, once again, rinse the area inside your mouth with warm water. Also make sure to rinse the tooth that’s been displaced. If there is bleeding, apply some gauze or cotton to the area for five to 10 minutes. Then apply a cold compress to the outside of your mouth, over the impacted area, until the swelling goes down.

5. You knocked a tooth out of your mouth. Dentists say that your best chance of saving a tooth that’s been fully removed from your mouth is to visit a dentist within one hour. Until then, keep the tooth safely tucked away – in a small container of milk, or in water with some salt added. Then head straight to your dentist.

Tips courtesy of Main Street

LETTERS TO TESS

One of the perks of my job at Ready Nutrition is to address questions and/or concerns that you may have with your prepping endeavors. Feel free to ask anything that is on your mind because no question is too big or small. You can email questions to: getprepped@readynutrition.com

This week’s question addresses food storage:

Hi Tess,

You were so gracious to answer a previous question and I hope you will again!

When I buy, let’s say beans, and they expire on 6/12, how much more time (approx) do I have if I put them in a mylar bag with desiccant and in a bucket?

Thanks, Carol

Answer:

Hi Carol,

I’m more than happy to answer any question you have. The keys to prolonging your food investment is the packaging and preventing the introduction to natural elements. Store bought foods are pre-packaged in flimsy packaging because it’s intended for short-term use. This makes the food more vulnerable to the natural elements of sunlight, insects, critters and humidity. By packaging the food in heavy duty mylar bags or a food-grade plastic bucket, it minimizes the exposure to natural elements, thus extending the life span of the food. Just by changing the way the food is stored (and in your case a plastic food-grade container), the life span of your beans can be extended 20+ years.

Here are some other foods that can be stored for long-term use: 11 Emergency Food Items That Can Last a Lifetime

By the way, I would add an oxygen absorber to the container along with the desiccant. Oxygen absorbers will help prevent oxidation in foods, and the desiccants will remove the existing moisture in the container. Many preppers who live in the humid Gulf region of the U.S. use this method of protecting their food.

Thanks again for your question.

Have a great weekend,

Tess