Comprehensive Pet Dental Care for the Rocklin and Roseville CA Area

Pet dental care is as important to your dog or cat as it is to our human family members. Rocklin Road Animal Hospital provides comprehensive pet dental care through regular exams, cat and dog teeth cleaning, and helping pet owners to create a manageable home dental care program.

Pet Dental Disease

Pet dental disease causes bad breath, tooth loss, and pain. Mild dental disease is called gingivitis and is characterized by tartar on the teeth and inflamed gums. When gingivitis progresses to periodontal disease, the bone around the roots of the teeth becomes infected and begins to recede. Periodontal disease jeopardizes the teeth and allows bacteria into the bloodstream. The most common areas to become infected in this way are the heart valves and the kidneys. This danger increases as the age of your pet advances, because of altered blood flow through these organs and a waning immune system.

Your Rocklin Road veterinarian is best qualified to tell when it is time for your pet’s dental cleaning, but you can get a pretty good idea at home by looking in your pet’s mouth. You will know to call us if you see:

• Build-up of hard, brown material on the teeth
• Gums that are puffy or redder on the edge than the adjacent tissue
• Loose or broken teeth
• Bleeding, lumps, or sores in the mouth

Pets that have dental issues may be in constant pain, as well. Indicators of oral pain include refusal to eat; pawing at the face; excessive drooling; discharge or swelling around the face, nose, or eyes; and a reaction to mild pressure in the mouth area. However, most pets won’t show any of these symptoms when they are in pain, so don’t be lulled into thinking everything is fine in the mouth if your pet doesn’t show these symptoms. A good oral exam will find any problems. Of course, Contact us at once if you see any indication of pain or problems in your pet’s mouth.

Pet Dental Procedures

Anesthesia is needed for your pet’s dental procedure in order to adequately clean every surface of every tooth, including under the gum line, and to evaluate the condition of each tooth to determine if an extraction or further tooth care is needed. Another benefit to having your pet anesthetized during the procedure is that we are able to do a thorough exam of the mouth, gums, tongue, and throat—this thorough exam would be virtually impossible to perform while your pet is awake. If there are any abnormal tissues or growths, these may be found during the exam before they become a more serious problem. Since we routinely run blood work before embarking on dental anesthesia, any metabolic abnormalities will be picked up as part of the dental procedure.

We use a very safe gas anesthesia called isoflurane. Your pet breathes nearly 100% oxygen through a tube that goes in their trachea, which attaches to an anesthetic machine that mixes a tiny amount of the anesthetic with the oxygen. The tube also prevents any of the dirty water generated in the cleaning process from getting into your pet’s lungs.

Once your pet is asleep, the hygienist uses an ultrasonic scaler that breaks the tartar off the teeth with a high-frequency vibration. The scaler has a built-in water spray that cools it and is the most advanced technology available for cleaning your pet’s teeth.

A word about “anesthesia-free” dentistry: As you can imagine, it is virtually impossible to properly clean and evaluate your pet’s teeth without anesthesia. Anesthesia-free dentistry in pets only removes the tarter that you, the pet owner, can easily see on the cheek side of the teeth. Removal of tarter and plaque from the inside of the teeth, in between the teeth, or below the gum line can’t be done. And, the teeth cannot be probed and evaluated well without anesthesia. As a pet owner, you are lulled into a false sense that your pet’s teeth have been adequately cleaned when they have not. This leads to further decay and infection below the gum line, in the bone, or in the tooth root resulting in tooth loss, discomfort, and disease.

Improving Senior Pet Safety

Since senior pets often require dental procedures, we have standard protocols that improve anesthetic safety.

First, we place an intravenous catheter and administer IV fluids before, during, and after anesthesia. This improves blood flow to the vital organs and gives us easy access for intravenous drug therapy in case we need to combat low blood pressure, slow heart rate, or other unforeseen complications.

Second, we improve anesthetic safety by performing pre-dental blood work to ensure that the body can handle and metabolize the anesthesia.

Third, we utilize a pulse oximeter, equipment that monitors your pet’s heart rate, blood pressure, and bloodstream oxygen concentration while being anesthetized. This alerts us to any changes in anesthesia that may be needed during the procedure.

Fourth, we monitor your pet’s temperature and provide warm water heating pads as needed to maintain his or her temperature.

Last, we have a veterinary nurse assigned to monitor your pet during anesthesia.

Pet Dental Home Care

Regular cleaning of your pet’s teeth is an important step to a strong dental care program. For help in this area, you may enjoy the WebMD Pet Health Center website, which offers a video demonstration in How To Brush Your Dog’s Teeth and the comprehensive article Ten Steps to Cat Dental Health.

For more information on getting started with your pet’s home dental care regime, read the AAHA teeth brushing article.

Pets Need Dental Care, Too is a Pet Dental Health Campaign site providing information, instruction, and fun activities for kids.

Read more about pet dental care at the AAHA website. In addition, various organizations offer in-depth information on this subject, such as the American Veterinary Dental College and the Academy of Veterinary Dentistry.

The Veterinary Oral Health Council offers extensive information on oral health care for pets.