Dentistry in space

Skylab inflight medical supplies support system including a dental kit.

Artistic depiction of a manned Mars mission. The long flight will also require to rethink current protocols for maintaining oral health of astronauts.

During the Skylab space station missions, astronauts also had dental emergency equipment to their disposal.

Skylab 2 Commander Charles Conrad submits to a dental examination by Medical Officer Joseph Kerwin in the Skylab Medical Facility.

Toothbrush and toothpaste floating in a sky deck of a Shuttle orbiter.

Austronauts can choose oral health care equipment to their liking. This photo shows a toothbrush and toothpaste in front of mission specialist Barbara Morgan on the flight deck of Shuttle Endeavour.

Orbiter Atlantis at pre-launch. The last mission of America's Space Shuttle Programme took place in July 2011.

Dr. Michael D. Hodapp served as a contractor for NASA between 1994 and 2004.

Russian cosmonaut Yury Viktorovich Romanenko (bottom right) with crew members of Soyuz 38. He suffered from tooth pain during a mission.

Toothpaste and floss were added during the Apollo missions. This famous photograph by fellow crew member Neil Armstrong shows Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin during his first walk on the moon.

Lt. Cmdr. Chris Cassidy in preparations for a Shuttle mission to the International Space Station in 2009. Astronauts serving on the ISS need to have excellent oral health.

One of Aldrin's two toothbrushes was recently auctioned for more than US$20,000.

President Obama holding a speech to Nasa staff at the Kennedy Space Center in 2009. Future mission will lead humans to planets like mars.

Payload specialist Chiaki Mukai squeezes toothpaste from a tube which proceeds to float in zero gravity.

Launch of Gemini 6 in 1965. During the missions, astronauts first carried toothbrushes into space.