Civil Unrest #1

Today's post deals with the issue of civil unrest, here meant as the disruption in everyday society from a crisis such that the danger of crime and excessive State action (beyond that needed to cope with the emergency) rises sharply.



I am not trying to rehash theories and espouse activities related to the New World Order, rise of Dear Leader's centralization of power, or silly ideas such as RAHOWA. Though it could come down to such happenings. What I will try to do is sketch out some possible scenarios for civil disorder in Montana. This post will sketch out the three most likely: Party cadre trying to undermine Montana society to the level of California's Party controlled areas or of Party controlled Massachusetts, the wake of a major disaster here, and ultimate State power grab.



I believe that we can ameliorate the effects of civil unrest here through just focusing on what sets us apart from the mob; religion-based decency, cooperation with neighbors,etc. and our belief/action on the founding ideals of our country. We must be prepared for the civil unrest that goes with disaster or other crisis and not just rely on having enough supplies to see us through the crisis.



I do not advocate violence toward any group, except in defense of loved ones. I believe it is necessary for all of us to work together in crisis, not become divided by race, creed, or other orientation. Here endeth the disclaimer. Now to scenarios one and two.



We in Montana know that civil unrest is something that will pop up in California or New York or even Chicago, not here. We really don't have the "critical mass" of members-of-historically-disadvantaged-groups (MHDG) that Cali' or Michigan have. We are generally rational, get-along people here. So it can't happen here, right? Wrong.



We unfortunately have some members of the "professional agitator" cadre, followers of Saul Alinsky who seek to bring about the Glorious Revolution, in our cities and even a few in our State Legislature. These types are the ones who will not, in the words of Dear Leader's Chief of Staff, "let a crisis go to waste".



I was in Cali' during the Rodney King riots and I saw these professional revolutionaries, all White "radicals", firing up the crowd of MHDG to riot as I left work, for three days running. The riots followed within one hour of the "consciousness raising". These types are the ones who push for "cap and trade" in order to cripple our economy and make the peasants forced to rely on the State. These are the types who you will see agitating amongst First Nations people here in Montana if there was a disruption in food and fuel deliveries here or in the aftermath of an earthquake.



Their aim always is to balkanize the "peasants" so that the Party can gain more and more control. Instead of encouraging cooperation, as we all would do in a crisis, these Party cadre, and nascent looters, will try to turn one group against another for the sake of causing further disruption.



The easiest response to these warmed over hippies is to answer their "ringing rhetoric" with truth. Refute their lies as they speak them,write to the papers to counter their propaganda, don't spread their agitprop rumors, spread the truth, refute them, ridicule them publically (but beware their latter day SA toughs). If they succeed in setting off a riot, stay low until it burns itself out. Then support the Americans in cleaning up afterwords.



A good book for all decent Americans is Confrontational Politics, written by a former California State Senator who here provides good advice on how to keep our country out of the hands of these overaged "radicals" who haven't gotten over their juvenile dream of seeing their hero Fidel's revolution recreated here. The book is filled with advice that can be applied by the average citizen with the aim of neutralizing the Party's cadre and minions who seek to destroy our country during times of crisis.



But the best resource of all to use against these skollies and quasi-communists is just simply being a good person; maintaining good neighborliness, respect for those you deal with daily, and living your religion and the ideals upon which this country was founded. Again, Montana does not possess a "critical mass" of MHDGs for these human roaches to incite to riot on a large scale. Any attempt to do so in, say Bozeman, should result in normal Montanans quickly quelling the Marxist petrol-soaked rhetoric with common sense and appeals to the listeners' links and common values with the American and Montana communities. The more we focus on our commonalities, the less likely we are to fracture along partisan lines.





Enough Red baiting. Now let's consider the most likely civil disruption that could occur in Montana, post-disaster disruption. This is the hardest to deal with as it involves conflict with our dearest ideals and regression to primal levels. I am talking about how we will deal with hungry fellow Montanans who did not lay in supplies or make family emergency plans. And, of course, dealing with the looters.



