Dentistry

Our team of qualified veterinary nurses will be happy to offer a free dental check-up if you have any concerns, and routinely offer free follow up consultations after all dental work has been done.

Click here to see a wonderfully illustrated guide to Canine Dentistry prepared for Pet Smile week: truly fascinating insight into this complex and very important area…why not have a read??!?

Cats in particular can suffer terrible pain from their dental diseases, and can become completely anorexic, and there have even been recorded deaths due to this severe oral pain and associated starvation. Chronic Gingivostomatitis is especially difficult to manage.

It is a little recognised fact that dog and cat teeth are very much more firmly anchored in the jaw than are human teeth. You may hear of people having teeth knocked out, but a similar trauma to a dog or cat tooth will simply shatter the tooth leaving the painful root in place. This has implications for the time it takes us to extract teeth. Virtually all our extractions (except for very advanced periodontal disease with bone loss) are surgical extractions similar to having an impacted wisdom tooth removed. The reason this is worth noting, is that it explains why sometimes the costs associated with extractions can be very considerable.

We are of course happy to provided estimates for all our work, but accurate estimates for dentistry can be difficult to make. Some extractions are a nightmare in terms of the time taken to loosen roots and section teeth, so there is always a significant degree of latitude in an estimate for dentistry.

Dental disease in cats and dogs develops for various reasons. It is not as simple as what they eat. Some breeds are particularly prone to developing dental problems, e.g. Yorkshire Terrier and Greyhounds so there is likely a genetic predisposition in some dogs. Viral infections, e.g. calicivirus, are thought to be a primary cause of stomatitis and resorptive lesions cats. Misaligned teeth or retained baby teeth will also allow dental disease to form more quickly.

Many cases are simply the natural process of food and bacteria adhering to teeth. This builds up over a few days to form plaque. Bacteria interacts with plaque and minerals in the saliva to form the cement like tartar, or calculus. Calculus plus more bacteria lead to gum disease, periodontal disease and bone loss around the teeth.

This is why our dentists advise us to brush our teeth twice daily. If we brushed our dogs, or cats, teeth twice daily from an early age, we could prevent dental disease in our pets too! We understand this isn’t easy, so it is inevitable that most of our pets will develop dental disease by the time they are middle aged.

Does diet help? Any type of food that adheres less to the teeth will help reduce the build-up of plaque, and if the food can partly clean the teeth as it is eaten, this is even better. Dry food will do this more than wet food but unless it is a specially designed dental kibble, the effect is minimal. Specialised dental chews can help with the cleaning process if given daily. Hard chews like bones or antlers can be actually harmful as they are more likely to fracture the teeth, than clean plaque off.

Heavy loads of tartar / calculus lead to periodontal disease. This is when the gums and tooth attachments are damaged due to infection of the tissues.

But these bacteria can spread around the whole body and through the blood stream, causing widespread organ problems. The kidneys, heart, lungs and liver are most commonly affected causing renal failure, endocarditis, pneumonia and hepatitis. These changes may be picked up on pre-anaesthetic blood tests, but more tests may be required to identify the severity of the problem.

Dealing with the periodontal disease will often allow these systemic problems to improve but it is better to prevent it happening in the first place.

Regular dental check-ups will identify dental disease early and allow appropriate treatment to begin before these problems can cause life threatening complications.

Many insurance companies have held their premiums down by excluding dental work. Please check the small print of your policy. Remember that even those who continue to cover dental disease require that your annual health checks including vaccinations and dental checks are up to date, and that any noted veterinary advice has been followed promptly.

If your policy does not cover dental work, or if your pet is not insured, please be aware the Pet Health Club includes 10% discount on all dental work, which we hope will help.