DENTISTRY

Does your pet’s breath stink? Is he/she eating less or seems to avoid hard food/treats? If so this could be a sign of dental disease. Dogs and cats can have a multitude of dental problems including, periodontal disease, fractures, gingivitis, receding gum lines, masses, gingival hyperplasia, stomatitis, plaque and more.

Just as in us, dental disease can be a serious issue for our pets. Not only can dental issues be painful they can also lead to heart, kidney or liver disease. Keeping up on dental cleanings and care can significantly lengthen your pet’s life and positively affect quality of life as well.

For information on some items that can help slow down dental disease see our dental care products.

In order to perform a proper dental cleaning and probe gingival pockets for signs of dental disease, anesthesia is required. We know how worrisome it can be to have our of our pets go under anesthesia especially when they get older but at Advanced Veterinary Care of Plano we take time to make sure the anesthesia is done right. Our dental protocol includes running a pre-anesthetic blood panel to make sure the kidneys and liver are healthy, running intravenous (IV) fluids, they are also kept on anesthesia monitoring equipment throughout the procedure.

Beware of any “anesthesia free” dental cleaning as for this can be dangerous (sharp instruments) and stressful to your pet, also a proper dental cleaning/exam involves curetting just under the gum and measuring gingival pockets (something you cannot do properly while awake) to determine if there is any advanced dental disease that may require special treatment.