On This Page:
Comments on the importance of dental care to your pet's overall health as well as comfort

What To Expect when You Go To The Vet With a Pet Needing Dentistry

Dental topics discussed On Other Pages:

About The 4 Levels of Veterinary Care using Dentistry as an Example

Oral Health Options for Pets: a summary of the products available for dental care









Dental disease is not joke...

By age 3, 80% of dogs and 70% of cats show signs of oral disease, according to the American Veterinary Dental Society.

Adult dogs have 42 permanent teeth.

Cats have 30. 

(People are only slightly superior than cats and have 32 teeth.)

One of the biggest health threats posed by periodontal disease is infection of the heart valves…one of the more common problems of older dogs and cats. 

In fact, a University of Minnesota – School of Public Health – found that gum disease is an early warning sign of cardio-vascular disease. 

These findings have been confirmed by The American Heart Association
(americanheart.org) 
and The American Academy of Periodontology (www.perio.org). 

Oral Health Care
& Dentistry
in Dogs and Cats

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Here's what to expect if your Pet had Dental Problems
at Our Hospital
(Of course, other Veterinarians might do things differently)



EXAM & History: We will be using our senses and experience to look, feel, and smell for gum inflammation, ulcers of the cheek or tongue, bad odors, raised gums, gum pockets, tarter build up, pain, exposed dentin, cavities, and, of course, loose teeth.

We will also be aware of the near by sinuses and check for facial swellings, neural twitches, and lymph nodes.  We know that diseases like diabetes and kidney disease affect the gums, so we will be looking for clues that might suggest these problems. 

Sometimes it will be necessary to sedate or anesthetize a patient to allow a close exam and to carefully probe each tooth.

If your pet has signs of early dental disease, he or she will offer preventive suggestions such as brushing, brushless gels, oral hygiene rinses, dental chews, and maybe even special diets.  Progressive vets will also recommend prophylactic cleaning in the battle for gum health.  The justification for early and regular propylactic cleaning is that by the time gum disease and bad breath is obvious, the peridontal tissue is already permanently damaged.

If your pet has significant dental disease, your vet will certainly recommend dentistry for your pet.  What's involved is very similar to when you have your own teeth cleaned and inspected except that pets won't tolerate all the cleaning and probing, nor the ultrasound scaler or extractions without anesthesia.

And because anesthesia can be dangerous, especially in older pets , we need to take the precaution of doing blood work to make sure there are no serous concurrent diseases as well as to make sure the kidney and liver are healthy enough to metabolize the anesthetic agents.  We will also be checking for anemia and bacteremia.

Step One: after it is decided that dental work is needed is to consider giving pre-dental antibiotics


Step Two: consider what pre-anesthetic lab work should be done. If you skip doing lab work for budget reasons, you are putting your pet at potential anesthetic risk and also missing the opportunity to detect concurrent disease. In cats for example,  the underlying reason your cat may have mouth ulcers, soft gums, gingivitis, and dental disease is because it has leukemia, Feline Aids, kidney disease, bacteremia, herpes viremia, liver disease, or thyroid disease.


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"What To Expect When You Go To The Vet"
if your pet should have a problem with ...

Abscesses, wounds, and injuries

Arthritis, Lameness, Fractures, and Ligament Injuries
To include Femoral Head Removal, Hip Dysplasia, Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries, Panosteitis, Radiographic Demonstrations, Disc Disease, and Bone Surgery

Bladder, Urinary Tract, & Kidney Problems

Blood Diseases, Anemias etc
Strokes, Vascular Diseases, Anemias, DVT, DIC, Blood Parasites, Rat Poison, & Bleeding disorders

Cancer, Masses, Lumps and Bumps

Cardiology  Heart disease in Cats, Cardiac Hypertrophy, Valvular disease, Cardiac Insufficiency, Congestive Heart Failure, Heartworm Disease, and a little history about the milestones in treating heart disease

Cats: general information page and directory of diseases and problems specific to cats including vaccine recommendations, leukemia, feline viral infections, feline upper respiratory disease and cats that just aren't feeling well.

Dentistry and problems of the mouth and throat

Dermatology: Skin problems including allergies, rashes, bacterial infections, and itching. Hair Loss, Yeast Infections, Hormonal Problems

Diabetes

Ear Infections and Other Ear Problems

Eye Problems  and Ophthalmic Diseases

Exotics:  Pocket Pets, Rabbits, Hamsters etc

Fleas, Ticks, and other parasite problems

Heart disease; Cardiac diseases, vascular diseases, stroke, & heartworms

Hormone Diseases: Diabetes, Thyroid Disease, Cushing's Disease or Hypercortisolism, Addison's disease or Hypocortisolism, Pancreatitis, obesity as a disease