We need to do more than just lay in the wheat, beans, water, and firewood in preparation for the coming disaster. We need to do more than just game potential family emergencies during earthquakes or wildland fires. We need to consider how we will answer the pleas of the unprepared after the Big One, and yes, we need to game how we will deal with those who will seek to "redistribute the wealth" of our supplies by force after the SHTF.



Some survivalist authors suggest giving until it hurts. This is in line with the highest ideals of Christianity and several other religions and will certainly help increase the force of Good locally in the event of a disaster. But it will be important to give in such a way that you are not directly marked as the Horn of Plenty. If this happens, your OPSEC is gone, making you vulnerable to State confiscation of your "horded supplies" or, even more likely, return visits by those you helped with many more mates to help gather your supplies for the sake of the horde. Perhaps giving through your church, if it is still standing? Or maybe supplies placed outside your perimeter as if "dropped" by a passing group.



Others counsel giving nothing out, essentially applying the paradigm of the lifeboat to one's survivalist encampment. I have problems with this one as I know I could not say no to hungry fellow citizens, especially kids. Which means that I, and the many others who have way too much compassion, will probably end up in numerous firefights with hordes of looters after acts of charity post-disaster. So the lifeboat gambit has definite validity. One author suggests "playing poor" so that you appear to be as destitute as everyone else, neat trick if you can pull off shamming the African famine look.



You need to think through your responses to civil unrest in times of disaster now just as you must think through your family emergency plan and defensive use of firearms before the event if you hope to respond in an effective way.

If you hand out food to unprepared residents you will drastically increase the risk of looters at your compound (those you help will not keep your kindness a secret) but you will have done the humane thing. On the other hand, if you choose to keep your supplies to yourself with no provision for charity for the less fortunate, then you had better mentally get used to the necessity to turn away or even shoot fellow citizens whose only crime was not preparing for crisis--this includes turning away or shooting women and children.

Of such decisions are madness made. Think about it, a family is starving after SHTF, they know you have food. If I was the head of household, I would consider taking you out so my family can survive. Maybe I'd feel guilt about offing you and your mates but, if I'm a Christian, I will know that I am forgiven so you will be dead, reduced to a wan memory of the Hard Times after the crisis is over. The converse of this is you driving off the unprepared so you and your family can survive, shooting as necessary in defense of your family, then maybe having nightmares for years.

Whatever you decide to do in re: the unprepared post-SHTF is your choice. Just make sure you can live with it by thinking it through now. As far as preparing for serious social work with looters; mentally rehearse your responses to robbers and burglars. Shoot targets depicting real bad guys not circles. Read some good books on defensive preparedness by Gabe Suarez, Mas Ayoob or others who deal with the mental aspect of self defense. Consider taking a force on force class to get a chance to practice under real world conditions. In general, maintain good physical and mental health to better deal with the stresses of social disruption.

Part #2 will deal with the sociology of civil unrest and that beloved NWO takeover scenario. Until then, plan to survive, plan to maintain a good society no matter what.

ATTN: Ham operators

This ham is the head of the communication committee for Preppers Network. He is working on a commo' net. Let's help get this one up and running. His message follows:

"CQ CQ CQ MTPN CQ CQ W4DMH CALLING CQ QRZ OK now I have done it in true DX fashion for all you HAM'S out there. I know others that read this will be real confused now but I would really like to hear from you HAM'S out there so I figured I would write in a language you would understand. We need to get HAM'S involved here so we can try to get a net going to help with off the grid communication among the prepper networks. I know there are many Ham's already involved in the prepper network and many more that read so please come forward and help us with getting this going. Now that all the people that read this (that are not HAM'S) are confused let me add one more slang that only the HAM'S will understand.

73 de W4DMH

PS Please email me so we can get to work on this. wvsantaclaus@aol.com_________________God Bless all from the Wild and Wonderful West Virginia Santa"

Fourth Horseman Arrives #2

Again, time to dust off your epidemic disaster plan. Today, let's briefly go over good shopping for epidemic handling gear in re: killing the little monsters that threaten to wipe us out. A shopping tip; buy hospital grade disinfectants. These are disinfectants that can kill "tough" or common dangerous pathogens such as tuberculosis (hard to kill), salmonella, pseudomonas (common cause of "stenches" and wound infections), and e. coli. Check the label to see that it kills cold/flu viruses, polio (tough to kill), hepatitis B (also tough), etc.



