Dental Health & Dental Procedures
Did you know that by the age of 4 most dogs and cats have developed some degree of dental disease?
Initial stages of gum disease (gingivitis) can be completely reversed with proper cleaning and at home oral care (I.E with daily brushing, dental chews, and dental diets) .
For a proper full cleaning and assessment of the dental disease, anesthesia is required. This allows us to safely look at every angle of your pets teeth without causing them any further stress or pain.
But what about anesthesia free dental cleanings??
We believe that non-professional anesthesia free cleaning is a substandard service and infact it is illegal to perform in many states.
You can read more about this practice on the AB-VMA website.
Initial stages of gum disease (gingivitis) can be completely reversed with proper cleaning and at home oral care (I.E with daily brushing, dental chews, and dental diets) .
For a proper full cleaning and assessment of the dental disease, anesthesia is required. This allows us to safely look at every angle of your pets teeth without causing them any further stress or pain.
But what about anesthesia free dental cleanings??
We believe that non-professional anesthesia free cleaning is a substandard service and infact it is illegal to perform in many states.
You can read more about this practice on the AB-VMA website.
What happens during my pets dental procedure??
After one of our lovely RVTS goes through the intake process with you, your pet is brought to the treatment area to begin prepping for their surgery. This starts off by getting their updated weight, and having an RVT take their heart rate, respiration rate, and temperature. After this your pets surgeon or DVM will come and do the physical exam for your pet, and then your pet will have their blood drawn and ran by one of our highly skilled RVTs before we proceed with their dental procedure.
While we wait for the bloodwork to run your pet is set up in their house for the day by one of our kind & caring assistants who always assure that all of your pets needs are met! This includes playing calming & relaxing music, and using calming spray products such as Adaptil & Feliway to help reduce stress while they wait, and providing them with a "hideaway home" if needed. We always encourage and welcome you to bring in things from home to keep your pet more comfortable in their home for the day such as favorite toys or blankets!
Once all of your pets blood results are back they are review by the veterinarian who gives the final go ahead to proceed with the dental! If there are any concerns with the bloodwork at this time, the DVM will call to further discuss the results with you before proceeding.
Once your pet is nicely sleeping, they are hooked up to several different monitoring devices that consistently monitor things such as their heart rate, blood pressure, oxygenation levels, and respirations for us in between manual vital sign checks by an RVT during the entire procedure.
We begin by taking full mouth dental X-rays and performing any dental blocks needed if there are any extractions. While the dental blocks set in, an RVT will begin probing, scaling and polishing ever tooth in your pets mouth, inside & out!! Once scaling & polishing is complete, if extractions are needed the DVM will step in and perform this final part of the procedure.
After your pet is awake and has recovered, their assigned RVT will give you a call to let you know how everything went, and to give you a pick-up time!
Please be prepared and know that your pet will be in the clinic for the majority of the day, as even after their surgery is finished we need to keep them in clinic to monitor them during their first few hours of recovery.
While we wait for the bloodwork to run your pet is set up in their house for the day by one of our kind & caring assistants who always assure that all of your pets needs are met! This includes playing calming & relaxing music, and using calming spray products such as Adaptil & Feliway to help reduce stress while they wait, and providing them with a "hideaway home" if needed. We always encourage and welcome you to bring in things from home to keep your pet more comfortable in their home for the day such as favorite toys or blankets!
Once all of your pets blood results are back they are review by the veterinarian who gives the final go ahead to proceed with the dental! If there are any concerns with the bloodwork at this time, the DVM will call to further discuss the results with you before proceeding.
Once your pet is nicely sleeping, they are hooked up to several different monitoring devices that consistently monitor things such as their heart rate, blood pressure, oxygenation levels, and respirations for us in between manual vital sign checks by an RVT during the entire procedure.
We begin by taking full mouth dental X-rays and performing any dental blocks needed if there are any extractions. While the dental blocks set in, an RVT will begin probing, scaling and polishing ever tooth in your pets mouth, inside & out!! Once scaling & polishing is complete, if extractions are needed the DVM will step in and perform this final part of the procedure.
