Pet Dental Care
Dental care for your pet’s teeth increases the quality of life of your pet!
Dental disease is one of the most common medical conditions seen by veterinarians. Over 68% of dogs over the age of three are estimated to have some form of periodontal or dental disease. Few pets show signs of dental disease. It is up to the pet’s family and veterinarian to uncover this hidden and often painful condition. Luckily, our practice provides advanced veterinary dentistry services in addition to basic dental care.
This includes routine care such as cleaning, along with treating more complicated conditions. Because our pets don’t brush their teeth every night before bed as we do, tartar can firmly adhere to their teeth.
In order to remove this tartar, we perform dental scaling, our most basic dental procedure. During the scaling process, our practice uses sonic and ultrasonic power scalers as well as handheld instruments to remove this tartar from the surface of the teeth both above and below the gum line.
Tooth extraction is another very common procedure. Our goal is for your pet to retain as many teeth as possible. However, sometimes an extraction is the only option to relieve pain or ensure that periodontal disease does not advance. If not extracted, a diseased tooth can compromise the surrounding tissue and neighboring teeth. If caught early, there are more treatment options available for periodontal disease.
Our practice requires anesthesia for dental procedures. Because of this, we first perform a full physical exam and sometimes run blood tests. Inside the mouth, we utilize local anesthetic injections to reduce pain. We closely monitor your pet the entire time they receive anesthesia.
We keep an eye on oxygen saturation, blood pressure, heart rate, and temperature. In order to help maintain the health of your pet’s mouth and teeth, you should bring your pet in for a dental check-up once a year. During these routine exams, our practice includes a general dental exam as well as teeth and gum cleaning if needed.
Catching dental problems in the early stages can greatly help your pet in the long run. Contact us right away if your pet experiences any of the following:
- Chronic bad breath
- Your pet shies away when you try to touch their mouth area
- Excessive drooling
- Dropping food when eating
- Bleeding in your pet’s mouth
- Loss of appetite or weight loss
- Yellowish-brown crust of tartar around the gum line
- Missing, loose or broken teeth
At home dental care
We provide Professional Cleaning Services and Advanced Dental Care, but it’s important to not overlook at-home dental care. After having your pet’s teeth professionally cleaned and looked over, we highly recommend instilling a regular teeth-cleaning schedule for your dog or cat at home. It’s a simple process and should only take a few minutes every day. However, sometimes brushing your pet’s teeth is not always possible, in these cases we recommend our prescription dental chews. And again just like humans, daily teeth brushing or dental chews reduces plaque and tartar and lessens the chance of your pet developing dental disease like gingivitis and periodontitis.
If your pet’s teeth are not cleaned daily via brushing or dental chews, plaque (which is a buildup of bacteria) will lead to periodontitis. Periodontal disease is where pockets of severe and painful infections develop within the mouth. Not treated, it can lead tooth decay, bone loss and organ damage.
If you have any questions about your pet’s dental health or dental home care, please ask us how we can assist you in providing oral care for your pet.
