DENTISTRY CARE
 

TEETH!

 

It’s truly incredible what we can find just lifting your face-licking companion’s lip! Oral health is so very important for our furry friends that we dedicated an entire room in our renovation for a dental suite!

When you bring your animal in for their regular appointments, we always examine those pearly whites to check for dental disease. It is actually one of the top diseases vets see in our patients! It would be wonderful if we could brush our pet’s teeth daily, or even every other day (and we are so happy to help you with this!) however, we understand this is not always realistic. Without brushing daily, tartar accumulates on a tooth providing a rough surface for further plaque accumulation. At this point, a dental cleaning is recommended!

Furthermore, the plaque and tartar build up creates great areas for bacteria to find its way under their gum line. This can cause periodontal disease (gum disease) leading to infection of that tooth and even surrounding teeth. The ligament that attaches the root to the bone gets destroyed causing mobility, bone loss, and potentially a tooth root abscess. Now, when it gets to this point, we do our best to save the tooth if possible, but majority of the time, your dog or cat will need an extraction (or possibly more than 1).
 

Along with the consequences of dental disease, we also know that severe periodontal disease can cause damage further down into the kidneys, liver, and heart muscle. Signs of dental disease:
 

• Dropping food

• Decreased appetite

• Bad breath

• Opening the mouth and gagging at food dish (cats)

• Going to the food bowl then walking away

• Loose teeth falling out

• Missing teeth

• Red or inflamed, bleeding gums

• Excessing drooling or pawing at the mouth

When you come in for your preliminary dental visit, we do talk to you about what we are seeing in the mouth. We do our best to provide an estimate for the procedure whether just a routine procedure or if we believe there will be surgery time for extractions. Upon request, we will call prior to extractions if they are needed.

All dental procedures require general anesthesia.

Please be aware that all anesthetic and surgical procedures, regardless of age require pre-anesthetic bloodwork within 2 months of the procedure. This allows us to decrease the risk of going under anesthesia on top of the physical exam we perform morning of the surgery.