Our Dental Equipment

Dental radiographic equipment:

A few years ago not even veterinary colleges had the ability to take intra-oral dental radiographs. Fortunately for dogs and cats, more and more local veterinarians now have this equipment. Being able to see what is going on under a pet's gums makes a remarkable improvement in the quality of dental care that we can provide!

Air-driven Dental Cart:

Dentistry is like carpentry in the sense that it is impossible to do fine carpentry without having the proper tools. It's also impossible to do a good job in treating pets' dental disease without the proper equipment.

One of the tools this cart contains is an air-driven high-speed dental handpiece. This is what your dentist uses to drill cavities. It's most common use in veterinary medicine is section teeth (cut teeth into parts) so that teeth with several roots can be extracted in a way that causes as little trauma to the pet as possible.

The tools this high-speed handpiece replaces are literally the hammer, chisel, side-cutting pliers and hacksaw. Think about it! Can you imagine how your mouth would feel after your dentist used those tools on you? Sadly, those are the tools commonly used when veterinarians don't have a high-speed handpiece.

Dental Procedures:

Comprehensive Oral health Diagnosis and Treatment Package  Click to get more info!

This is what we used to call a "dentistry". Why the name change? Well, the name has changed because what we do has changed. Let me explain by giving you a quick look at how this procedure to treat gum disease (gingivitis and periodontal disease) has changed over the years.

• In the 1960's a "dentistry" involved chipping big hunks of tartar off the teeth with the pet awake. This did nothing at all to treat gum disease.
• In the late 1960's veternarians started using hand scalers. This did little to treat gum disease.
• In the 1970's ultrasonic scalers began to be used. The problem was that this left the surface of the tooth microscopically very rough which allowed tartar to reform very quickly.
• In the 1980's equipment became available that allowed veterinarians to polish pets' teeth after the scaling. Progressive veterinarians also began to work on the the area right under the edge of the gums which is where the disease does its damage.
• In the early 1990's air-driven dental carts with the high-speed handpieces first showed up.
• In the middle 1990's dental radiograph first began to be used by progressive veterinarians.

In the spring of 2004, when Dr. Flaig took over this practice, dentistry was practiced at the 1970's level.

Here is short version of what is done when we perform "dentistry" today:  Click to get more info!

1. Pre-Anesthetic Preparation and Examination
2. Anesthesia and Full Digital Vital Signs Monitoring
3. Oral exam by veterinarian while pet is under anesthesia.
4. Full-Mouth Digital Radiographs 
5. Scaling, subgingival curettage and dental polishing
6. Postoperative injection of pain medication when needed.
7. Pain medication prescription
8. Postoperative Progress Visit in 10-14 days to check progress of healing
9. Home Care instruction visit
10. Three-Month Dental Homecare Progress Visit

Click here to see the long version of our Comprehensive Oral health Diagnosis and Treatment Package