Caring for your pet’s teeth is no longer a second cousin to veterinary medicine since one of the most common and overlooked diseases of animals is dental disease. Proper tooth and gum care is an essential part of preventing long-term health consequences for your pet and is probably the most important health measure we do for a healthier and longer life for all of our patients.
Symptoms
The most common symptom of dental disease is halitosis, or bad breath. You may also notice inflamed gums, tartar, difficulty chewing or pain when chewing, and poor appetite and weight loss. If the gingivitis has progressed to periodontal disease, your pet might be lethargic and in poor health from the spread of the infection to the internal organs.
Diagnosis
As an example, in our veterinary, dental disease is diagnosed and treated by one of our doctors only after a complete exam is performed. In addition to an oral exam, we will look for other problems that are commonly encountered. After our exam we will set up a custom plan to cure the dental disease and prevent its recurrence.
Did you know that rodent teeth grow continuously throughout their lives?
Treatment
If one of our doctors determines that your pet has minimal tartar and gingivitis, we will institute a nonanesthetic cleaning. If the tartar and gingivitis are significant, which is the situation in many cases, we will perform a professional cleaning. We do this only after we have performed diagnostic tests to analyze your pet’s internal health status. After your pet is anesthetized, the tartar is gently removed with a combination of hand scaling and ultrasonic vibrations. Both these methods allow us to achieve the important goal of removing tartar under the gum line.
After the tartar is removed, the gums are flushed with an antibacterial, the teeth are polished to make it more difficult for food debris and bacteria to start the process of tartar formation again, and fluoride is applied.
Many pets have advanced periodontal disease. The teeth are infected, loose, and painful. In some cases, we will radiograph the tooth to determine its health. If we are unable to save the tooth by injecting a long-acting antibiotic such as Doxirobe under the gum line, it will be removed.
Prevention
The best way to slow down the recurrence of tartar and gingivitis is to feed Prescription Diet T/D or another dental-health pet food. Check with your veterinarian for a recommendation and to be sure that any product supports your pet’s overall health. Brush your pet’s teeth using a special “toothbrush” specifically made for pets. This item can be purchased at pet supply stores or from your veterinarian. Enzyme chews are helpful if you can’t brush your pet’s teeth. An excellent way to prevent recurrence is to perform nonanesthetic scaling on a periodic basis. We recommend nonanesthetic scaling every three to six months to prevent the recurrence of gingivitis.
If you visit our website, you can read detailed information on how we care for pets’ teeth.