Dental Advice

Your Pet and their Teeth

Click here to view the dental health booklet

Good dental health is a key part of our pets’ health and welfare. Anyone who has ever had dental
problems is aware of the extreme pain it can cause and the negative impact it can have on our
overall quality of life. Our pets are susceptible to many of the same dental problems that we are,
including root abscesses, cavities, chipped and broken teeth, misaligned teeth, and
unerupted/impacted teeth. All these conditions can cause our pets a great deal of pain, however
these problems are often overlooked as our pets will hide their pain from us. If they do show signs,
they may be very subtle, such as becoming a little more grumpy or lethargic, and eating slightly
slower or on a different side of their mouth.

How to prevent dental problems
As with most things in life, prevention is better than cure. The best way to prevent dental problems
for your pets is to brush their teeth! Just like for us, the biggest cause of dental problems in pets is a
build up of plaque on the teeth, the best way to prevent this build up is by brushing their teeth daily,
to help with this a pet friendly, flavoured, toothpaste can be used, however it is the action of
brushing which actually does the most work. Childrens toothbrushes can be used for small dogs and
cats, and normal hand toothbrushes can be used for bigger dogs.

If your pet won’t let you brush their teeth, there are dental gels which can reduce the build up of
plaque simply by being gently applied to the teeth.

Diet and dental treats can also have an impact on your pets dental teeth. As with humans, too many
sweet treats and acid foods can cause enamel to be eroded.

Finding dental problems
The first step of finding dental problems is a basic physical examination of your pets mouth in the
consultation room. Here the vet will look for obvious signs of dental problems such as broken teeth,
inflamed gums (gingivitis), gums receding and exposing tooth roots, lumps and bump in the mouth,
and teeth that are obviously wobbly.

To examine your pets mouth in any more detail and look for more subtle signs of dental problems,
we need to anaesthetise your pet. This allows us to fully examine all of the teeth above the gum line.
To do this we first gently scrape off any large deposits of plaque with a hand scaler so that we can
see the surface of the tooth underneath. We then probe around teeth to find small problems such as
gingival pockets, which are an early indicator that gums are receding, and small defects in the tooth
surface such as cavities and small cracks.

To examine the part of the tooth that is below the gum line we can take dental x-rays, this allows us
to look for problems that we would not otherwise find, such as tooth root abscess’, retained teeth
and tooth root resorption.

Treating dental problems
Once we have undertaken a thorough examination of your pet’s mouth under anaesthetic, we can
then plan and undertake treatments that may be needed. In our practice treatment is aimed at
alleviating pain and returning your pets mouth to healthy state. This is done by either scaling
(cleaning) teeth that are healthy, or removing teeth that are causing problems and cannot be saved.

There is sometimes the option for more advanced treatments, such as root canals, by specialist
veterinary dentist, that we can refer you to if required.

To reduce the risks associated with the anaesthetic, we try to limit the time a patient is under
anaesthetic to an hour and a half, any more than this and the risks of serious complications due to
the anaesthetic begin to increase. We will therefore always do the most essential treatments first,
for example if a tooth has a root abscess that is causing pain, we will prioritise removing this, over
cleaning a small amount of plaque off another tooth. If your pet requires a lot of dental work, we
may have to stage the works to prevent an overly long anaesthetic, meaning that we will do the
most urgent work under the first anaesthetic, and then perform another dental procedure at a later
date to finish the works. Two shorter anaesthetics have been shown to be safer than one longer one.

Cost 

Dental work requires the use of specialised equipment, as well as the time and skill of our highly
trained vets and nurses, so there is a financial cost, as there is with any medical work. We encourage
our clients to ask about and discuss costs with us. We will always try to work with our clients to find
a solution that works for them and their pet. We try our best to give accurate estimates for
operations too, however dental work provides a unique challenge when providing an estimate, as
until the animal is examined under a general anaesthetic, it is very difficult to predict how many
problems we will find, and hence how much treatment will be needed. As such estimates for dental
work will generally be broader.

As with most things in life, prevention is better (and often costs less) than cure! Finding and treating
problems sooner will often lead to less work being needed in the future.
We also encourage all our clients to have a consultation with one of our nurses to discuss the best
ways to take care of your pets’ teeth.

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FAQ’s

• How many teeth does my pet have?

Adult dogs have 42 teeth: 12 incisors, 4 canines, 16 pre-molars, and 10 molars.
Adult cats have 30 teeth: 12 incisors, 4 canines, 10 pre-molars, and 4 molars.
For comparison an adult human has 32 teeth: 8 incisors, 4 canines, 8 pre-molars and 12 molars.

• How many teeth does my pet need to be able to eat?

None! Zero! Not a single tooth! Severe dental disease, such as stomatitis, can sometimes lead to all
an animal’s teeth needing to be extracted, because otherwise they will be in constant pain. We have
seen lots of pets that have needed a lot, or all, of their teeth extracting, and with an appropriate
diet, they can still eat perfectly well, and are often so much happier because they are no longer in
pain.

• Why does my pet need to be under a General Anaesthetic for dental work?

All forms of dental work, including scaling teeth, can cause pain and require your pet to be very still
so that we can safely get to all the hard-to-reach places in the mouth. The only way to achieve this
safely, and to keep your pet comfortable, is for them to be under a general anaesthetic.

A more detailed explanation of this can be found on the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons
website Click here

• Can you clean my pets’ teeth whilst they are in for another surgery?

Unfortunately not. Although cleaning your pets’ teeth whilst they are in for another procedure may
seem like an efficient use of time, it can increase the risk of potentially life-threatening infections.
To clean your pets’ teeth, we use an ultrasonic scaler, this vibrates very fast to scrape the plaque off
your pets teeth, however this causes small particles, including bacteria, from your pets mouth to be
aerosolised, meaning that they become airborne and float around the room, if these particles were
to land on a surgical wound, they could easily infect the wound.