Before:

Imagine what your mouth would feel like if you never brushed your teeth!  The same basics of dental care also apply to your pet's teeth.  This dog has periodontal disease, a serious infection of the sensitive gum tissue and structures that attach the tooth to the tooth socket.  It causes mouth soreness and pain, bad breath, sore throats, and can even shorten the pet's life!  It is a disease that needs to be right away to avoid any further damage than has already been done.

You should be certain that food and water is withheld from your pet when you go to bed the night before the scheduled procedure.  Before your pet's dental procedure is done a thorough exam is done and any needed laboratory work is done to insure the utmost in safety.  This allows us to check the function of your pet's liver and kidneys, screens for other blood disorders, and gives us an idea of how well your pet will handle the anesthetic that we will use.

Isoflurane gas anesthesia is used because it is the safest and most controllable anesthetic we have, and pets wake up from it rapidly once it is discontinued.  We also administer IV fluid support to aid in maintaing correct blood pressure, heart and kidney function, and the clearance from the body of any sedatives and anesthetics given.  Your pet's heart fuction, respiratory function, and body temperature are constantly monitored during the procedure.

During the teeth cleaning:

Our veterinary technician will remove any dental tartar above the gumline with our ultrasonic dental scaler and then the tartar below the gumline is removed with a special dental curette.  The teeth are then polished, just like in your dentist's office, to give the teeth a nice smooth surface.  Next a flouride application will be applied to the teeth and chlorhexadine, an excellent disinfectant, will be applied to destroy the bacteria on the surface of the teeth and gums that cause the infection.

The veterinarian is then called in to evaluate any periodontal pockets, loose teeh or other problems and decide on what additional treatment is needed.  After consulting with the owner, any further agreed upon treatment is done.  Sometimes the veterinarian will send your pet home on a course of antibiotics to help make sure that the periodontal infection is controlled.

Your pet will then be closely monitored until it is fully recovered from the procedure.  Most often your pet will be ready to go home within an hour or two after the procedure.  

After:

Now, doesn't this look better!  I can tell you it smells better also and you can imagine how much better your pet will feel without all that filthy tartar and with that painful infection gone.

Now that the teeth have been cleaned and treated we're not done.  It is very important to maintain your pet's dental health at home.  Believe it or not, daily tooth brushing is one of the best things you can do to prevent dental tartar from returning.  We can help you get started with this.  Many dogs tolerate this quite well and it isn't as difficult as it may at first seem.  Many other daily or even weekly at home prophylactic produsts can also be used.  There is even a special prescription food, called T/D, that can be fed to your pet that has a brushing action on the teeth and helps to prevent the buildup of placque and tartar on the teeth.  The important thing is to establish some kind of preventative program at home.  Your pet will live a much healthier and, most likely, longer life because of it!

If you would like more information on your pet's dental health, click here.

Christie Hood demonstrates proper tooth brushing technique on our clinic mascot, Oreo