Dental extractions using improvised equipment

Extracting a tooth is the final treatment for multiple dental problems. Persons who are not dentists, however, have little experience with tooth extractions. When a remote setting makes it impossible to send a patient for optimal dental treatment, the clinician may need to extract teeth, sometimes using improvised equipment. The following cases of two patients with three carious, painful molars describe such a situation. The non-dental clinicians had to improvise not only appropriate dental tools, but also personal protective equipment, a functional suction machine, medications for a dental block, a dental chair, and dental consent forms and follow-up instructions in the patients' language. In these cases, they also communicated with their patients through a translator. To prepare to do tooth extractions in remote settings, clinicians should learn and practice dental blocks and review extraction techniques before they deploy. If they must do an extraction, clinicians should use the closest approximation available to the appropriate dental tools. When done correctly, a dental extraction can take some time and should not be rushed.