After your pet is awake and has recovered, their assigned RVT will give you a call to let you know how everything went, and to give you a pick-up time!
Please be prepared and know that your pet will be in the clinic for the majority of the day, as even after their surgery is finished we need to keep them in clinic to monitor them during their first few hours of recovery.
Before cleaning |
After cleaning
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Dental health is becoming more and more prevalent as the quality of care for our pets improves. There is still a huge number of cats and dogs with some form of dental disease, but we hope to bring this number down by educating owners on the importance of looking after your furry friend's smile.
We have found that the most important questions get brought up all the time by clients so the easiest way to tell you about dental care in your pet is to let you read the following frequently asked questions.
We welcome you to call or email us if you have any questions that are not answered here, or if you have some specific concerns about your cat or dogs teeth!
FAQS
Why are dentals so expensive?
-It's true, expect to pay more for your pet's dental cleaning than your own. If dogs and cats brushed their teeth twice a day, flossed, and laid back on a chair with their mouth nicely open while we cleaned and polished their teeth every 6-12 months, it would cost the same as your dental cleaning!
Unfortunately, this isn't quite how animals work.
In order to do a thorough cleaning and polishing, your cat or dog has to be put under general anesthesia. The morning your pet is dropped off, the DVM does a pre-anesthetic exam to make sure everything checks out ok before doing anything else. Pre-anesthetic bloodwork is run in-house, and medications are carfully chosen and calculated and are given via an injection to sedate your pet and help ease the transition into anesthesia. Once they are at an appropriate level of sedation, an IV catheter is placed. The IV catheter is extremely important as it allows for fluids to be given during and after the dental and in the event of emergency, life-saving drugs. Your pet will be intubated which means a tube is placed into their trachea to allow them to be connected to the anesthesia machine. Once under anesthesia, your cat or dog is connected to numerous monitoring devices and of course, the technician or the veterinarian physically monitor and record all the vitals the entire time. Every single tooth is then probed, charted and examined. If the teeth are normal, they are cleaned with an ultrasonic scaler (Including under the gumline, this is the most important part of dental cleanings!) and then polished. If extractions are needed, a local block is given so your cat or dog does not feel the pain and is able to then be maintained at a lower level of anesthetic. The doctor will make use of the dental drill, elevators and gingival flaps to extract the entire tooth. He then sutures the gums closed to speed up the healing process and avoid food and debris from becoming stuck in the hole where the tooth was extracted from. Once everything is complete, the anesthesia is turned off and the RVT will stay with your pet until they are able to be extubated (Have the breathing tube removed from their trachea) and are awake.
If needed, pain medications will be prescribed and filled in clinic for you to take home.
Sounds a little bit more involved than our own dental cleanings doesn't it?! Many clients are not aware of how much is involved with a pets dental, so they don't realize how it can cost so much more than their own. We are more than happy to explain why since we want you to understand the value in what we do to maintain your friend's smile!
My pet eats his food just fine, why does he need a dental?
- At a dental conference Dr.Nick attended, the speaker answered this question in such a great way that we often reference it. He said " If the choice is between eating with pain, or not eating at all, what do you think your pet is going to choose?" The drive to survive is much stronger than starving to death. Pets are masters at hiding pain, simply because to show weakness is to put yourself in danger in their world. We have heard many times from owners after their pet's dental that they are acting years younger, playing more, eating better, and are overall acting much happier!
Dental disease is something that takes time to develop so we don't always notice the slow and subtle changes in our pet's demeanor or may chalk it up to old age. Don't let your pet fool you- if you or your veterinarian notice an unhealthy mouth, help him or her out by letting us make it feel better!
My pet is young and their teeth aren't that bad. Can I wait before booking a dental cleaning?
