Have you ever felt sorry for your dentist?

Put yourself in his or her place for a moment. Can you imagine what it is like on a cold wet Monday morning to open the door of your waiting room and see a row of grim faces wince - and this happens most mornings, not just Mondays! To be confined to a small room, year in, and year out, "chained to the dental chair", and to be told, "I hate dentists! Nothing personal of course." repeated several times a day, week after week. Not really a nice job, is it?

Do you think your dentist ever sees things from your point of view? Here is one dentist who really knows what it is like . Yes, I became a victim of not taking my own advice !

Holidays are very important to this dentist. I need to get away from time to time, as far away from the dental chair as possible, to meet people who don't know I am a dentist. On holiday, admitting you are a dentist can be a great embarrassment, some people want an instant consultation, whilst others will only talk to you from behind their hands. I remember being asked by a diner in a restaurant in France, what I did for a living. Foolishly I told the truth, only to be faced by someone pulling their dentures out over the dinner table. I had to listen politely to the woes of the dentures' owner whilst the other guests hurriedly left, clutching napkins to their mouths!

I soon learned, and I now tell people who ask, that I am a gynaecologist. What a conversation stopper ! It was a ski holiday that really made a patient out of this dentist. I didn't find out about skiing until I was nearly forty. Perhaps I am too old, I thought, but then I realised if I didn't do it soon, I really would be too old.

Learning to ski when you are unfit, fat, and nearly forty is the nearest thing to masochism modern man has invented. Not for me the easy grace of youth, learning to ski elegantly, feet glued together, and hips that wiggle down the slopes to the beat of personal stereos firmly planted in their ears. No, it was the snow plough for me, which is undignified, very slow, and knocks the stuffing clean out of you. But if you become infected by the ski bug you eventually overcome all embarrassment, encouraged by the weight loss and the start of a ski tan.

Suffice it to say that eventually I became proficient enough to go to the top of the mountain. To get to the top, I took a chair lift which clanked its way slowly over the tips of the snow covered forest. These double chairs can be quite romantic as they often stop, leaving the occupants dangling in mid-air. This day, as luck would have it, I was marooned with a stunning blond who looked as though she had been poured into her expensive ski suit.

She turned to me, smiled and said "Would you like a toffee?". It would have been churlish to refuse, so I took a small piece with total disregard for my own good advice. How often have I said to my patients, "Don't eat toffees, they pull fillings out". You've guessed it - out came a filling just as the chair restarted its upward journey. At 10,000 feet in an alpine winter it can be chilly, minus 30 c is not unusual. When the cold reached the tooth the pain exploded in my mouth, quickly filling my entire head. I never realised how awful it could be. The only way off the mountain was to ski down slowly to the village. This was the most difficult ski run of my entire life. I couldn't think, pain filled my head completely, and my tooth throbbed to a "heavy-metal beat". Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, I got back to my hotel room and took stock of the problem. I needed to see a dentist as soon as possible. It wasn't going to be easy; my German was very poor, and I knew it was going to also hurt my wallet, but no matter what the cost, I just couldn't stand the pain! I found my Travellers Cheques and went in search of a dentist. The hotel receptionist gave me directions and wrote a note in German to explain my predicament to the dentist. I felt a right Wally !

The dentist's surgery was at the other end of the village and by the time I rang the bell, I felt sick with the pain. Luckily the lady who answered the door spoke English but had dreadful news, the dentist had hurt himself skiing and had gone to see a doctor in the city, and wouldn't be back for four days! Worse still, it was a religious holiday so even the pharmacy was shut !

A hotel bedroom in a ski resort is not a good place to bear toothache.

At 3 am the discos were beginning to empty and the streets rang with the noise of people enjoying themselves. Meanwhile, the slightest hint of hot or cold sent the tooth crazy. I had to do something. Eventually I made a crude filling from chewed-up paper, a kind of "papier-munchie".

The next day I was sitting on the step of the pharmacy waiting for it to open. Had they anything I could put in my tooth? "I am sorry, we don't have anything you can buy over the counter except aspirin" came the reply. "Can I look and see if there is anything I can use from your dispensary? I am a dentist" I told the pharmacist, who spoke good English.

After a few minutes search we found some zinc oxide powder which is the main ingredient of anti-nappy rash cream and an old bottle of Oil of Cloves, the sort of thing granny would have put into your tooth if you had a toothache, many years ago.

Back in the hotel room, I mixed the two together and made a paste which I put into the tooth cavity, the effect was sheer magic, the clove oil soothed the pain away and the rough edges of the cavity stopped cutting my tongue. I could eat and drink again, and I even managed to continue with my skiing! When I returned to Britain, my expensive holiday almost ruined, I began to take an interest in similar experiences related to me by my patients and friends. Many had had unfortunate experiences, some even at Christmas and weekends when they could not get emergency treatment even here in Britain. However, holiday experiences were the most common and some were horrific.

One lady booked the holiday of a lifetime, she and her husband planned a second honeymoon on a remote Greek island. On the second day of their holiday, the lady, who had crowns on her front teeth, ate a local delicacy which dislodged the crowns onto her dinner plate! There she was with two stumps for front teeth, sitting in a honeymoon hotel with 12 days of her holiday yet to go. What could she do ?

There was no dentist on this small island, the hotel couldn't help, and the only shop on the island was a general store that supplied the local fishing boats. In desperation and embarrassment, she purchased some "Greek Superglue", and with the help of her husband she glued her teeth back into place. What she did not know was that this particular glue became extremely hot as is set. The heat was so intense that she literally boiled the delicate nerves under the crowns. The pain must have been unimaginable. The result was a totally ruined holiday and, two weeks later, the extraction of her front teeth.

The frequency of these dental accidents, especially lost crowns and fillings, convinced me that some kind of First Aid Kit for teeth was essential. The damage to an injured tooth is greatly increased if prompt professional help is not available immediately. Even a weekend can mean the difference between saving a tooth or its eventual loss. There was just nothing available in the shops for emergency dental use.

So I designed a complete kit which not only could temporarily refix crowns, but provide a temporary filling made from a material which was kind to injured teeth and would protect them until a dentist's help could be obtained. When I had designed my prototype, I took it along to several prominent dental manufacturers. Every single one of them turned it down. Their comments were the same: "It might upset the dental profession. It didn't matter to them that there was a real need for such a kit. I was absolutely devastated, what was I to do ? The only way to produce the kit was to make it myself, so after much discussion, the family house was mortgaged and we set about becoming one of Mr John Major's small businesses and immediately started drilling for gold!

So now, after much hard work and with a gentle injection of modesty, and tongue planted firmly in cheek, may I say that the venture has been literally crowned with success! (And to think it all started with a beautiful blonde and a sticky toffee.) Many thousands of prudent customers right around the world have now acquired a kit, confident of handling any dental emergency, as described, in an instant.

Get the strength and confidence of the Dentanurse Travellers Kit around you!

Dr.T.Lees, BDS.

Attention all Dentists & Product Manufacturers
advertising space available on this page.

DISTRIBUTORS NEEDED ALL AREAS URGENTLY

Home || The Product || Testimonials ||
Dentanurse Explorers Corner || Ordering || Health Warning || Feedback