Dentistry

Having an annual dental cleaning performed on your pet is a great way to prevent bad breath, gum disease, tooth loss, tooth disease, and a painful mouth. We take precautionary measurements with your pet(s) health prior to performing a dental cleaning by performing a thorough physical exam and pre-anesthetic lab work, to ensure that they are healthy on the inside and out.

A dental cleaning is performed on your pet while they are under anesthesia. While your pet is under anesthesia, he/she is monitored constantly by a devoted technician, manual and electronic monitoring devices that keep track of your pets heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, circulation and temperature. Dentals are performed quickly and efficiently to ensure that your pet is under anesthesia for the least amount of time possible.

The purpose of a dental while under anesthesia helps us remove all of the calculus that has built up on the far back teeth, between the teeth, and below the gum line with an ultrasonic scaler (same as in human dental cleanings). While they are under anesthesia, we are able to take a closer look at what is causing teeth to be painful, why they have gingivitis, and any other abnormalities that may be occurring. This also enables us to take radiographs (x-ray) of the problem teeth if warranted. If the radiograph reveals disease below the gum line along the root, your veterinarian will inform you of this and will discuss the options with you. Removal of the affected tooth will be an option if the tooth is diseased, although this might be scary to you as an owner; it actually is very beneficial to your pet because this tooth can no longer cause pain. And although we as humans cherish our teeth for the purpose of speaking and taking photographs, pets get along just fine without.

Once the calculus is removed and any issues have been addressed, your pet’s teeth will be polished and they will be woken up. They recover in a quite, well padded, and well monitored area of the hospital which allows them to wake up in a comfortable setting.