Dental Health Care
Your pet's teeth need care just like yours. Keep your pet's mouth healthy to prevent tooth and gum infections, and even some liver, kidney and heart diseases. Daily toothbrushing, with a soft toothbrush and pet toothpaste, is the best home dental care you can provide for your pet. Some chew toys can also help. Toys that are too hard will sooner or later break teeth. Toys that are too soft can be chewed apart and pieces swallowed. Chew toys like rawhide strips, N-Bones, Gumabones, Rhinos, Plaque Attackers and cat C.E.T. chews. When brushing is not possible, a daily antibacterial oral rinse will help slow accumulation of plaque.
When we clean your pet's teeth, we perform dental prophylaxis, periodontal debridement, and polishing. This is a much more extensive procedure than simply cleaning the crowns, but gives much more satisfactory results. We recommend a dental examination and a dental prophylaxis annually for most pets.
We clean the crowns, and also concentrate our efforts on the subgingival area (below the gumline) where hidden infection develops. We use an Odontosan scaler, which does subgingival cleaning, and also irrigates with chlorhexidine, and antibacterial solution. We recommend dental x-rays be taken at the time of the prophy in animals five years of age or older and we have a dental x-ray machine to give the most detailed look at the teeth and the supporting structures. The radiographs (x-rays) can detect hidden infection and problems not seen by just looking in the mouth. We have found this to give much more satisfactory results.
We are also pleased to have Dr. Jana Levin, a board-certified veterinary dentist, come to our hospital regularly. She performs specialized dental procedures, such as root canals, periodontal surgery, orthodontia, bone grafts, and much more. Her expertise allows us to give your pet the highest quality dental care available.