Recently, while I was sitting at the orthodontist waiting for my kid’s braces to finally get removed, I began to think about “what if SHTF” and I we didn’t have an orthodontist (or dentist) readily available who know what to do with such things?
After all, I don’t have a clue how all that orthodontics gear works and since my youngest still has many years of orthodontics to go, I should probably get a clue. I know the braces are cemented in there somehow but besides that I’m sure I would do more harm than good if I tried to do any of it off on my own, let alone try to keep their teeth properly aligned either… that won’t happen at all, lol.
SHTF Problem #1: Your Teeth
You’d be surprised but in a truly long-term SHTF situation teeth may be a much bigger problem for many people than they realize.
Besides just having cavities, who knows what types of additional–and sometimes very serious–problems you might encounter, here’s a few I can think of:
- Abscess teeth. I’d wrote an article a long time ago about how it killed my wife’s uncle. It’s a much bigger problem than most realize and can lead to a variety of serious health problems.
- Crowns that come out. This would leave the root uncomfortably exposed and probably indicates a much bigger problem. While the usual SHTF remedy for “bad teeth” is to just pull it, that might not be as easy with a crown removed and probably rather painful I’d imagine.
- Orthodontics, various appliances. Really, anytime you’re in the middle of a process that takes years to complete, I’m guessing you’d also need the knowledge to know if it’s working properly and I’m also guessing that you could quickly do more harm than good. My gut-reaction is to remove the braces (or whatever) but, again, I don’t know how.
I’m sure there are more significant problems to be aware of here and while I have various extraction tools I do wonder how useful they may be with crowns, for instance. And considering that an abscess tooth is such a problem it would be a good idea to have appropriate antibiotics.
SHTF Problem #2: Birth And Babies
This is another big concern that many of us could have but not even consider until that “surprise” hits us. Obviously, this can be minimized by having and using appropriate protection, though, there will still be plenty of instances where people will have babies post-SHTF, wanted or otherwise.
Now, women have been having babies for as long as humanity has been around and doing so relatively successfully, the process isn’t without it’s complications to say the least.
And, of course, while most people choose a hospital with all of the medical benefits… they just won’t be available or accessible in a long-term situation. About the only solution would be to befriend an OBGYN or midwife and hope for the best. Lucky for me I’m married to a midwife. 🙂
Besides concern for the baby, such as being able to resuscitate them, complications with the mother are just as serious, especially hemorrhage. Both of these problems may result in death if you don’t have a knowledgeable resource to take charge and even then the worst may happen simply because they didn’t have appropriate drugs or equipment.
Again, having babies is no joke (and fraught with many serious complications besides what I mentioned above) in good times with all of the support structure we have in place. Afterwards we’re back to hoping and praying of the best.
I won’t get into potential complications with newborns as I don’t know about these types of problems to offer any sound advice.
SHTF Problem #3: Pets
Most of us have little idea what to do when we run out of pet food and, more important, may find ourselves torn between feeding our pets from our dwindling food storage foods or not. Granted, many of us may not be torn at all and simply just feed our pets as if they’re our children. 😉
I do wonder just how well most pets (and I’m thinking of dogs and cats mostly) will do with a significant change of diet from their typical dog or cat food to all human food? I’d suspect they will manage somehow.
What about potential medical issues? Again, if there’s no vet about the best we can do is to care for them as if they’re human and then hope for the best.
For us, we have a dog and then also guinea pigs who, sadly, would be the bigger problem because they eat mostly vegetables, hay, and pellets. As much as I really like them they probably won’t last long post-SHTF.
Anyway, what problems can you think of? What SHTF concerns would you have that you may not have thought about?
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