Dental Disease
Dental disease is the most common problem we see with pets on their yearly physical exams. Owners are usually surprised at the amount of tartar their pet has. Most owners do not commonly look in their pet's mouth to check the teeth. Tartar, gingivitis, broken teeth, periodontal disease, and growths are very common in the mouths of middle-aged and older pets.
We recommend you check the mouth regularly and, if your pet will allow it, brush the teeth. Most of the disease we find is farther back in the mouth, so make sure you inspect the back teeth. We also recommend regular dental cleanings to prevent further disease caused by the infection in the mouth.
You can view a detailed dental procedure here.
- Broken upper premolar -
a common dental problem
A common concern that owners have about dental cleanings is that to do a good job at cleaning the teeth, the pet has to be anesthetized. Most dogs and cats that need dental cleanings are older, so the question that is commonly asked is "is my pet too old to be anesthetized for a dental cleaning?" The majority of dog's and cat's we do dental work on are older. We usually do several dental procedures every week day. With the use of specialized anesthesia protocols and the newer monitoring equipment, we can anesthetize older pets safely.
- We can do preoperative lab work to make sure the organs are working fine prior to anesthesia.
- We monitor your pet’s ECG, CO2, O2, and blood pressure to make any adjustments in anesthesia, as needed during the procedure.
- We can use intravenous fluids to maintain good blood pressure and kidney circulation during their dental cleaning.
- We have a large resource of drugs available to manage pain if more extensive dental work is done.
- severe gum disease
So in summary, there is a risk with anesthesia, but with the advancements in anesthesia and monitoring, this risk is very, very slight. The only other alternative to avoiding dental work is to let your pet get a progressively painful, infected mouth that will affect the other organ systems and be more likely than anesthesia to shorten your pet's life.
We do dental work on weekdays. Owners bring them to the hospital in the morning, and the pets are kept for most of the day and sent home in the afternoon or evening of the same day.
You can expect that your pet may need to have several professional dental cleanings in his or her lifetime. The frequency of these cleanings is highly dependent on the individual dog, or cat, his diet, and home dental care. Small breeds are more susceptible to dental disease and may require more frequent dental appointments.
- Our Digital Dental