First, let's get on the same page. For our purposes, there are three levels to epidemic germ killing: sterilization, disinfection, and sanitizing. Sterilization kills all microorganisms but it is nearly impossible for us to sterilize an area except for using a flamethrower or nuking the site from orbit. What you do need to sterilize are surgical instruments that will be introduced into normally sterile areas of the body and wound dressings.

Disinfection kills all except spores. Read labels to find out how long a disinfectant must be [wet] in contact with the surface to kill the germs. For survivalists, disinfection can be done if enough time, usually about ten minutes, is available. But if you need to disinfect quickly, use an disinfectant such as Discide Ultra wipes that does the job in about a minute or two.

Finally, there is sanitizing, killing a significant number of germs on the surface. This can be done relatively easily and quickly. Remember that precleaning the surface is important and allow enough contact time, per label directions.


Proper usage of disinfectants is simple, dangerously so. Label directions must be followed; if it says it kills the pathogens after a ten minute contact time, then you must keeep the surface wet for ten minutes, not just swipe the surface with the magic potion and rag. If you need a product which kills pathogens in under one minute, buy that product. Examples follow below. Gloves should be worn when disinfecting; all of the ingredients which follow are damaging to skin, opening the way for infection of the operator.


There are several ingredients that are effective disinfectants. Alcohol “kills all” if given a long enough contact time. Under real world conditions, the only ways to provide the contact time are to either immerse the piece in the solution or soak the surface with alcohol, then lay alcohol soaked paper towels or rags onto the surface and then let them dry naturally. For disinfection, a 70% solution works better than a 91+% solution. The downside of using alcohol is: the flammability, poor contact time, and severe hand drying when used as a hand sanitizer.


Quat ammonium compounds are the most common disinfectants in the USA. They “kill all” pretty well , are relatively non-toxic, and most are also detergents. On the downside; it is imperative that the surface to be disinfected be vigorously “scrubbed” as these agents have poor penetration, just spraying the surface and leaving it to dry will at best sanitize and deodorize the surface. Popular brands: many, Lysol IC brand is a good brand, Cavicide is another, Discide Ultra is a quat ammonium plus alcohol for fast knockdown.


Phenol based compounds have some great advantages: they are active even in the presence of [some] soil or blood, they have a residual action on the surface, and tend to be capable of killing the “worst of the worst” such as hepatitis, polio, or TB easily. On the downside; they are very toxic, especially to infants and felines, and they tend to have the worst smell compared to other agents. Examples: Lysol IC's spray, Citrace ( made by Caltech, an exception to the fetor downside), Precise (also by Caltech, a cleaner-disinfectant), LpHse (Gemco Medical, a concentrate).


Chlorine-based, the superstar of the day! The 10% solution is the best choice, 1:9; bleach to water. Very inexpensive (ca 8 cents/gallon or less), good “all kill”, easy to mix from concentrate. The downside; must be mixed fresh daily—especially if exposed to sunlight, tends to corrode metal, damage fabric, irritate hands, is a common asthma trigger,and is notorious for being inactivated if any organic matter remains on the surface to be disinfected.

CDC and the like recommend use of it, but think about it, they ask you to rely on an agent which is easily inactivated by organic matter, unless used in a strong 1:9 solution, so then you might cut corners when using it, it is then ineffective, more contagion results, more die, the NWO wins, we lose.


Good infection control practice also requires good habits. Clean and de-germ surfaces between patients/events. Universal precautions are the standard, treat everyone and everything as if they are a carrier of an infectious disease. In normal everyday life, this would rapidly cut our productivity. Under normal conditions, we must at minimum, use good handwashing procedures and keep common surfaces clean and sanitized. Under pandemic conditions, then we treat our living space as if it is the waiting room of a clinic which sees TB, AIDS, plague, and ebola patients regularly.


