Your pet's oral health is very important. Dental disease can lead to, or be caused by, multiple health problems. Our pets can suffer from the same types of dental disease as we do. Regular prophylaxis visits can save your pet’s smile!
Symptoms of dental disease include:
- bad breath
- broken or loose teeth
- extra teeth or retained baby teeth
- discolored or tartar covered teeth
- changes in chewing
- drooling or dropping food when eating
- decreased appetite or refusing to eat
- pain in or around the mouth
- bleeding from the mouth
- swelling in the areas surrounding the mouth or cheeks
At Smithville Animal Hospital, we can clean up your pet's mouth and resolve many oral health issues. For more complex issues or specialty dentistry, we refer to Blue Pearl or Companion Animal Dentistry of Kansas City.
What is a dental cleaning?
A dental cleaning, or dental prophylaxis, is performed under anesthesia. Prior to anesthesia, your pet will have a physical examination, blood work, and an IV catheter will be placed. Once under anesthesia, a complete oral examination will be performed and we will take dental radiographs. Your pet will have IV fluids during the procedure. The plaque and calculus will then be removed with an ultrasonic scaler - similar to the one your dentist uses.
Once your pet's teeth are cleaned up, we can then repeat the oral examination and assess each tooth for gingival pocket depth, root exposure, fractures or bone loss. Any teeth that are loose, have root or furcation exposure or fractures resulting in pulp cavity exposure will be extracted. Following extraction, the gum tissue is closed with absorbable suture.
For remaining teeth, surfaces are polished to create a smooth shine and remove stain from the enamel.
All pet's get an injection of a medication to prevent nausea after anesthesia, pain medications are dispensed to all pets that need extractions, and antibiotics may be sent for severely infected mouths.
Dental cleanings are an outpatient procedure. All procedures are done in the mornings and pets then go home to their families between 2:30 and 5:00PM.
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