Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
How do I know if my pet needs a dental procedure?
IF only our pets could talk to us…
As veterinarians, too, we would have a much easier job of treating pets if we could ask them what they were feeling.
But we can look out for signs and do annual checks on our animals.
One such check is the state of their teeth. With dental disease there are things we can look out for to tell us if there is a problem without having to be told (or barked or meowed at!).
There are several clinical symptoms to look for.
These are:
Bad breath. This is probably the number one reason pets are brought in for dental work. As you can imagine, our pets’ breath smells bad sooner with dental disease than in humans because they don’t brush their teeth.
Bad breath can result from a mild build-up of tartar to bone infections caused by severe periodontal disease. The minute you smell bad breath, get your pet to the vet.
Staining or tartar. Tartar is the hard yellow/brown buildup seen on teeth. It is made up of food debris, saliva, bacteria and minerals, and forms a cement-like layer on the teeth. Tartar is impossible to brush off and can only be removed through a dental scale-and- polish procedure.
Broken or loose teeth. Broken teeth are very painful and are also prone to developing infections. Often these teeth need root canal therapy to save them or may even end up being extracted. Loose teeth cause discomfort and often cannot be saved, only extracted.
Swelling on the face. This is often the result of broken or infected teeth forming abscesses. As stated above, extraction is often the only option.
Difficulty with chewing. Oral pain will often make an animal not want eat well or play with toys as normal. However, our pets have evolved to not show pain readily so don’t think if they are eating and playing well that they are not in pain.
Growths in the mouth. Any time you see a growth in the mouth it must be evaluated by a vet. Tumours or cancers of the mouth are often very nasty and the sooner they are treated the better the outcome for your pet.
One of the biggest challenges of veterinary dentistry is that a lot of pathology is not immediately visible to the naked eye.
Often teeth can look normal even after a scale-andpolish procedure but, when radiographs are taken, severe pathology becomes evident.
Another problem is that most pets do not like having us poke and prod in their mouth. This means that at any check-up, a full oral exam is almost impossible and we often require the animal to be under a general anaesthetic before we can really asses the oral condition.
It is not only old animals but younger animals have certain conditions such as permanent deciduous teeth. Severe dental disease may then arise as a result of such issues not being treated adequately.
At Valley Farm Animal Hospital we would like every animal to have a dental scaleand-polish procedure annually from the age of one. This will prevent a lot of the dental disease we see in our practice.
Dental procedures can be quite costly though and putting your pet on a medical aid is a good idea for this reason. Many pet medical aids cover a dental procedure at least once a year as companies understand that good pet dental care means less dental disease and less costs for them in a pet’s lifetime.
Even eliminating a bit or tartar can save a tooth in the long run.