The other important practice is simple detective work. What surfaces might the individual carrier have touched? Plenty of sunlight in rooms and good ventilation help put paid to TB and flu. Consider using disposable covers on commonly contacted surfaces; for example, put plastic bags over door handles, discard and change bag after event is over or newspaper on dining tables. Remember that there are only three ways to reliably sanitize laundry: wash with bleach, dry for at least 20 minutes at 190° in a dryer, or hang out in full sunlight for 12 hours or more after thorough washing.

Here's a relatively low key infection control (IC) protocol as an example: when going into town, wear a pair of gloves for your errands. Either change gloves between stops (and sanitize car/truck door handles, gear shift, etc.) or remove the gloves before re entering your vehicle and sanitize the gloves between stops. If eating at a restaurant, santize your tabletop and silverware yourself. Get a table at least 6 feet from any one else. have monies easily available from a pocket for paying bill, etc. Use hand santizer before re entering your home.

Plan for IC, plan for nursing care, practice healthy habits (handwashing, etc.),and focus on good intelligence (not wild rumor). Here's a link from CDC to help get you started with your plan. And remember, it is up to you to save yourself and your family, not Dear Leader nor the Ministry of Truth. Stay up to date on new information, implement your plan early as the flu has a "lag "[incubation period] time.

Fourth Horseman Arrives

Now that the WHO has raised the Level to 6, we are in a [flu] pandemic. It is time to start implementing your epidemic disaster plans. Yes, the novel H1N1 flu has a very low lethality and high infectivity, but there has been talk of the possibility of its crossing with the dread avian flu which has a 60+ mortality rate but a low human infectivity currently.

Plus, simple math tells us that the more cases that develop, more serious cases or fatalities that will occur. Please go to your local video store and check out the 1975 BBC series Survivors for a good treatment of the aftermath of a pandemic that results in TEOTWAWKI.

On the practical side, let's review some basic infection control (IC) measures. Handwashing, for about 15+ seconds as a minimum. Stock up on disinfectants. Bleach solution works well; it is cheap, kills "all", but must be mixed fresh daily and is relatively inactivated by "organic material" (read: clean first, then disinfect). The next step up is the Lysol or other disinfectants that you can find at the store; just make sure that the product has an EPA registration number on the label (shows that it has been proven as a disinfectant).

In re: hand sanitizers, use them. Alcohol based ones work very well but under frequent use conditions, they will severely dry out your skin and produce cracks through which germs can attack you. Non alcohol based ones include Vionex (leaves skin a bit tacky after use) and Handclens (easy to use, need two pumps per use though).

More to follow in Part 2. Stay alert. Remember, a very common way to catch cold/flu is for you to touch something that has infected body fluids on it (doorknob, keyboard) and then touch your nose or eyes. Stay well.

Talking Preparedness, With the Unprepared

Talking survival preparedness is fun when we get together with our fellow survivalists. We can wax darkly poetic on possible horrible scenarios and happily exchange tips and Web links with each other on how to pull our families through the Big One. It is instructive and we strengthen the social ties that will help us all pull through. So far so good.

But how about when we reach out to family and friends who don't prepare? We think the hazards are clear and the solutions just as clear, as well as being relatively easy to implement. But it is often frustrating to talk to these people as we get one of several replies: the Government will help us, that's too scary, we have supplies (1gal OJ, several old cans of food, 1.5 loaves of bread for a family of four), that won't happen (earthquake, flood, or wild land fire), etc.

I taught disaster preparedness and emergency medical classes for over twenty years so I long ago quit feeling frustrated by these retorts. I have encountered many people who literally burst into tears or fainted dead away when I covered these issues. I was very successful in “opening eyes” because I discovered what worked to get through to most of these people.

I followed good training principles by framing the problem in terms that impacted them while not raising their stress levels to the point where they spouted platitudes as a raised cross to the monster thoughts of disaster. Then, once you have their attention, then you can start to talk real world scenarios and preps without them defensively shutting out your ideas.

People pay attention to movies and books because they allow the viewer some personal distance from the stresses of disasters. Telling your friend that Helena could be devastated by a wild land fire in the South Hills is frightening as they contemplate having to flee with their spouse and kids through swirling, choking smoke. Discussing the issue in the context of the movie Earthquake lets them identify with the actors' reactions and response efforts with less personal stress.

