Dentistry is still evolving in Veterinary Medicine. Unfortunately, we didn’t get enough exposure in Vet School. We could diagnose a retained baby tooth, an Upper 4th Premolar abscess and we were just learning about cervical line lesions in cats, but we didn’t have the specialists in the school to teach us as much as we needed. When I practiced in Las Vegas, our hospital would fly Dr. Peter Emily, DDS from Colorado to do special dental procedures on our patients. He was a human Dentist that was one of the pioneers in Veterinary Dentistry. He was actually Board Certified by the Veterinary Boards.
We are still learning by going to seminars and meetings as well as spending time with Dr. Greenfield in Memphis, whose practice is dedicated to Dentistry. His practice is where we refer the cases that are above and beyond our ability and instrumentation. His website is www.yourpetdentist.com.
When I opened in 1989, I purchased a state of the art Dental Unit to enable me to do as good of a job as possible for my patients. We use an ultrasonic scaler to remove the tartar and a polisher to smooth the enamel to try to keep the plaque from coming back so soon. If we saw a tooth that was loose or looked infected we pulled it. We simply evaluated the best we could by our exam of each tooth while under anesthesia.
We now have a Digital Dental X-ray that helps us to evaluate each and every tooth and its root. Since our patients can’t tell us if a tooth is bothering them, these X-rays are an indispensable tool in determining that. It helps us to evaluate bone loss, pockets around root tips, abscesses and teeth fractured below the gum line. We feel that it is so important, we do a full mouth X-ray of every patient that is in for a dental cleaning. Doing a dental cleaning without anesthesia is doing a disservice to patients. The teeth much be cleaned under the gumline both inside and out, and that is impossible on an awake patient. Thoroughly examining each tooth can seldom be accomplished on an awake dog or cat, and I have yet to see one that is willing to hold my $3000 Digital X-ray sensor in their mouth without chewing the cord in two.
We continue to learn more about Dentistry every day, and we are very happy that we have the opportunity to help our patients more than we were able to in the past. We promise that we will continue to strive to improve and practice the best medicine and surgery for our patients.
OK…. What can you do to keep your pets’ teeth in better shape? I tell my clients that every little bit helps. Look at the products available to see what might work for you. The best thing to do is to brush the teeth with pet specific products that taste good and won't foam. I do understand that every pet and every owner won’t get this done. Some of the products are simply for the breath and don’t do much for decreasing Plaque, Tartar, Gingivitis, etc. There are foods formulated to help with teeth, such as Hill's T/D and for those dogs who like to chew, there are numerous products available. Try the rawhides that are impregnated with enzymes to help keep the teeth healthier.
When you smell that bad breath, the odor is coming from Bacteria. This bacteria can be on the teeth, at the gum line, in the bone, as well as the tooth roots. Antibiotics often improve the odor, but this is going to be temporary until the underlying problem is addressed. Some of your pets are going to need a Dental Cleaning as often as every 6 months, but the more you are able to do at home, the less frequently we will have to clean the teeth.
Picture before cleaning.
Picture after Dental Procedure including cleaning.
Digital X-ray of a 1st molar. Bone loss shown around roots was not visible without X-rays.
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