Dental Day

Yesterday, thanks to Matthew Osbourne, the Junior Diplomat who met us and a whole host of people behind the scenes that made this happen, we were able to retrieve the resin to temporarily repair Mark’s tooth. 

Mark meeting Matthew Osbourne, the Junior Diplomat

Photo courtesy of Johnny Swanepoel 

So for the next 2 hours during bumpy roadworks and traffic jams, I sat in the back of the RV and practiced with the kit I was given. Unfortunately Alex wouldn’t let me practice on him, so I used a mould instead and made a couple of tooth shapes (incase I accidentally knocked out Mark’s!). I’m glad I practiced with it first, because it took a few goes to figure out how to work the paste and see how quickly it set (within 2minutes!).

A couple of spare teeth :)!

I thought we would be doing it that evening at the end of day, but Mark was keen to get it done in his next break, so no time like the present, we decided to crack on with it.

Photo courtesy of Johnny Swanepoel

Burjor Langdana, who is a dentist that is an associate with World Extreme Medicine, kindly had sent me through a detailed email which provided me with a great step by step of what I needed to do. Also, there were thankfully directions in the resin box that were in English, which was a bonus! 

So the process was:

1)    File the tooth down to take off the sharp edges using a nail file.

2)    Rinse the mouth with warm salt water

3)    Dry the tooth

4)    Apply Anhydrin to prepare the tooth to optimise adherence of the resin

5)    Mix the powder 3:1 to the liquid which takes 30sec to turn in to thick/ dry consistency like chewing gum

6)    Apply to the tooth and continually mould over 2 minutes to provide a smooth edge

7)    Leave for 2 minutes to set

8)    Apply layer of Vaseline

9)    Rinse with warm salt water

10) Remain on a soft diet for remainder of the day

Applying the resin

Photo courtesy of Johnny Swanepoel

Now I’m sure there will be dentist’s reading this and horrified at what I’ve just done. I don’t and never will pretend to be a dentist, but in this situation it’s anything to help Mark remain on the bike and minimise any long term affects. Hopefully this will just allow the time frame to support him through until he finishes, by which point he can return to the professionals who will have to deal with my patch work job! 

Final product, shame it wasn't gold plated! 

Photo courtesy of Johnny Swanepoel