Dental Treatments Made Easy

Astronauts were sent to earth orbit during the Skylab space flights in 1973 and the manned flights made use of a wide variety of advanced dental equipment to assist the astronauts. Manned space travel during the Skylab missions brought military dentists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA to create a dental component for the in flight medical support system or IMSS. There were three flights during the Skylab missions and each one lasted from 4 to 8 weeks and during this time the dental equipment served a three man crew.

Ailments that could be treated on an outpatient basis were the extent of the capabilities of the dental equipment used during the Skylab missions as one of the military dentists commented. In the case of such equipment it would be pretty difficult to consider the machines as do it yourself kits. The military dentist also argues that any concept for medical care at that time were based on findings that yielded results of a possible one percent risk for dental problems to occur during the mission lasting for 28 days. Ineffectiveness on the job due to serious dental problems like pulpitis or periodontal abscess is the main concern when it comes to the risk for possible dental mishaps while in space.

For minor dental problems like chipped teeth and the like the risk is at five percent per trip. There are a lot of things that come with the IMSS dental equipment this article will discuss including tools from forceps to a Gigli saw as well as restorative material, syringes, and anesthetic. This restorative material was specially developed by the Air Force den corps to meet certain in-flight specifications. Handling or mixing the material can be accomplished in zero gravity.

Before anything else the equipment was subjected to a series of tests and then NASA conducted training programs that taught the astronauts how to use the equipment where both testing and training attempts became successful. No program attempted to train the flight crews regarding dental procedures which come to be more complicated than removing teeth making the sessions a tad limited. Illustrations of the oral cavity from personal radiographs, diagnosis information, as well as procedural guidelines will be integrated into a dental manual that will be placed on the space vehicle.

To further ensure their safety astronauts can resort to the advice of the dentist working in mission control as he will most definitely be knowledgeable about each one's dental history and current oral status complete with all their dental files. It is not feasible to limit space to ground conversations for plenty of reasons including the need for the approval of a ground control dentist before any dental procedure can be executed in space.

He says that all of those concerned with this program, one way or the other, have had serious reservations about training non-dentists to perform these clinical dental procedures. One should also consider the possibility of losing millions of dollars should a crew member and severe dental pain on board a space vehicle lead to a consistent decline in effectiveness causing a Skylab mission to end up without gain. Considering every aspect with regard to dental procedures in space these will only serve as a last resort for the astronauts.

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