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Dentistry

Your dog or cat needs to have their teeth cleaned, just as we do. If they could brush and floss on their own, it would be a whole lot easier to keep their teeth and gums healthy. It is known that dental disease can lead to other more serious problems, such as heart and kidney disease, or lung and liver disease. This vital organ deterioration occurs when a large number of bacteria build up under the gums as dental disease progresses, and then get "pushed" into the blood supply by the action of chewing. These septic emboli of bacteria travel and lodge in the small capillary vessels of these organs, which contributes to the early development of dysfunction in these organs.

One of the reasons we recommend annual examination for your pet, even if it does not need to be vaccinated annually, is to take a look at the condition of your pet's teeth and gums so as to assess whether or not it is necessary to plan to perform a dental cleaning on your pets teeth.

If only our pets would stay still while we scaled their teeth. That would be great, because then we wouldn't need to anesthetize them just to clean its teeth. Of course, if extractions need to be made, those would be least painful to your animal if it were anesthetized. We can use a local to numb the gums, but the animal won't understand that it needs to stay still while we work in its mouth! At Boulder's Natural Animal, only the safest and shortest acting anesthetic agents are used. Additionally, we monitor your animal's heart and blood pressure continuously during the dental procedure (or for any anesthetic procedure we perform), and may use an intravenous catheter or subcutaneous routes to administer electrolyte fluids to allow your animal to recover that much quicker from its anesthesia.

We require a physical examination, blood panel, and CBC for all animals who are going to have a dental and who are 6 years or older. If the test results indicate that the animal has some underlying problems, those problems will be addressed first with herbs, diet, acupuncture and pharmaceuticals (if necessary) before anesthesia is attempted in your pet.

We are as concerned as you are about the potential risks of anesthesia, and will make every effort possible to be certain that your animal has a smooth and rapid recovery. For that reason, we require a pre-dental anesthesia blood panel and place an intravenous catheter and administer fluids to every patient who receives general anesthesia for dental scaling and oral surgery. Of course, pain relievers are administered prior to the procedure as a pre-emptive way to reduce post-procedure discomfort. If extractions are being made, often a long acting local anesthetic agent is injected in the nerve root area supplying the extraction site so are to provide prolonged post-procedure pain relief. Oral meds will be dispensed or prescribed for your pet to take at home to further keep it comfortable.

Referrals to specialized veterinary dentists will be made if there is need for endodontic, reconstructive or prosthetic dental work.