-You may have heard the old adage "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". This is certainly true when it comes to dental cleanings. If your veterinarian recommends a dental cleaning during an exam, the sooner you are able to book your pet in, the better. We understand that cost can be an issue but we like people to know that it is much less expensive to do a routine prophylactic cleaning than to put it off for years and end up with numerous dental extractions. Not only do you wind up paying more but your pet then has to be under anesthesia longer as well having a longer healing time. This isn't to say that even the most diligent of owners will never have a pet that will need extractions over it's lifetime. Some breeds are genetically predisposed to having "bad teeth" but by doing regular cleanings, you will certainly prolong the health of the mouth (and thus your pet's overall health!).
How will my pet eat if you have to pull teeth?
- The answer to this is pretty straightforward- if the tooth was bad enough that we had to pull it, chances are they were not using it to chew with anyways. Think about it, if you had a tooth that was abscessed, loose, and hurt every time you bit down on something you would soon learn to chew on the other side of your mouth or you would swallow your food with very minimal chewing. Many cats and dogs don't chew their food and simply swallow it whole. Lots of owner's have seen their pets do this even if they have healthy mouths! Your pet will be much happier with a mouth free from pain than it would trying to use teeth that hurt.
My pet is really old and I don't want to put him/her under anesthesia for a dental.
-This isn't so much of a question as a very common statement we hear from owners every day, and it is certainly understandable. We see our senior dog or cat creaking about the house and think the anesthesia will push them over the edge, that they have made it this far and why would we put them through the ordeal? It's true, anesthesia does involve risks, the same as it does for people. That is why we are extremely careful when any pet comes in for any procedure. We talk about the details of safety precautions during dentals in another section but the main takeaway point here is that by avoiding a dental for your elderly friend, you are actually doing them a disservice by allowing them to live the remainder of their life in discomfort and/or pain. Not only that, but if your cat or dog has a mouth full of calculus and infection, bacteria is constantly being infiltrated into their bloodstream. This bacteria can lead to serious heart, liver and kidney disease and actually end up shortening their lifespan!
I've heard about anesthesia-free dentals, why don't you do that here?
-You may have read about anesthesia-free dentals but these actually do a lot more harm than good. This is something marketed by some groomers and breeders and basically involves scraping the visible debris off the surface of the teeth. The major problem with this is that you are left with seemingly clean teeth, however, now all of the bacteria that lives under the gums is hidden and can work its way to the root of the tooth and cause an abscess. Only the cheek-facing surfaces of the teeth are able to be scraped which means all of the tongue-facing surfaces are left untouched. Finally, this technique leaves a rough surface to the tooth so it becomes a breeding ground for new bacteria to aggregate to even faster. Dogs and cats that we have seen after an anesthesia-free dental have much worse teeth than had it been left to a professional.
My pet just had a dental 2 years ago, why does he/she need another one?
- We understand that if you spent a fair amount of money a couple of years ago, you expect it to last! Just like our own mouths, dental care for your pet is an ongoing process. People brush and floss every single day but they are still advised to see a dental hygienist on a regular basis for a thorough cleaning. This shouldn't discourage you from having a dental done for your cat or dog. It should be something that you can budget for by setting aside a little bit each month so when the time comes that the vet says "Fido needs a dental cleaning" it will already be anticipated and you can have it done sooner rather than later.
Animals naturally have bad breath, don't they?
- I know, the term "doggy breath" is commonly heard! Your pet most likely won't have minty fresh breath, but it should not make you want to gag either. A healthy pet mouth should smell neutral. Foul or offensive breath can indicate that there is an excessive amount of bacteria living in the mouth. This could be from something minor, like plaque build-up or it could range all the way to pus and infection from a rotten, abscessed tooth. Whatever the reason, your pet's kisses should not make you nauseous!
I've just had my pet's teeth cleaned. How can I keep them that way?
- We love this question because it means you really care about the health of your friend's teeth! The gold standard is to brush their teeth 1-2 times a day with a pet friendly toothpaste and toothbrush. This is something we are always happy to demonstrate for you if you are unsure on how to go about it. Another great option we recommend is to feed a veterinary prescription dental diet. These kibbles are formulated in a very special way to clean the teeth as they are chewed and are very different than regular kibbles. Be mindful to purchase these diets at your veterinarian clinic as the store brand dental kibbles are not designed in the same manner and can sometimes cause damage to teeth. Dental chews that display the VOHC seal of approval are also a great choice to give to your pet to help keep their teeth clean and provide enjoyment while doing so.
