Dental Marvels in NASA
In 1973 the Skylab space travels began marking the start of manned space flights into earth orbit and during this time the astronauts relied on different modern dental equipment as they proceeded with their journey.
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.
Three man crews were sent into space from 28 to 56 days during the Skylab program and on all of the three flights launched during this period modern dental equipment was utilized.
The limitation for the dental equipment during the Skylab project was that only outpatient based ailments could be given the necessary medical attention as one military dentist confides.
On the other hand the equipment still did not act simply as a buddy kit or a do it yourself kit.
The design for the dental component relied heavily on the statistic that there is a one percent risk that dental treatment may be required during the 28 days that the three man crew will spend in space.
The dental risks consist of situations where dental problems may lead to a decreased effectiveness for the astronaut who may be experiencing pulpitis or even periodontal abscess.
Dental assistance may be required for more minor reasons like chipped teeth and the probability for these ranks to five percent.
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.
When it comes to the Air Force den corps they were able to contribute much for the IMSS equipment by making specially formulated restoration material that met in flight specifications.
The Air Force made it possible for this not to need any 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.
Other than the training programs a manual will be provided for the space vehicle to serve as a guide for all crew members and this manual will have detailed instructions on procedures, information Cialis Professional on diagnosis, and images sourced from personal radiographs illustrating each one’s oral structure.
There will always be a dentist available in mission control equipped with all the materials that may be needed by the astronauts from oral casts to files containing narrative summaries of all dental procedures done to astronauts since 1966.
Ground control will always have a say especially when it comes to dental procedures on board space vehicles and so there is a need for constant communication between the two parties.
It is only fair to say that the availability of such dental equipment especially designed for space expeditions and accompanying training programs are not enough for some people to have complete faith in the idea of non dentists performing procedures.
But incapacitating dental pain experienced by a crewman aboard the space ship could threaten a space mission costing hundreds of millions of dollars, and could have threatened one of the Skylab missions, a loss that probably could not be accepted up to this decade.
There has been much debate on the program and so they have agreed upon resorting to the procedures if there are no other options left.
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