Dentistry

Our hospital provides dentistry services for dogs and cats. Dental evaluations and estimates can be made during a routine physical examination visit, but these tend to be limited due to the inability to fully assess all aspects of the teeth and dental radiographs cannot be performed with an awake animal. As such, we can provide owners with a rough estimate. A comprehensive dental evaluation and assessment requires general anesthesia and dental radiographs. Our hospital performs these services on a routine basis, including dental nerve blocks when extractions are required, dental extractions, gingival suturing, and dental scaling and polishing. 

We perform pre-anesthetic blood work prior to any dental procedures that is age-recommended, as well as IV catheterization. Our anesthetic protocol is animal-depending as many of our patients are older and may have underlying chronic disease. Due to the association between dental disease and kidney and heart disease, our recommendation is usually that, if an animal is stable and a chronic disease appears to be well-managed, dental procedures are recommended. Many of the patients seen for dental evaluations have significant periodontal disease and chronic oral pain, most of which is well-disguised by our pets. Dental procedures that alleviate this source of pain typically have a very position impact on these pets' lives and improve their daily quality of life.