A nationwide survey conducted by Dental Town found that about 20% of respondents include oral care products in their emergency kits, while about 90% do not know in detail how to brush their teeth during a water outage.
Dental Town conducted this nationwide survey online from 21 July to 4 September 2026 among patients looking for dental clinics. There were 364 valid responses.
Only 23.1% of respondents, or about 20%, included oral care products in their emergency kits. Meanwhile, 50.0% did not include them, and 22.5% had not prepared an emergency kit at all. The results indicated that oral care products tend to be given lower priority than water, emergency food and flashlights.
The oral care products most commonly included were toothbrushes at 33.8%, toothpaste at 27.2%, mouthwash at 13.5%, dental floss and interdental brushes at 9.9%, and dental cleaning wipes at 8.2%. Of respondents, 87.3% said they did not know in detail how to brush their teeth when water was unavailable, while only 12.6% said they knew how or had tried it.
Regarding future preparedness, 50.8% said they wanted to prepare going forward and 29.7% said they wanted to prepare if the opportunity arose, for a combined total of 80.5%. More than 80% therefore expressed a willingness to prepare.