Dental health is an important aspect of your pet's wellbeing. We all know that if you don't brush your own teeth, you will end up needing dental surgery, and the same holds true for dogs and cats. In an ideal world, brushing their teeth would be a simple quick task, but often either your pet does not cooperate or lack of time in a busy family makes this hard. Therefore as a minimum, annual dental prophy cleaning at your veterinarian is needed. This is similar to what your human dental hygienist performs, but on your pet it will be performed under a light general anesthesia. This is not only safer than physical restraint against their will, but allows your vet and technician to fully examine the oral cavity, looking for gum disease, tumors, tonsil health, and loose teeth or exposed roots. Dr. Barry has extensive dental training and can count many examples where a routine dental prophy has revealed a site of pain, a cause for unusual symptoms and after recovery has led owners to express how much better their pets appetite or energy levels are following dental treatment.
Why does dentistry require anesthesia?
Your pet does not understand the benefit of having their teeth examined and cleaned and so they will react by trying to escape or even biting. They could be injured by the sharp tools needed to scale teeth or may become traumatized by forceful restraint. Anesthesia makes it possible to perform dental procedures with less stress and pain for your pet, and although anesthesia does carry some risk, the risk is very low and the benefits far outweigh this. All our patients will be discharged home the same day and as pain management is of the utmost importance to us, we will use various local anesthesia techniques and medicines to keep them comfortable and safe.
Dental Equipment
State of the Art - Dentalaire Veterinary dental machine
Dentalaire DR Digital Dental Radiographs
Companion Class IV Therapeutic laser
Local and Regional anesthesia pain blocks
Clindoral and Doxirobe sub-gingival Sealants
Fluoride treatments
Sevoflurane anesthesia - continuous technician monitoring and Bionet multi-parameter monitor
Investment in ongoing staff continuing education
Comprehensive home dental product range available