Infectious Diseases  Colds, Distemper, Parvo, Leptospirosis, Bruceellosis, Panleukopenia, Feline AIDS, Leukemia, Hepatitis, Kennel Cough, Ringworm, Rabies, FIP, Canine Herpes, Toxic Shock Syndrome, & More

Intestinal problems: diarrhea, constipation, torsion, indigestion, and gas. Also pancreatitis, vomiting, esophagitis, colitis, parvo and other types of dysentery

Kidney Disease

Liver Diseases     

Metabolic Diseases: Diabetes, Thyroid Disease, Cushing's Disease or Hypercortisolism, Addison's disease or Hypocortisolism, Pancreatitis, obesity as a disease

Neural Problems and Diseases: Epilepsy, Rabies, Distemper, FIP, Paralysis, Tetanus, Seizures, Disc Disease, Toxoplasmosis & others

Obesity; new information and about Pfizer's new FDA approved treatment

Pancreatitis

Parasite Problems; Fleas, Ticks, Heartworms, Intestinal Worms, Mosquitos, Lice, Mites, and other welfare recipients

Poisons  Snakes, Insects, household chemicals, plants, and foods that might poison your pet

Respiratory Diseases

Senior Pet Page: Geriatric Medicine

Skeletal-Muscular Problems Arthritis, Fractures, ACL, Ligament Injuries, Disc Disease, Pannus, and many other problems of the bones, muscles, tendons, and ligaments

Skin Problems: allergies, rashes, bacterial infections, and itching. Hair Loss, Yeast Infections, Hormonal Problems

Surgery: Spays, Castrations, Testicle Recipes, Soft Tissue Surgery, Hard Tissue Surgery (Bones), C- Sections, Declawing, Tumor Removal and Cancer Surgery

Wounds, punctures, injuries, and abscesses

Urinary Tract Diseases and Problems


Other Topics on This Site

The Human-Animal Bond

History of Veterinary Medicine; lots of interesting stuff    

Zoonotics: Diseases, worms, and parasites people get from pets.

Lab Tests and what they tell us

Medications/Pharmacy Page

Nutrition & Diets
Includes information about Prescription diets used to treat disease, and a discussion about the pet food industry

Reproduction, breeding, & rearing information
Includes information about feline and canine heat or estrus, breeding, C-Sections, pyometra or Infected Uterus, dystocia, no milk, mastitis, & brucellosis
Also newborn care, undescended testicles, and alternative to spaying and castration

Vaccine and other preventive health recommendations

WildLife Page:  Taking care of baby bunnies, squirrels, and birds.  A very funny story about beavers, and other misc information

Our Dog Page:  a directory of problems of concern in dogs including parvovirus, distemper, canine herpes, and other diseases

Veterinary Pet Insurance

Home        How we treat different medical problems in pets; What to Expect        FoxNest Hospital       About our No Kill Shelter       
The History of Veterinary Medicine         The Human-Animal Bond    
There is a complete site map at the bottom of this page

Website Directory

Home    The Human-Animal Bond     The History of Veterinary Medicine    About our No Kill Shelter     The FoxNest Veterinary Hospital     


"What To Expect When You Go To The Vet"
if your pet should have a problem with ...

Abscesses, wounds, and injuries

Arthritis, Lameness, Fractures, and Ligament Injuries
To include Femoral Head Removal, Hip Dysplasia, Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries, Panosteitis, Radiographic Demonstrations, Disc Disease, and Bone Surgery

Bladder, Urinary Tract, & Kidney Problems

Blood Diseases, Anemias etc
Strokes, Vascular Diseases, Anemias, DVT, DIC, Blood Parasites, Rat Poison, & Bleeding disorders

Cancer, Masses, Lumps and Bumps

Cardiology  Heart disease in Cats, Cardiac Hypertrophy, Valvular disease, Cardiac Insufficiency, Congestive Heart Failure, Heartworm Disease, and a little history about the milestones in treating heart disease

Cats: general information page and directory of diseases and problems specific to cats including vaccine recommendations, leukemia, feline viral infections, feline upper respiratory disease and cats that just aren't feeling well.

Dentistry and problems of the mouth and throat

Dermatology: Skin problems including allergies, rashes, bacterial infections, and itching. Hair Loss, Yeast Infections, Hormonal Problems

Diabetes

Ear Infections and Other Ear Problems

Eye Problems  and Ophthalmic Diseases

Exotics:  Pocket Pets, Rabbits, Hamsters etc

Fleas, Ticks, and other parasite problems

Heart disease; Cardiac diseases, vascular diseases, stroke, & heartworms

Hormone Diseases: Diabetes, Thyroid Disease, Cushing's Disease or Hypercortisolism, Addison's disease or Hypocortisolism, Pancreatitis, obesity as a disease

