Do you have a dental kit for your bug-out bag? I’ve seen a lot of great bug-out bags loaded up with all manner of tacti-cool gear, tiny first aid kits stuffed into Altoid tins, and ultralight camping supplies. That’s wonderful and all, but where’s the dental kit?
For new preppers, a bug-out bag (BOB) holds the supplies you need to evacuate from your primary location to your (presumably safe) secondary location. Your bag is intended to get you from Point A to Point B.
Your Bug Out Bag Needs a Dental Kit
Since you aren’t living long-term out of your BOB, you may not think that dental supplies are as important as other supplies, like a good knife or paracord. After all, what’re a few days without brushing your teeth going to hurt, right?
Mouth pain is no joke. Imagine you ended up with some food stuck between your teeth. I find that wildly irritating and have to get it out. Otherwise, the gum swells, becomes tender, and sometimes bleeds. Food can stay stuck there, rotting, causing bacteria to breed like rabbits. Next thing you know, you have an infection.
If you think mouth pain is miserable now, imagine it post-SHTF, with no access to a local pharmacy and no local dentist. Why deal with that, when simple brushing and flossing can dislodge that bit of beef jerky from your teeth?
Here’s another example for you. You are bugging out, and while eating, a cap breaks off or a filling comes out. If you have the right supplies, you can fix that and get on with your bug out. Hopefully, there is a dentist where you are going. And hopefully, that dentist’s office and still has power. But, imagine having to finish your bug out with an open cavity in your mouth.
You could fall and end up with a wound in your mouth, lose a tooth, or a half-dozen other things that are prevented by regular, daily dental hygiene. If this is going to be a long-term bug out, daily hygiene becomes even more important to prevent cavities, gum disease, and infections.
Dollar Store Dental Preps
Everyone gets strapped for cash once in a while. Some of us pinch pennies more often than others. While wholesale clubs and buying in bulk may give you the best deal for your dollar, not everyone has the cash up front to pay for a 5-pack of family-sized toothpaste. Never mind that the family-size toothpaste is way too big for a bug out bag anyway.
While I have dental kits for our family’s emergency bags already, I decided to try a dollar store prepping experiment.
First, I would raid my local dollar and discount stores for dental hygiene supplies.
Second, I would make dental kits out of these supplies suitable for a 72-hour bag.
Third, I needed to keep the cost of each individual kit under $10
Shopping Trip for Dental Preps
The first store I went to was Dollar Zone. I spent $10 and bought a bunch of stuff. I wasn’t able to find everything here. But, I did pick up some important items, plus a couple of non-dental items because I couldn’t pass them up.
Items purchased at Dollar Zone:
3-pack of toothbrushes and travel cases, 2 packages
Dental floss, 4 containers
Dental instrument kit (mirror, explorer, probe, flossers, etc)
3-pack of wet wipes (so many hygiene uses for these)
Antibiotic cream (not dental, but went into my general supplies)
My Dollar Zone total was $9.50 with tax. I would have picked up toothpaste here, but they had no small tubes of toothpaste at all. Everything was just too large to make sense in a bug out bag.
Next, I went to Family Dollar. This technically isn’t a “dollar store” where everything in the store costs just a buck. But, it’s a discount store that’s very similar. I made a couple of cool finds here.
Items purchased at Family Dollar:
Toothpaste, 4 small tubes for $2.50 each
Temporary repair kit for fillings and caps for $3
Orajel, Double Medicated, for $3
Antiseptic mouthwash, $1
Total Family Dollar total was $18.06 with tax. The receipt also had a $5 coupon off a purchase of $25 this coming Saturday only. There were a bunch of other items there perfect for budget prepping, from bug out bags to food storage to first aid kits. I will make another dollar store prepping trip this Saturday, and let you know what cool preps I find.
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