***UPDATE:
My baking contest was cancelled due to raining... I haven't heard anything about rescheduling but will let you all know, so you can root for me!!***
I was prompted by my boyfriend to write this post about dental disease and cleaning. He'd never been present when we did a dental cleaning until just this week. This is a very routine procedure for me and I don't often stop to think, that it is actually a very involved procedure. Dogs and cats have to be put under general anesthesia for a dental cleaning. Other than my perfect dog Ebony(mentioned in my first post), I haven't found any dog/cat that will allow much dental work while they are awake.
So as my boyfriend watched: I placed a catheter in the vein and gave the dog some anesthesia to allow for a tracheal tube to be placed. I then hooked up the dog to the gas anesthesia machine and started the anesthesia monitoring equipment. All the while my veterinary technician was starting the ultrasonic scaling of the teeth. Now I don't want to brag; but my team is a well-oiled machine and this usually goes very quickly and smoothly.
Therefore a "routine" cleaning might only take about 45 minutes from start to finish. On the other hand an animal that has a lot of dental disease that requires extractions(teeth pulling) may take at least 1 hour to complete. My technicians do the cleaning and polishing of the teeth but any extractions or surgical procedures are done by the veterinarian. Pretty similar to the hygienist and dentist for humans...
I always get asked how often animals need their teeth cleaned. There is no straight forward answer to this, because every patient is different. I have seen dogs go their whole lives and really have very little tartar to
1 year-old dogs having rotten teeth. It is affected by numerous things: breed, genetics, diet, etc. My recommendation is to have your vet evaluate the teeth yearly to see if they need cleaning. To me the goal is to "PREVENT", this includes regular cleanings, at home brushing, dental treats and dental chews. I can't speak for all the vets out there but I personally don't really enjoy pulling teeth, so if I can avoid that by recommended good prevention, then that's what I'm gonna do!!
I think I might end on that but I will make this a series with more blogs about dental care. I might do one about at home care with suggestions(specific brands and things to do) and maybe one more about how dental disease affects the pets overall health. So stay tuned for part 2 and part 3!!
Below is some pretty gross pics of dental disease, just thought I'd share!! I find that alot of people are kinda scared to lift up that lip and take a look!
My baking contest was cancelled due to raining... I haven't heard anything about rescheduling but will let you all know, so you can root for me!!***
I was prompted by my boyfriend to write this post about dental disease and cleaning. He'd never been present when we did a dental cleaning until just this week. This is a very routine procedure for me and I don't often stop to think, that it is actually a very involved procedure. Dogs and cats have to be put under general anesthesia for a dental cleaning. Other than my perfect dog Ebony(mentioned in my first post), I haven't found any dog/cat that will allow much dental work while they are awake.
So as my boyfriend watched: I placed a catheter in the vein and gave the dog some anesthesia to allow for a tracheal tube to be placed. I then hooked up the dog to the gas anesthesia machine and started the anesthesia monitoring equipment. All the while my veterinary technician was starting the ultrasonic scaling of the teeth. Now I don't want to brag; but my team is a well-oiled machine and this usually goes very quickly and smoothly.
Therefore a "routine" cleaning might only take about 45 minutes from start to finish. On the other hand an animal that has a lot of dental disease that requires extractions(teeth pulling) may take at least 1 hour to complete. My technicians do the cleaning and polishing of the teeth but any extractions or surgical procedures are done by the veterinarian. Pretty similar to the hygienist and dentist for humans...
I always get asked how often animals need their teeth cleaned. There is no straight forward answer to this, because every patient is different. I have seen dogs go their whole lives and really have very little tartar to
1 year-old dogs having rotten teeth. It is affected by numerous things: breed, genetics, diet, etc. My recommendation is to have your vet evaluate the teeth yearly to see if they need cleaning. To me the goal is to "PREVENT", this includes regular cleanings, at home brushing, dental treats and dental chews. I can't speak for all the vets out there but I personally don't really enjoy pulling teeth, so if I can avoid that by recommended good prevention, then that's what I'm gonna do!!
I think I might end on that but I will make this a series with more blogs about dental care. I might do one about at home care with suggestions(specific brands and things to do) and maybe one more about how dental disease affects the pets overall health. So stay tuned for part 2 and part 3!!
Below is some pretty gross pics of dental disease, just thought I'd share!! I find that alot of people are kinda scared to lift up that lip and take a look!
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| Stage 1 |
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| Stage4 |
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| Stage 4 |
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