Infectious Diseases  Colds, Distemper, Parvo, Leptospirosis, Bruceellosis, Panleukopenia, Feline AIDS, Leukemia, Hepatitis, Kennel Cough, Ringworm, Rabies, FIP, Canine Herpes, Toxic Shock Syndrome, & More

Intestinal problems: diarrhea, constipation, torsion, indigestion, and gas. Also pancreatitis, vomiting, esophagitis, colitis, parvo and other types of dysentery

Kidney Disease

Liver Diseases     

Metabolic Diseases: Diabetes, Thyroid Disease, Cushing's Disease or Hypercortisolism, Addison's disease or Hypocortisolism, Pancreatitis, obesity as a disease

Neural Problems and Diseases: Epilepsy, Rabies, Distemper, FIP, Paralysis, Tetanus, Seizures, Disc Disease, Toxoplasmosis & others

Obesity; new information and about Pfizer's new FDA approved treatment

Pancreatitis

Parasite Problems; Fleas, Ticks, Heartworms, Intestinal Worms, Mosquitos, Lice, Mites, and other welfare recipients

Poisons  Snakes, Insects, household chemicals, plants, and foods that might poison your pet

Respiratory Diseases

Senior Pet Page: Geriatric Medicine

Skeletal-Muscular Problems Arthritis, Fractures, ACL, Ligament Injuries, Disc Disease, Pannus, and many other problems of the bones, muscles, tendons, and ligaments

Skin Problems: allergies, rashes, bacterial infections, and itching. Hair Loss, Yeast Infections, Hormonal Problems

Surgery: Spays, Castrations, Testicle Recipes, Soft Tissue Surgery, Hard Tissue Surgery (Bones), C- Sections, Declawing, Tumor Removal and Cancer Surgery

Wounds, punctures, injuries, and abscesses

Urinary Tract Diseases and Problems


Other Topics on This Site

The Human-Animal Bond

History of Veterinary Medicine; lots of interesting stuff    

Zoonotics: Diseases, worms, and parasites people get from pets.

Lab Tests and what they tell us

Medications/Pharmacy Page

Nutrition & Diets
Includes information about Prescription diets used to treat disease, and a discussion about the pet food industry

Reproduction, breeding, & rearing information
Includes information about feline and canine heat or estrus, breeding, C-Sections, pyometra or Infected Uterus, dystocia, no milk, mastitis, & brucellosis
Also newborn care, undescended testicles, and alternative to spaying and castration

Vaccine and other preventive health recommendations

WildLife Page:  Taking care of baby bunnies, squirrels, and birds.  A very funny story about beavers, and other misc information

Our Dog Page:  a directory of problems of concern in dogs including parvovirus, distemper, canine herpes, and other diseases

Veterinary Pet Insurance



“The battle ground for periodontal disease is in the gingival sulcus, a location the clinician cannot visualize.”


Most practices offer dental cleaning and polishing services…but these are often offered too late…after the bone substructure is already permanently damaged.


Diagnosing early is the key and diagnostic imaging is the best way to detect early bone loss and disease before it’s obvious on visual inspection.

Recommending dental
x-rays of pets even when on examination the teeth and gums appear healthy can be a difficult sell and often makes people wonder if the vet is recommending unnecessary procedures just to make money.


Nonetheless, some progressive vets are making such recommendations … and they are justified in doing so…. on the grounds that we won’t detect periodontal disease in the early stages before it’s obvious unless we (that means you) spend the money on radiographs.

Most small, general practice veterinary clinics don’t yet have x-ray units designed just for dental radiographs. 

It’s mostly a matter of the benefits not yet being worth the costs and trouble… which are considerable unless they can be spread out among a lot of patients.

Step 3:  dental radiographs are just as helpful in pet dentistry as in human dentistry.  Since veterinarians practice in the real world without the benefits (or problems) of government funding or 3rd party insurance payers, most practices don't offer dental radiography... the machines are very expensive as are the regulatory fees, safety regulations, and certified technicians that operate the machines. 
But many high end vet practices do offer dental radiography and argue that radiographs are almost always appropriate in order to do the very best job possible.  For the same reason human dentists insist on x-rays which is to spot hard to detect problems early.
.

The Actual Dentistry:

Once we have our patient safely anesthetized, we clean and probe every tooth with an ultra-sound scaler and dental probes.  We extract rotten, loose, or abscessed teeth. We carefully check the rest of the oral cavity for problems.

Other, more advanced veterinarians, might offer root canals, bridge work, crowns, and so forth if you're will to pay for such work in order to save a tooth that would otherwise be extracted.

We do minor oral surgery to gums if needed.  Then we polish the enamel and apply fluoride which hardens the enamel.

And finally, in many cases, we sealing the teeth using the dental sealants now available. 

