Don’t want to take your dentist with you on your vacation; take PODS and PANS!

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Ok, then just take these things. Some of them are PODS (plain ole dental stuff) and some are PANS (pretty amazing new stuff) to help you through painless dental care on your next trip.

First has to be the basic, your toothbrush and toothpaste. I know that I’ve forgotten mine in the mad rush of getting everything ready to leave for a trip. So, what to do? Try to keep an extra one in your suitcase or bag that you usually take with you. You can often be the hero for someone else who forgot their own.

If you have some crowns or a bridge you might just want to take DentTemp. You can get it from any pharmacy and it will let you recement it yourself. You can even use to replace fillings that come out or pieces of tooth that break off.
One very important thing to remember is that you need to make sure that you can’t hit it when you bite down. That’s one of the most certain recipes for pain.
Any tooth that you can hit more than the rest is a real liability, so please make sure that you bite down and grind around once you put it in. If it is too high take it our right away before it has time to harden.

If you are having pain a good thing to know is that 2 Advil (ibuprofen) and 2 Tylenol (acetaminophen) have the same pain-killing effect as taking a narcotic without the drowsy side-effects.

If you are having a problem in your gums rinsing with warm salt water is a very good remedy. Not only does the hypertonic saline solution have some antiseptic properties but it will help pull fluids out of the gums and reduce the swelling.
If you think about it most of the time that you feel some discomfort in your body it comes from some inflammation somewhere. Reducing that inflammation will help give you relief. Just mix as much salt in as small of a quantity of warm water possible and let it soak on the affected area for about a minute.

If you have a partial or denture that you feel might be a bit of a liability to breaking you might want to bring some Krazy glue. It is a cyanoacrylate, which is the perfect monomer to bond/repair/weld the acrylic base back together. Most of the time dentures fracture in a way that lets you index the pieces right back together.

We’ve actually started bringing Valtrex with us on vacation. Often we travel somewhere where we will spend a lot of time in the bright sun. Not even just skiing or on a beach, but Ii recently got cold sores from watching Trent win College Nationals in Ultimate in Madison, even though I was conscientiously wearing lip balm with sunscreen. Valtrex is acyclovir, and anti-viral agent that can block the blistering if you take it in the first day. This has been really helpful for lots of our patients.

You don’t have to be around dentistry too long to realize that the old proverb, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” was probably first uttered by a dentist. Be sure to come in and make sure your pearly whites are pretty inside and out by consulting our teeth whitening dentist before you go away. Call Debbie at 610-525-5497 and get your check-up done here in Bryn Mawr dental office before you hit the road.

But, you really should take me with you, or at least the option of having me. Make sure you always have my office or cell number in case there is a problem that I might be able to help you solve to make the most of your vacation.

Safe Travels,
D

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