Our Dental Services : Compreshensive Oral Health Package

Here is the full version of what is included in our

Comprehensive Oral Health Package

Here are the details of what we do. Reading this will give you a clearer picture of what we do and why doing it this way is valuable to you and your pet.

1. Pre-Anesthetic Preparation

-  Pre-Anesthetic Physical Examination

-   Pain injection is given before anything painful is done so that it can start working even before needed.

-   Pre-Anesthetic pain and anxiety medications

-   Indwelling IV Catheter for IV fluids and for emergency drugs if needed

-   IV Fluid Therapy to avoid dehydration and help maintain blood pressure

-    Use of IV fluid pump

2. Anesthesia

-    Intra-tracheal tube

-    Full digital vital signs monitoring including these vital parameters:

o    EKG

o    Blood Pressure

o    O2

o    pCO2

o    Core body temperature

-   Active patient warming device to maintain body temperature (small animals who become hypothermic because no active patient warming is used have a harder time recovering from anesthesia)

3. Oral exam by veterinarian once pet is under anesthesia. This examination looks for:

-   Broken teeth (these need root canals or need to be extracted)

-  Crowded teeth

-  Excessive gingival pocket depth

-    Misaligned teeth which will damage properly positioned, healthy teeth

-   Mobile teeth

-   Resorptive lesions (similar to cavities in us)

4. Full-Mouth Digital Radiographs  (Can you imagine your dentist knowing what to do for you without dental x-rays?) We look for:

-   Root abscesses (we need root canals to relieve the pain when we have these lesions)

-   Resorption of the bone that supports the teeth (when 50% remains, the tooth is lost and needs to be extracted!)

-   Resorptive lesions (similar to cavities in us)

-   Retained roots (painful parts of teeth left in the jaw after the crowns of diseased teeth have broken off.)

-   Abnormalities present at birth which if left undiscovered and untreated can cause the loss of healthy teeth and sometimes even result in jaw fractures due to weakened jaw bones.

5. "Teeth Cleaning"

This is the part that our dentist's oral hygienist does for us. Here a Licensed Veterinary Technician provides the treatment.

-  The tartar is removed from the visible surface of the teeth with an ultrasonic scaler

-   Special ultrasonic scaler tips and hand instruments are used to remove the plaque and tartar that is hidden under the gums. This is the area where periodontal disease attacks the teeth. Unless this is removed nothing significant has been done to improve the health of your pet's mouth.

-   Dental polishing which removes the microscopic irregularities left after scaling. Doing this slows down the growth of plaque after your pet gets back home, slowing down the accumulation of tartar.

6.      Postoperative injection of pain medication when needed. 
      We do this routinely when a pet has needed extractions. Again, our focus is on preventing pain.

7.      Pain medication prescription

?         Dispensed for those pets who have had extractions

?         Helps them recover and get back to feeling good faster!

8.      Follow-up Visit  in 10-14 days to check healing (or sooner when indicated).

9.      Home Care instruction visit

-   Just like us, plaque and tartar start accumulating just as soon as your pet's teeth are cleaned.

-   We will show you how to start brushing your pet's teeth.

-   You get a toothbrush and starter package of dental paste.

-    We will discuss other types of home care that can be used when brushing just is not possible.
- Special Diets like Purina Veterinary Diet DH
- Dental rinses and water additives
- Special dental chews

10.    Three-Month Dental Recheck with a Licensed Veterinary Technician (LVT)

-   The key to maintaining dental health is staying ahead of the disease. Once the disease causes bone loss there is nothing we can do to get affected teeth back to full health.

-   One of our LVTs will go over your home care procedures at home to see if anything can be improved.

-   They will suggest other treatments if the ones you have been using haven't been enough.

 

All ten of the above steps are included in the price of your pet's

Comprehensive Oral Health Diagnosis and Treatment Package

 

 

 

 

We provide great dental care to the pets of
Olean, Portville, Wellsville, Bradford, Cuba, Smethport and Coudersport!