Doing a careful, meticulous job takes time and patience.  Many patients are under anesthesia for up to an hour.   Long anesthesia times are another reason why blood work is highly recommended prior to dental procedures.

Laser: Laser technology has been greatly improved lately and if your vet practice has a therapy laser, he or she may zap your pet's gums during the dental procedure. Class 4 therapy lasers greatly reduce post dental pain, inflammation, infection, and speed healing.

After the procedure:

Your vet will discuss and dispense the following as appropriate to each case

-pain management (very important... see comments toward the bottom of this page)
-antibiotics may or may not be needed
-oral hygiene care products

And possibly referral to a dental specialist for fillings, crowns, false teeth, orthodontics, and other re-construction work.  Or possibly to an oconolgist is oral cancer is detected or suspected.

Follow Up:  As with any major undertaking in medicine, it's important to recheck if there are any problems, swellings, odor, prolonged discomfort and so forth.  If there was major gum surgery done, this may need to be rechecked and sutures may need to be removed.
Pets with soft gums or gums that have chronic inflammation may need to be on long term antibiotics.

It turns out that genetics play a major role in oral health.  If your pet has poor enamel or soft, spongy gums, it will need more frequent attention than other pets.  That genetics play a big role is pretty obvious to vets... certain breeds like Rottweillers, for example, almost never have severe dental disease until they are very old whereas Minerature Poodles and Yorkies often have terrible teeth and gums as early as 2 years old.


Without radiographs we might not have detected the abscess of the roots and dissolving jaw bone under the circled tooth ... nor that the abscess was spreading to the next tooth.
This is interesting:
The health of the Momma during the fetal development stage of the teeth buds and gum tissue.  If the momma was malnourished, wormy, or just happened to have a high fever during the critical stage of pregnancy, it's possible that the baby's enamel, dentin, or gums will be subnormal and prone to problems. 
A comment about value:

When some people think of dentistry on their dog or cat, what comes to mind is just scraping off the tarter. 
Something some people do with a screw driver or other tool .... or that the groomer might do for free! 

This procedure DOES make the teeth look better, but there are three big problems:

A.  You might be doing more harm than good ... inexperienced scraping leaves etches in the enamel which allow future plaque and tarter to bond much faster and easier to the enamel.

B.  The more important health problem is hidden under the gums...very hard to reach without excessive force unless the patient is under anesthesia.

An ultrasound machine safely does a beautiful job of cleaning under gums... but anesthesia is required; something a groomer shouldn't be doing.

C.  Tarter build-up is only the most obvious problem.  Attention to detail is important if you want or expect a quality result.
Important Comments:

The major role oral hygiene is to over all health: Gum inflammation is the number one entry port of bacteria, virus', and other germs getting into the blood stream.  Humans can at least wash their hands.  But with cats and dogs, EVERYTHING goes into the mouth.  And if the gums are raw and bleeding... even a little bit... germs can bypass all the first line defenses of saliva and stomach acid and go directly into the blood stream.

This bacterial invasion into the blood affects the heart, the liver, the kidneys, the joints, the vascular system, and especially the immune system.  With this in mind, it's possible that gum disease may be the most serious disease of all.













Good oral health care is among the top things you can do for your pet to improve both the quality and length of your pet’s life. 
(The other top things are: Good nutrition, a safe environment, regular check ups and vaccinations, effective parasite control, veterinary care when needed, and lots of love, play and exercise.)

Going to the extra trouble and expense of brushing your pet's teeth (or using the much easier brushless gels and rinses) and offering dental chews helps a lot.

Hard versus canned foods turns out NOT to be a big factor in oral health.  As mentioned in other places on this page, genetics and the health of the momma cat or dog during pregnancy are the big factors.

Monitoring your pet's gum health... something good vets do at every check up... and addressing dental problems early is another major factor in oral health and therefore overall health.

This is yet another reason for bringing your pet in for regular wellness exams.

Here's a subject I know very little about, really, but some new age veterinarians think that teeth problems are a major cause of general disease and ill health because of their relationship to acupuncture meridians

And finally, a few comments about dental pain:

Pain that starts below the neck goes from the site of pain...say the big toe for example...and then goes to the spinal cord across a neural synapse where the pain is "modulated". Your brain can decide to ignore your throbbing toe if it wants by reducing the release of neural chemicals in the synapse.

After the pain is modulated at the level of the spine, the signal is then conducted up to the brain stem ... where once again it can be modulated... or ignored.

This is partly why the same amount of pain stimulus is perceived differently in different people (and animals)

But guess what?

There is NO PAIN MODULATION with oral pain. Pain associated with dentistry goes straight up the facial nerve directly into the brain.

So.... the next time a dentist says "you might experience a bit of mild discomfort" ....



















Your vet takes pain management seriously and will probably dispense some potent pain medication if there was gum surgery or extraction done.