I have found that humor works very well and gallows humor works even better. So did using mass media examples from movies and TV shows. Talking about epidemic flu preparedness becomes a little less threatening when you relate it to Dustin Hoffman's dilemma in Outbreak.

I have found two good Websites that offer disaster preparedness advice and tips in a humorous format that our non-survivalist friends can assimilate easily. Each uses a different approach; the article at the first site focuses on passing on tips within the frame of mass media horror and scifi movies while the other site, which is all preparedness info', presents information through the paradigm of a zombie holocaust.

The first site has an article that is a mad joy ride through tongue-in-cheek preparedness tips that will appeal to teens and young adults especially. The article reminds me of the Reagan era information pamphlet Meet Mr. Bomb that covered post-nuke survival so well ,and with such fun humor, that I used the booklet in a few of my courses. The illustrations and explanations in the DelSquacho article will have your family and friends laughing hard while they begin to consider the scary issues of survival. The movie allusions will keep the non-prepper's mind engaged while you start the discussion on how they can be ready for the unthinkable. The article is PG-13 or a “strong G” for language. The site is PG-13 to R for language, adult theme, and sexual content.

The second site, Zombie Squad (ZS), approaches survivalism from the standpoint of the modern myth of the zombie horde disaster. It is a membership organization that does charity work as well as conducting disaster preparedness workshops in their local communities. They even have a volunteer award program to further encourage their members to help their local community with preparedness. Membership costs $15/year and comes with the typical goodies.

Which preparedness lecture would you rather attend; the NGO lecture where you heard the same statistics and got a couple standard leaflets, or the seminar where the ZS members put on a great, fun show about how to survive when the living dead disrupt the delicate web of supply in your town and how you must try to be “The Last Girl” in a real life horror movie? They'd cover preparedness issues while keeping you strongly engaged in the show and giving you information that could mean life or death in a real disaster.

Their forums deal with standard survival issues, such as communication, as well as having one sub forum for personal survival experiences. Non-prepper family and friends can enjoy the Youtube video links and preparedness brochures from this site that mix preparedness with humor. The site is mostly G, with occasional forum posts going over into PG-13 for language.

We want to reach out to our non-prepper friends and neighbors, while keeping a low profile. Humor can do the job; it makes the subject less threatening for them and enables us to maintain some op sec as we are “only talking about crazy movies” not revealing ourselves quite so openly as preppers.

So go ahead, talk preparedness, just for laughs.

NRA Refuse To Be A Victim Class

Attention Montana preppers in SW Montana. There will be an NRA RTBAV class at the Lewis and Clark County Library (120S. Last Chance Gulch, Helena) on Wednesday,22Jul09 from 1830-2045. The class is free but it is requested that you call to register at least a week before the class so there will be enough student packets. Call the Library to register: 406.447.1690.

RTBAV is a class on crime prevention through awareness and good use of simple gadgetry. Guns are only mentioned as not being covered in this course. It is especially valuable in re: domestic violence issues and SHTF personal/family safety preparedness.

Here is a link to the NRA's FAQs for this course:

http://www.nrahq.org/RTBAV/rtbavfaq.asp


Hope to see you all there.

Dental Survival Kit

Most of us think of putting together a great medical kit for SHTF times. Few of us think of putting together a simple dental kit for hard times. I was a dental assistant for public health clinics, so I'd like to pass on some ideas for a dental kit that will see you and your family well through short term and long term disaster times. This is my opinion and does not constitute medical advice, use at your own risk, learn all you can ahead of time, etc. etc.

First, let's get one thing clear. Prevention of dental problems is much easier than having to deal with an infected or broken tooth. So this kit will emphasize prevention and secondarily cover dental treatment.

Your teeth are hard tissue, covered in an enamel that can easily stand heavy stresses. If you do a little preventative care. Everyone knows that you need to brush your teeth twice a day. Most know that you need to brush with a soft brush, with a gently "vibrating" motion by the gum line. It should take two minutes or more to brush your teeth properly.