We have found that the most important questions get brought up all the time by clients so the easiest way to tell you about dental care in your pet is to let you read the following frequently asked questions.
We welcome you to call or email us if you have any questions that are not answered here, or if you have some specific concerns about your cat or dogs teeth!
FAQS
Why are dentals so expensive?
-It's true, expect to pay more for your pet's dental cleaning than your own. If dogs and cats brushed their teeth twice a day, flossed, and laid back on a chair with their mouth nicely open while we cleaned and polished their teeth every 6-12 months, it would cost the same as your dental cleaning!
Unfortunately, this isn't quite how animals work.
In order to do a thorough cleaning and polishing, your cat or dog has to be put under general anesthesia. The morning your pet is dropped off, the DVM does a pre-anesthetic exam to make sure everything checks out ok before doing anything else. Pre-anesthetic bloodwork is run in-house, and medications are carfully chosen and calculated and are given via an injection to sedate your pet and help ease the transition into anesthesia. Once they are at an appropriate level of sedation, an IV catheter is placed. The IV catheter is extremely important as it allows for fluids to be given during and after the dental and in the event of emergency, life-saving drugs. Your pet will be intubated which means a tube is placed into their trachea to allow them to be connected to the anesthesia machine. Once under anesthesia, your cat or dog is connected to numerous monitoring devices and of course, the technician or the veterinarian physically monitor and record all the vitals the entire time. Every single tooth is then probed, charted and examined. If the teeth are normal, they are cleaned with an ultrasonic scaler (Including under the gumline, this is the most important part of dental cleanings!) and then polished. If extractions are needed, a local block is given so your cat or dog does not feel the pain and is able to then be maintained at a lower level of anesthetic. The doctor will make use of the dental drill, elevators and gingival flaps to extract the entire tooth. He then sutures the gums closed to speed up the healing process and avoid food and debris from becoming stuck in the hole where the tooth was extracted from. Once everything is complete, the anesthesia is turned off and the RVT will stay with your pet until they are able to be extubated (Have the breathing tube removed from their trachea) and are awake.
If needed, pain medications will be prescribed and filled in clinic for you to take home.
Sounds a little bit more involved than our own dental cleanings doesn't it?! Many clients are not aware of how much is involved with a pets dental, so they don't realize how it can cost so much more than their own. We are more than happy to explain why since we want you to understand the value in what we do to maintain your friend's smile!
My pet eats his food just fine, why does he need a dental?
- At a dental conference Dr.Nick attended, the speaker answered this question in such a great way that we often reference it. He said " If the choice is between eating with pain, or not eating at all, what do you think your pet is going to choose?" The drive to survive is much stronger than starving to death. Pets are masters at hiding pain, simply because to show weakness is to put yourself in danger in their world. We have heard many times from owners after their pet's dental that they are acting years younger, playing more, eating better, and are overall acting much happier!
Dental disease is something that takes time to develop so we don't always notice the slow and subtle changes in our pet's demeanor or may chalk it up to old age. Don't let your pet fool you- if you or your veterinarian notice an unhealthy mouth, help him or her out by letting us make it feel better!
My pet is young and their teeth aren't that bad. Can I wait before booking a dental cleaning?
-You may have heard the old adage "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". This is certainly true when it comes to dental cleanings. If your veterinarian recommends a dental cleaning during an exam, the sooner you are able to book your pet in, the better. We understand that cost can be an issue but we like people to know that it is much less expensive to do a routine prophylactic cleaning than to put it off for years and end up with numerous dental extractions. Not only do you wind up paying more but your pet then has to be under anesthesia longer as well having a longer healing time. This isn't to say that even the most diligent of owners will never have a pet that will need extractions over it's lifetime. Some breeds are genetically predisposed to having "bad teeth" but by doing regular cleanings, you will certainly prolong the health of the mouth (and thus your pet's overall health!).
