Pet Dentistry

Pet Dentistry

Our doctors frequently diagnose dental disease during patient’s yearly wellness exam. Key indicators of dental disease include; bad breath, hesitance in eating dry kibble, eating/chewing on one side of the mouth, or red and inflamed gums.

Just like most things in life, the sooner you attend to a problem, the more frequent the issue can be dealt with from a preventative nature and end up saving you money. In addition, early intervention and prevention can help to keep your pet from experiencing unnecessary pain.

In order to achieve a thorough cleaning and evaluation of your pet’s mouth, we must anesthetize all pets. In addition, a significant amount of water is used during the process and we need to ensure your pet’s airway is protected via an endotracheal tube placement. This ensures your pet is safe and relaxed during the procedure.

We evaluate each and every tooth in your pet’s mouth with an initial visual inspection and then by proceeding with digital dental radiographs. Should we find a fractured or diseased tooth we can perform a surgical flap extraction technique which is becoming the standard of care in veterinary medicine for tooth extractions.

This technique allows us to ensure the entire tooth and its root are removed, then the flap is closed allowing for faster healing for your pet.

Once we have attended to all diseased and painful teeth, we then proceed with removing all debris from the teeth and gumline. We then polish the teeth with a fluoride-containing treatment to help seal the teeth and smooth out any etches left in the enamel surface from scaling that bacteria can cling back to.

Finally, we apply a plaque sealant barrier product called OraVet. This product is sent home with our patient’s for continued weekly care by their owners at home, in an effort to keep their pearly whites healthy for a long time to come.