Seriously: send a drone. Why? Because:
Turns out even celebrated wizards have to poop in a ditch.
Seriously. Going back in time means, among other things, that you are going to be dealing with unacceptably primitive dentistry. Doesn’t matter if you’re traveling to 48 BC, 1925 AD, or last month: the dentists are going to be horrible, as compared to right this moment. And if you go to the future to enjoy the glorious dentistry of 2346 AD, you’re probably going to end up dying of whatever horrible space flu that’s been busily breeding itself in the interim*. Just send back a probe, or something. That’ll get you most of the stuff that you wanted from the trip anyway, and you won’t die of either an abscessed tooth, or Pluto’s Revenge.
Moe Lane
*You’d think more people would do stories about protagonists who go to the future and then promptly get sick from all the hyper-evolved viruses that have spawned as a result of the antibiotic wars. Then again, spending valuable wordcount on mega-dysentery is probably ill-advised.
That, or be a Connecticut Yankee. Seriously, a good engineer would/will be priceless in either the past *or* the coming apocalypse.