Chilean Miners and Underground Toothaches

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past month, by now you've heard about the men trapped in a collapsed Chilean mine.  (Pun intended).  In case you haven't, let wikipedia catch you up on the story.

The gist of it is that one month ago the roof collapsed, leaving 33 men stuck 700 meters below the surface.  They have enough room and they seem to be pretty organized, having divided themselves into various groups in charge of care packages, security, and health.  Experts are predicting the men will likely be stuck until sometime in December.

After two weeks, contact was made via a small bore-hole and the men were able to communicate with the outside world and request supplies.  The first necessities they asked for were oxygen tanks and toothbrushes!  Hooray for healthy teeth! 

Unfortunately, with that many men stuck for that long, a couple of them have already developed toothaches.  Yikes.  According to the national emergency office, "...some of them have started to feel dental discomfort, on which the relevant treatment will be carried out."  I would imagine one of the next care packages they get will include some pain killers, anesthetic, extraction instruments, and a few pages of detailed instruction on how to remove a tooth.  I'd even throw in an Ipod with video clips demonstrating proper tooth removal!  Either way, my heart sure goes out to these men and I hope and pray this story has a happy ending.