Travelling Abroad? Some Things To Consider

Get your dental health in order before you leave.

If you have already booked a holiday this year, or are planning to do so in the near future, it can be a busy time ahead; making sure passports are up to date, buying clothes, getting the correct innoculations etc.

Quite often, in these circumstances, the little matter of dental care can skip our minds altogether. Naturally, we will still brush our teeth, and hopefully floss too, on a regular basis, but all too often, we presume that nothing will go wrong whilst we are on holiday.

Unfortunately, this is not always true, and receiving dental care abroad may not prove to be as stress free an experience as those at The Dental Centre Bedford, especially if you are in a remote part of the world where medical care is fairly basic.

Before you go

If you have a holiday booked and it has been a few months since you last saw your Bedford dentist for a checkup, it is worth considering booking yourself in for another appointment, especially if you are travelling to a remote region. Weakened teeth are more likely to break and a minor restoration at this point could save you a lot of trouble whilst you are away.

It is also a little known fact that travelling on an aeroplane can highlight deficiencies with your teeth. As a tooth starts to decay, it allows tiny pockets of air to access and under normal circumstances, you would not notice these. In the air though, these are more noticeable as the air cabin pressure changes and the air trapped in the tooth has nowhere to go, sometimes causing great pain. Even the smallest of fillings before you go can make your journey much more comfortable.

Emergency dental kits

If you are travelling to an area where dental care may be more rudimentary, it is always worth investing in an emergency dental kit. These can be bought at most chemists and include a tooth filling material similar to those used in a dental practice.  Whilst these will not cure a toothache; if you break a tooth or a filling falls out, this material can be used to fill the tooth, at least temporarily.

Where possible, ask someone to do this for you as it is very difficult to fill your own teeth. Do not make the mistake though of thinking that this is a permanent solution. However well the person places this material, and however comfortable it feels, it is almost certain that there will be small gaps left between the filling and the tooth. Although this may cause no problems at the time, these gaps allow bacteria to enter, and tooth decay is sure to follow.

If you have used one of these kits to repair a tooth, make sure to make an appointment at The Dental Centre Bedford as soon as you can on your arrival back home. We will examine the tooth to determine the problem and provide the appropriate treatment to restore the tooth back to health.

If you would like to make an appointment before you go on holiday, please call our Bedford dental practice on 01234 819868.