A DIY kit to soothe those aching teeth
Issue 52: Jan/Feb 2007
TWO WEEKS AWAY FROM ANY CHANCE OF HELP, THERE WAS a blinding pain. I found myself staring down at a chunk of metal in my hand. The hole it had left in my molar felt like a crater. Bluewater cruising and a lost filling are a really bad combination.
In truth, I wasn’t on a bluewater cruise — but my dentist was. When I pulled over beside the highway in a great deal of pain and called the receptionist on my cell phone, I was informed that he was not expected back for two weeks.
With that bad news, I headed for the nearest pharmacy. The pharmacist nodded sympathetically and asked if I had ever tried Toofypegs.
Toofypegs? I handed over the cash, bubbled my thanks, and limped across the street to a café. There was nothing wrong with my leg, but I was in pain and not afraid to let the world know about it. I sat down and studied the Toofypeg instructions. Part of the kit was intended for fixing caps or crowns. I needed the filling replacement, which consisted of some blue tablets and what looked like a short length of white plastic rod about 3⁄16 inch in diameter. I asked for a cup containing a dash of boiling water and a glass of warm water at body temperature.
Two blue tablets went into the tumbler to create an antiseptic mouthwash. I had no toothbrush along, but I had not eaten anything since the filling had dropped out. The instructions required me to break off 1⁄4 inch of rod, but I broke off a little more and dropped it into the boiling water in the cup, just before reading that I now had 30 seconds to rinse my mouth and get that piece of the rod into the cavity.
Gritting my remaining teeth, I rinsed as thoroughly as I could while removing from the cup the fragment of filling-rod, which had become slightly malleable but still rod-shaped. Open wide and feed it into the orifice. Quite easy. Then clamp teeth together. That more or less riveted the job, and I was reassured by the white-hot flash that traveled from toe to toupee that the rivet had bottomed out. Deliverance. The pain stopped. I ate a very pleasant late lunch . . . very carefully. All seemed secure.
It was a couple of months before I could schedule a dental appointment. My dentist complimented me on the neatness of the job. Then he removed the Toofypeg filling. He examined the inside of my tooth, found there was no infection nor trace of food contaminant. My temporary filling had worked well.
I was so impressed with this product and its obvious implications for sailors, I tracked down the pharmaceutical company that markets Toofypegs in Britain to learn whether it is easily available in the United States and other countries.
While Toofypegs are not marketed in the United States, similar dental repair products are available in pharmacies. In addition, the Toofypegs product can be purchased on eBay and in lots of three online from Westons Internet www.westons.com. (Note: The Westons product code is 005-0500. The Good Old Boat editors spent $27.11 for three packages, or $9 each including shipping. –Ed.) For this, you get enough material for a few dressings and to re-attach a couple of crowns.
The company representative mentioned comments from other customers. One had made perhaps a neater job than I managed: her dentist simply examined it and advised her to leave well enough alone. Apparently tales abound of these repairs lasting way beyond the expected period, although the manufacturer recommends that professional intervention be sought as soon as possible. It seems this extremely practical product has been around for a while. I was not surprised to learn that it was developed by a dentist.
Nobody is likely to give an absolute guarantee that such a repair will work or that it would be anything but temporary, but this is definitely the best I have ever tried. These days I have a kit in the medical chest aboard Gwendoline and another in the glove compartment of my car.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
