D is for Dentistry
The yowl that Drip made when the tree thwacked him in the face was enough to stop everyone in the smokejumper team in their tracks…but it was the whimper that followed that really got Dynamites antenna up. A member of her team was hurt while working a fire and both training and instinct clicked into place as she gunned down the hill to see what support was needed.
Coming to a skidding stop in front of Drip it was easy to see what had caused the skid steer to cry out in pain, because even though the little vehicles mouth was clamped shut one of his teeth was laying on the ground in front of him. With a sign, Dynamite took a mental note of the time because the team had just entered a race against time. If they did the proper first aid and got Drip to Maru within an hour, there was a good chance that the tooth could be saved…if they didn't, well, the probability that the tooth would survive dropped significantly after that.
"Drip, we need to get your tooth into water." Dynamite stated with level of calm that hid the rush of adrenaline that had hit her with a rush.
"It won't fit…" Drip whimpered looked utterly dejected as he tried to force his knocked-out tooth into his canteen.
"Avalanche!"
"COMING!" The dozer thundered as crashed through the (and at least one small tree) to arrive next to Dynamite and started eyeing Drip "YES?"
"Avalanche, see if Drips tooth fits in your canteen." Dynamite waved a tire
"IT HAS COFFEE…" Avalanche started before a look from the smokejumper captain stopped his words in their tracks.
"Avalanche, dump out your coffee, put the water from Drips canteen in your canteen, then see if Drips tooth fits in your canteen."
"WILCO." This time Avalanche didn't argue and got to work, which gave Dynamite the opportunity to get on the horn with base.
"Maru, I have a time critical injury in bound." The captain called over the park's emergency channel.
"Understood." The mechanic's reply crackled over the radio. "What is the condition of the patient?"
"Drip knocked out a tooth."
There was a slight pause on the radio than Maru spoke with obvious relief. "When did the incident happen?"
"About 7 minutes ago?"
"Have you been able to keep the tooth wet?"
Dynamite glanced over at Avalanche who gave her a quick nod. "We were able to fit it into Avalanche's canteen."
"I guess it will do." Maru was clearly unhappy with that little development but there wasn't anything he from base. And at least the water in a canteen would do less damage to the tooth than leaving the root out to dry out or wrapping it up with a paper towel. "Alright, you are to far out to realistically hike back in within the treatment window. I will have Blade pull Windy off the fire line to facilitate a pickup at…" Maru paused clearly trying to locate a map of the park.
"Have them head to the Hanging Rock Trailhead for pick up." Cabbie saved everyone time by interjecting.
"Hanging Rock Trailhead, it is…" Maru paused. "Windy copy that."
"Windlifter Copies." The Skycrane's reply, was instantly followed by the sound of his engines going to fully power as he pulled out.
Getting Drip back to base went fairly seamlessly. Avalanche lead the smokejumper team on the fireline, while Dynamite escorted Drip to the pick up point, waited with him until Windlifter arrived, and then made sure that the canteen with the tooth was properly secured before they took off because after all of this work she wasn't going to let Drip accidently drop his tooth on the way back to base. Once at base, Maru was able extract the tooth from the canteen, give it a quick clean and 38 minutes after Drip had knocked it out the mechanic was able to return the tooth to its proper spot.
"Alright…" Maru rolled back as he looked at his handy work. "I think we got it in quickly enough to save the tooth, but we will have to let an actual dentist be the final judge of that." Drip gave the mechanic an inquisitive look which caused him to explain further. "You need a x-ray to make sure everything seated correctly, plus I suspect that some antibiotics will be involved. The mouth after all can be a nasty place to develop an injury, so Cabbie is going to fly you into town this afternoon to see an actual dentist and get everything squared away."
Content with the answer Drip settled in for the wait because it was rapidly becoming clear that today was going to be a very, very long day.
Term- Dentistry- Dentistry is the medical profession dedicated to the care of the mouth. While practicing dentistry usually requires a degree in dentistry, medical professionals are sometimes allowed to perform some emergency procedures if the patient is in location too remote to allow them to access a dentist in a timely enough manner…but when that happens it usually requires a trip to the dentist as quickly as it can be arranged.