 Many pet owners leave after their companion's annual exam with an estimate for dental treatment. It may be just a cleaning that the vet recommended, or there may be extractions expected as well. Why does this all cost so much? Why has she recommended the things that she has? What will happen to my companion on the day of their dental cleaning? This article will try to answer some of those questions for you.
The veterinarian has recommended a pre-anesthetic blood panel. Which panel recommended will depend on the results of your pet's exam as well as the age of your companion. This bloodwork is very important to help the vet assess how well the body is functioning, to decide if IV fluids are necessary, and to determine the anesthetic protocol used for each individual. Before the dental procedure, your pet will start on antibiotics, to continue for a few days after the procedure. On the morning of the dental, you will be asked to leave your companion with us at a specific time. After you leave, one of our AHTs (Animal Health Technologists) will perform a TPR (temperature, pulse and respiration count). If the veterinarian has decided that IV fluids are needed, the AHTs will place a catheter and begin fluid therapy. When the veterinarian arrives, she does a pre-anesthetic physical exam, listening to the heart and lungs. Your pet will now receive an injection termed a 'premed', short for pre-medication. This is a mix of drugs that serves to do many things. It sedates the animal, decreases the amount of injectable anesthetic needed, and contains a short-acting pain reliever.
 Now your companion is kenneled in a quiet area to allow the premed to work. After the premed has taken effect (about 20-30 minutes), the AHTs bring the pet to the dental table, and the pulse is again counted. If all is well, induction and intubation occurs. These are the terms used to describe making the animal unconscious enough to enable a tube to be passed into the trachea, allowing for gas anesthesia. A machine called a Doppler is taped to one of the pet's limbs, monitoring pulse and blood pressure throughout anesthesia.
Now the dental begins. The AHT performing the dental will look through the mouth of the pet, charting the various teeth, the degree of gingivitis, and any abnormalities. Large amounts of tartar are chipped off of the teeth, and if there are teeth that the vet and tech are worried about, dental x-rays may be taken to determine the health of the teeth.
 If the x-rays indicate disease or decay, teeth that are to be extracted can be removed. Before removal of teeth, nerve blocks are performed for many reasons - to provide pain relief, to decrease the amount of inhalant anesthesia, and to enable your companion to have a smoother recovery from the anesthesia. The extraction procedure varies by tooth, but can involve cutting the gums, cutting the tooth, and then luxating until the tooth parts can be removed. Luxation is the term used when we cut the ligaments holding the roots in place. The hole that is left is filled, and the gum is sutured closed over the extraction site. The cleaning can start before or after extractions are finished.
First, large pieces of calculus are scraped off by hand, then an ultrasonic scaler is used to clean the tooth surfaces both above and below the gumline. Just like when people go to the dentist, the tooth surfaces are now polished, and along the gumline is flushed with an antibacterial solution. If your companion has had any teeth removed during the dental procedure, an injection of a long lasting pain reliever/anti-inflammatory is now given. The anesthetic is turned off and your pet is monitored while it wakes up. Once your companion is able to sit up, it is moved to the recovery kennel where we can watch closely to ensure that all is well. After our patients are recovered from the anesthetic, we remove the catheter and they can go home. A simple cleaning takes about an hour, and complicated dentals with extractions can be several hours.
If you have any other questions that you would like answered, please don't hesitate to call us at 250-339-2026.
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