Major Dentals – FAQs

Having a pet with dental disease is very common, and it can quickly snowball into a major health concern. Here are some common FAQs about major dental procedures that our clients often ask.

We are doing more than just running a brush over your pet’s teeth! This procedure entails a full general anaesthetic, a comprehensive oral health assessment using probes and/or x-rays to determine the health of the teeth and make a plan for which, if any, need to be extracted. It’s not always possible to know without seeing what’s going on underneath the gum line! Sometimes, teeth that look horrible below the gum line have very healthy roots, while other times the converse is true.

The teeth are then extracted (if necessary) and the remaining teeth are scaled using an Ultrasonic Scaler both above AND below the gum line as well as both the buccal aspect (the side of the tooth that touches the cheeks), lingual aspect (the side that the tongue rests against) and in between each and every tooth. This is then repeated with a polishing paste and polisher to make the surface of the tooth really smooth, slowing down the rate in which plaque and tartar can build up on the tooth again.

Dental procedures are often lengthy and time consuming. Your pet will be here for the better part of the day, we usually estimate that pets undergoing a dental procedure will be discharged between 5:30pm-6:30pm, though it can vary from pet to pet.  To increase the safety of improve the outcome of the dental, your pet MAY have their dental ‘staged’.

What’s a staged dental?

A staged dental means that the procedure is split across two separate anaesthetics. Stage 1 = clean all the teeth, x-ray and examine them and make a plan for which teeth need to be extracted. Any teeth that are causing major pain/discomfort are removed, but less urgent ones are left. The patient is recovered and sent home.

3-6 weeks later, the pet returns for Stage 2, which is just removing the rest of the diseased teeth.

We do this because:

– 2x shorter anaesthetics are SIGNIFICANTLY safer for pets than 1x long one.

– The mouth being clean when we remove diseased teeth means the gums heal faster and with less pain

– It means there’s a reduced reliance on antibiotics

– We make the price the same as if we did it all on the one day, except it’s split across a few weeks – so it’s easier to budget for too.

PLEASE NOTE: Staging a dental isn’t always appropriate (or necessary) for every patient. Sometimes, there are no teeth that can wait any longer before being removed. As with everything in health, there’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ for dentistry. It’s important that you’re contactable on the day of your pet’s dental so we can call and discuss our treatment plan with you.

Only take out teeth that really need to come out….

We never take out teeth that aren’t damaged and causing pain or discomfort to the pet. Teeth are NEVER extracted unnecessarily.

But they’re still eating?

For a pet to stop eating due to dental disease is rare. Eating is a basic survival instinct for animals and they generally have to be VERY sick to stop eating – especially cats.

Additionally, dental disease doesn’t happen overnight, so often the pain is chronic and the pets learn to live with it. This doesn’t mean their mouth is comfortable or that the disease isn’t impacting their wellbeing or longevity.

How are they going to eat with no teeth!?

Honestly, often better!

Cats have 30 teeth and dogs have 42. So they have a lot more than us to begin with.

If they have any teeth out, they will need to be on soft, formed foods for 7-10 days (i.e. loaf, cooked skinless/boneless chicken). However, once the gums have healed, they often go back to eating dry food BETTER than they did while their teeth were uncomfortable!

Is this actually necessary?

Yes.

Once build up (calcified plaque) sets on the teeth, there’s nothing that can be done at home to remove this.

When you consider that humans, who floss and brush twice a day, still need a professional clean every 6 months, pets do a pretty good job of keeping their teeth healthy.

Dental disease, if left unaddressed is painful & can even become a welfare issue as unfortunately it doesn’t self-improve without our assistance for our companion friends.

It rapidly worsens once infection sets in. Each year the mouth will become more and more infected and can lead to actually shortening the pet’s life.

When infection is present in the mouth, it then means that it is present in the saliva which is then swallowed, slowly tracking through all digestive organs. In our mature age patients this can compromise the optimal functionality of these organs, creating a domino effect in health complications. So the procedure would still be necessary but the urgency, length of time the procedure would take and level of disease/infection would increase. As would the quote, unfortunately.

I’m worried about the safety of the anaesthetic

That’s completely understandable. Choosing to go ahead with anaesthesia, especially in our mature age pets, can be a daunting decision –  but is never suggested without having the animals comfort & safety as a priority.
While there are always risks for any anaesthetic (much like with people), our anaesthetic protocols are safer than they has ever been.  We perform anaesthetics on elderly patients every day (our clinic record is a 21 year old poodle!) and while we could never “promise” any kind of outcome, we would never recommend a procedure if we didn’t think it was necessary.

Your estimate may include pre-anaesthetic blood work to be carried out before attempting anaesthesia. The results of this testing will then educate staff as to the functionality of the the liver & kidneys, hydration status & potential infection compromises. Giving us a firm understanding in underlying complications & risks that could be involved with an anaesthetic. Invaluable information for us regarding safety. Any abnormal results/concerns may indicate that anaesthesia is not a safe option or that specific medications & drugs need to be used in a supportive manner. If you don’t see this bloodwork on your estimate, please speak to our staff about testing.

For our elderly patients

We understand that with elderly pets, it’s hard to know whether to fork out for expensive preventative care measures like these when we don’t know how long they’ve got left. But we don’t know exactly how long they’ve got left either – it could quite easily be years, and we would of course want those golden years to be pain-free and comfortable.