For those with significant spaces between teeth or back tooth root exposure, use a proxabrush (available from any drugstore) to clean between teeth as well as floss elsewhere. Flossing should be done a minimum of twice weekly; Flossing motion is a "wipe/rub" on each side of the tooth; no snapping that bad boy floss in to teach the plaque germs a lesson.

Dealing with cavities post-TEOTWAWKI is relatively difficult and performing root canals will be out of the question. So head off problems today by using a prescription fluoride toothpaste a couple times a week. Brands include: Prevident, Ethedent, and Gelkam. All cost about $10 for a tube which will last for about 20 uses. Also, at least drink water after you have eaten candy or downed a soda. If your teeth are becoming sensitive to hot/cold or toothbrush pressure, one of these strong fluoride pastes could help. If the root of teeth start to become very abraded post-TEOTWAWKI, you can use the ART restoration listed in the references below or you could paint fluoride varnish on the abraded root surface (a very temporary solution).

Your teeth are held in place by a combination of gum tissue, ligaments, and bone, collectively, we'll call it the periodontal base. As we know from countless commercials, gum health is very important. Flossing is very helpful as is taking care of any tendencies to grind your teeth and not [tooth] brushing too hard. Using a good mouth wash, such as Listerine(r), a few times a week will help keep the germs knocked down. Remember to hold the mouthwash in your mouth for a little over thirty seconds. An alternative is to use hydrogen peroxide (1:1 with water) or collodial silver solution in the same manner.

Now to the treatment gear and supplies. The problems that you will need to deal with in a SHTF could be: crown pops off, filling drops out, tooth gets broken, brace bracket or wire comes off and has sharp edge remaining. In a TEOTWAWKI scenario, you might have to deal with: toothache or having to extract a tooth.

For a popped off crown or a lost filling, you could use one of the commercially available dental emergency kits that can be found at any drugstore. These usually include a little container of a zinc oxide-eugenol cement that can be used as a temporary cement or as a temporary filling material. Note that you must follow label directions carefully and you must not tempt fate: don't think that the patient can munch jerky or hard candy on these temporary fillings or on this crown recementing!

An alternative is to buy a product called Cavit-G and use it for replacing missing fillings. Cavit-G cost about $12 for a jar which would enable you to do several temporary fillings. Whatever agent you use to make temporary fillings, remember to do your best to make the filling "fit" by using a basic carver (see list of tools below) and using carbon paper to contour the filling so the patient is comfortable and the filling will be less likely to break.

If a tooth is broken, there will usually be associated facial injuries, and maybe neck/head injuries in the case of a bike wreck or fight injury. Use good first aid precautions in dealing with your patient. If a tooth is only chipped, a little chewing gum or orthodontic wax (available at drugstores) on the edge will help ward off cheek or lip injury.

If the tooth is fractured significantly, you need to decide if it is fractured into the dentin (most of the tooth is made of dentin) or if the fracture only affects the enamel. Take a sterile gauze and firmly wipe the fracture surface. If the tooth oozes blood and this step was painful, then the dentin is exposed. In this case, you would have the patient use the prescription toothpaste daily and avoid eating those great tasting but damaging to teeth foods such as soda, candy, and bananas. A coat of fluoride varnish would seal the dentin but won't stand up long on chewing surfaces.

If the tooth did not ooze blood, then caution the patient on diet, use orthodontic wax or gum on any rough edges and monitor the situation.

If a tooth is knocked out, common sense says to put it back where it came from. Handle the knocked out tooth only by the crown (the part we see in the mouth normally), rinse clean with sterile water, do not scrub the root or remove any tissue from it. Place the tooth gently back in its socket until it seats. The general rule is dentistry is: each minute the tooth is out of the socket is 1% less chance of successfully reimplanting it.

If the nearest dentist is under 20 tons of rubble, you can stabilize the tooth by splinting it. The procedure is to cement a piece of arch wire (get from your dentist) across the affected tooth and to the teeth on either side of it. Cyanoacrylate glue is acceptable for this, just remember that all surfaces must be dry first. Ensure that neither end of the wire is sharp or rough before cementing it in place. As always, get to a dentist as soon as possible.