How will my pet eat if you have to pull teeth?
- The answer to this is pretty straightforward- if the tooth was bad enough that we had to pull it, chances are they were not using it to chew with anyways. Think about it, if you had a tooth that was abscessed, loose, and hurt every time you bit down on something you would soon learn to chew on the other side of your mouth or you would swallow your food with very minimal chewing. Many cats and dogs don't chew their food and simply swallow it whole. Lots of owner's have seen their pets do this even if they have healthy mouths! Your pet will be much happier with a mouth free from pain than it would trying to use teeth that hurt.
My pet is really old and I don't want to put him/her under anesthesia for a dental.
-This isn't so much of a question as a very common statement we hear from owners every day, and it is certainly understandable. We see our senior dog or cat creaking about the house and think the anesthesia will push them over the edge, that they have made it this far and why would we put them through the ordeal? It's true, anesthesia does involve risks, the same as it does for people. That is why we are extremely careful when any pet comes in for any procedure. We talk about the details of safety precautions during dentals in another section but the main takeaway point here is that by avoiding a dental for your elderly friend, you are actually doing them a disservice by allowing them to live the remainder of their life in discomfort and/or pain. Not only that, but if your cat or dog has a mouth full of calculus and infection, bacteria is constantly being infiltrated into their bloodstream. This bacteria can lead to serious heart, liver and kidney disease and actually end up shortening their lifespan!
I've heard about anesthesia-free dentals, why don't you do that here?
-You may have read about anesthesia-free dentals but these actually do a lot more harm than good. This is something marketed by some groomers and breeders and basically involves scraping the visible debris off the surface of the teeth. The major problem with this is that you are left with seemingly clean teeth, however, now all of the bacteria that lives under the gums is hidden and can work its way to the root of the tooth and cause an abscess. Only the cheek-facing surfaces of the teeth are able to be scraped which means all of the tongue-facing surfaces are left untouched. Finally, this technique leaves a rough surface to the tooth so it becomes a breeding ground for new bacteria to aggregate to even faster. Dogs and cats that we have seen after an anesthesia-free dental have much worse teeth than had it been left to a professional.
My pet just had a dental 2 years ago, why does he/she need another one?
- We understand that if you spent a fair amount of money a couple of years ago, you expect it to last! Just like our own mouths, dental care for your pet is an ongoing process. People brush and floss every single day but they are still advised to see a dental hygienist on a regular basis for a thorough cleaning. This shouldn't discourage you from having a dental done for your cat or dog. It should be something that you can budget for by setting aside a little bit each month so when the time comes that the vet says "Fido needs a dental cleaning" it will already be anticipated and you can have it done sooner rather than later.
Animals naturally have bad breath, don't they?
- I know, the term "doggy breath" is commonly heard! Your pet most likely won't have minty fresh breath, but it should not make you want to gag either. A healthy pet mouth should smell neutral. Foul or offensive breath can indicate that there is an excessive amount of bacteria living in the mouth. This could be from something minor, like plaque build-up or it could range all the way to pus and infection from a rotten, abscessed tooth. Whatever the reason, your pet's kisses should not make you nauseous!
I've just had my pet's teeth cleaned. How can I keep them that way?
- We love this question because it means you really care about the health of your friend's teeth! The gold standard is to brush their teeth 1-2 times a day with a pet friendly toothpaste and toothbrush. This is something we are always happy to demonstrate for you if you are unsure on how to go about it. Another great option we recommend is to feed a veterinary prescription dental diet. These kibbles are formulated in a very special way to clean the teeth as they are chewed and are very different than regular kibbles. Be mindful to purchase these diets at your veterinarian clinic as the store brand dental kibbles are not designed in the same manner and can sometimes cause damage to teeth. Dental chews that display the VOHC seal of approval are also a great choice to give to your pet to help keep their teeth clean and provide enjoyment while doing so.
