Last week I was at the dentist myself, I confess that I have still a phobia about dentists even now at my advanced age …
Above is a picture I recently took of a dog’s mouth, clearly it is need of some dental treatment.
Last week I was at the dentist myself, I confess that I have still a phobia about dentists even now at my advanced age , and I try to avoid visits! This probably stems from early traumatic experiences with an elderly Scottish school dentist when I was young! My present dentist Dr Dilip Patel is a calm and soothing man and his surgery is very up to date, there is even a DVD screen at the patient’s eye level on his chair from which you can view the work being done inside your mouth on a small camera. There is never any pain or discomfort although I prefer to watch music videos than the goings on in my mouth which can also be shown while I am there. It is always a good thing for a vet to have a minor medical procedure carried out on them from time to time because it then puts us in our patients position and tends to make us more gentle and aware of pain relief when we deal with our client’s dogs, cats, and other animals. Sitting is his dental chair my mind wandered away to think about the type of dental work which I personally perform …..
Dentistry for dogs and cats is rapidly becoming an important area in veterinary medicine. Most problems we see in these animals is due to scale or tartar build up particularly on the molars where it is difficult for the owner to see, but it can also affect the teeth at the front of the mouth. This leads to gingivitis and sore infected gums, as the disease progresses then the tooth roots will become exposed and eventually the teeth will fall out. If this is happening then the animal may show distress on eating, or trying to eat on one side of the mouth only, dribbling of saliva may occur as well. Dental decay or dental caries which is the common human tooth condition is actually quite rare in dogs and cats but when it occurs it is often associated with tooth root abscesses.
If plaque or other problems are present the best thing to do is to leave the animal in with us for the day, we can administer a minor anaesthetic and clean all the teeth up with our ultrasonic dental descaler. This does an excellent job of cleaning the teeth but it makes a strange noise and shoots out water so it is unlikely that any animal will tolerate this procedure without at least very heavy sedation. At the same time we can carefully check the teeth and extract any decayed or loose ones. Some vets nowadays carry out conservative dentistry such as fillings and I once referred a show dog to have a crown fitted to a broken canine tooth, but these procedures are still not common and in my view probably not appropriate except in a small number of cases. Once we have your animal’s teeth cleaned up then there are a number of things you can do to prevent them deteriorating again. The best thing you can do to start with is to use one of the fingerstall brushes to apply a dedicated dog toothpaste, once the dog is used to this you can progress to a toothbrush. The dog toothpaste is better to use than human toothpaste as it is non-frothing and tastes more acceptable to your pets, it is also more abrasive than the product you might use yourself. There are a number of dog toys and chews and other products such as rasks which can also reduce the build up of scale with regular use. Dental problems in the dog and cat often seem insignificant to the owner, however many people tell me that their pets are appreciably very much happier following dental care.
Dogs and cats are not the only animals we carry dental work out on these days, we see rabbits, chinchillas and other rodents with teeth problems. These creatures suffer from two classes of problem, overgrown incisors which have to be clipped from time to time or extracted as a long term solution. The other main problem being spikes forming on the molars which in turn causes ulceration to the inner cheek and mouth. There is no long term solution to this one, instead the spikes have to be cut when they form and the molar teeth filed back to their normal conformation.
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