If a tooth is broken and the pulp is exposed, you have a dental emergency. The patient will be in severe pain, will be at high risk of infection, and the tooth cannot be taken care of well in the field. If your dental kit has a zinc oxide-eugenol (ZOE) agent, this can be used to seal the pulp temporarily and this will help cut the risk of infection and relieve some pain. Even better would be to have Dycal available as this is part of the definitive treatment for an exposed pulp. It basically "scars" the area and seals the pulp from the outside world. It comes as a two tube set and costs about $45 for the set. You would then proceed to place a temporary restoration. See the reference list at the end of the article for further information.

Toothache can be dealt with empirically. You can try a pledget of cotton, soaked in eugenol (oil of cloves) on the painful tooth. It is a centuries old remedy for toothache. If a filling fell out or a crown came off and then the tooth ached, clean the area thoroughly and fix as per label directions for the commerical product. If the patient shows sensitivity to cold and tapping, not good. If patient is also sensitive to hot and/or there is fever and swelling, you need to seek a root canal doctor. But what if the nearest endodontist floated away, facedown an hour ago? Common sense says to deal with potential infection and keep the patient comfortable. In a prolonged, over a week SHTF scenario, you might have to consider extracting the offending tooth if the basic care outlined in references cited below does not work.

I will not be going into tooth extraction or gum boil care here. Read the references cited below and talk to your dentist.

Here is a basic dental kit that should see you and your group through common SHTF scenarios. Remember, this does not constitute medical or dental advice. It is a suggested kit for use only when no dentist is reasonably available.

Prevention
Prescription fluoride toothpaste, toothbrush for each member, toothpaste for each member with floss and floss holder, fluoride varnish (ampules would be best), mouthwash.

Tools
(diagnostic) dental mirror, dental explorer, periodontal probe ( is a "dental ruler" that lets you measure pockets around teeth, size of cavities, etc.), cotton pliers (also sold as college pliers; used for manipulating cotton or small items), minnesota retractor (for retracting the cheek or tongue, useful especially for child patients).

(for doing fillings) woodson (little "golf club" paddle at one end, little compactor at the other), dental mixing spatula, discoid-cleoid (for carving restorations to fit), small and large spoon excavator (clearing out old cement, etc. where you are going to fill), dycal instrument (placing filling/sealing materials in small amounts, precisely), pieces of carbon paper (ca 2"x1"), bayonet forceps ( also sold as: articulating paper holder. useful for ENT basic procedures also), mixing pad/slab (if needed for material you choose to stock).

(for extractions) Note that this instrument set will run over $1800.
Left and right apical elevators (1/each); #7 perio elevator (1); #150 and #151 extraction forceps (1/each); consider addition of cow horn, hawks beak and other molar forceps (#s 87,93, 18R, and 18L); Cryers elevators, one each, right and left. Surgical instrument as needed from wound care unit.

Dental Materials
several small (2-3mm) cotton balls, several cotton rolls (get from your dentist).

A commercial dental [filling] emergency kit and or an IRM set (liquid and powder for fabricating filling and temporarily cementing crowns. Costs about $60), [consider] Dycal (make sure you that a mixing pad comes with the two tubes of material and a dycal instrument for mixing/placing), orthodontic wax, two small pieces of arch wire (get from your dentist, preferrably from an orthodontist), bottle of oil of cloves (be careful, very irritating to eyes and skin!), Oragel or other dental [soft tissue] pain reliever.


Good luck with making your dental kit. Post-SHTF; may all your teeth stay cavity free, may your gums not bleed, and may trench mouth never develop amongst your group (hints: control stress reaction and quit smoking)!

References
http://www.noah-health.org/en/dentistry/procedures/emergency.html Good page of links for caring for dental emergencies.
http://www.hesperian.org/publications_download.php The site for the publisher of Where There is no Dentist and ...No Doctor, etc. The books are available as free PDFs online as well as for sale. ...Dentist is very useful for survivalists!
http://www.whocollab.od.mah.se/expl/art2.html Introduction to Autraumatic Restoration Technique (ART), a very useful method of doing semi-permanent restorations after SHTF.