Dentistry

Dental health is given absolute top priority at our vet hospital. Put simply, the pets with healthy teeth tend to live longer.

A guide to dentistry at Your Favourite Vet

We specialise in dental examinations and provide a range of treatments and procedures to ensure your pet stays healthy.

See below for information and examples of what these entail.

We see a strong link between longevity and healthy teeth. 

Prevention of tartar or plaque build-up is paramount to keeping teeth healthy.

We recommend an annual physical examination, where your pet's teeth will also be checked. If there are dental issues present, we’ll schedule a preliminary dental assessment.

For more info about preventing diseases, see our Annual Health Examination. 

Why do we recommend an annual dental examination?

Well, it’s important to remember that pets age 7-9 times faster than humans, so an annual visit to your vet is the equivalent to you visiting your dentist every 7-9 years!

How can plaque affect your pet’s teeth?

The junction between the tooth and the gum is vital for a healthy tooth.  Healthy gums adhere closely to the tooth root and prevent bacteria and debris from entering this space.

When tartar or plaque builds up, this junction is damaged.  Infection sets in and increases the separation of the gums from the tooth, which exposes the tooth root. 

Inflamed gums are painful, and this often causes the pet to chew on the other side (less sore), which makes the problem worse.

Check ups save lives

Prevention of tartar or plaque build-up is paramount to keeping teeth healthy.

These appointments help with early detection of some of the more subtle courses of disease, such as dental disease, lumps and bumps, weight loss and some endocrine diseases.

Other things that may be identified during the annual health examination are more subtle things, such as dental disease, and the very subtle signs of lots of endocrine (hormone) diseases, early signs of kidney and liver disease, the signs of arthritis, and many many more.

Tartar build up on the teeth of a dog (pre-dental).

Teeth after a scale and polish.

Elderly Pets

It is also important to consider our elderly pets and the faster rate of ageing of pets compared to humans. 

While we recommend at least an annual health examination in all pets, it may be in your elderly pet’s best interest to have a more frequent health examination, such as every 6 months, as an extra safeguard.

Common questions about dental assessments and treatments

  • Dental treatment involves a thorough assessment of the dog’s teeth, including probing, charting and dental x-rays.  This assessment then determines the treatment that each individual tooth will receive.  This may include a scale and polish (ultrasonic cleaning of the teeth above and below the gumline, then polishing the surface to help slow re-attachment of plaque), simple restorations (similar to a ‘filling’ in people), application of an antibiotic gel in a small pocket to help reattachment of gum to tooth.

  • If the dental disease is too advanced, the tooth may need to be extracted. It is important to remember though, that once the dental disease is too advanced your pet is much better off without that tooth.  In these cases, extraction of teeth is still the best option.

    We are able to do a preliminary dental examination just in our consult rooms, however a more thorough examination (described in our ‘Dental Procedures' info below) is necessary in all cases to fully assess the health or extent of disease in any pet’s mouth.

  • After a dental procedure, regular re-checks are required to monitor any re-establishment of dental disease around the teeth.  Tooth brushing, prescription dental diets, chewing bones and dental chews, and food and water additives are all ways to help prevent dental disease from coming back, or to prevent it from occurring in the first place!  A good way to look at it is to leave nature to its magic, and let our pets chew, chew and chew.  Chewing is one of the best ways to clean teeth.

    There are many myths regarding dental care, and some frequent concerns.  You can read about the myths of dental disease here.

  • Most of our pets are such tough little critters and they will battle away with sore teeth and chronic pain from dental disease for a long time. This is such a common problem in our pets and can cause pain and discomfort, as well as some pretty severe infections in mouths.

    Without a dental checkup, disease can progress to a very severe stage before it is detected, likely when it causes your pet to stop eating, and if this happens, the pet is in a lot of pain.  Consider yourself with a toothache – ouch! 

Dental Procedures

We are very excited to bring to our clients a new and improved service in the field of veterinary dentistry.  

We are the proud owners of new state of the art equipment and the service of dental x-ray, which greatly increases the dental service we can provide for your pets here at DMVS.

Using these diagnostic and therapeutic techniques, we are now able to save more teeth than ever before.

What do our thorough dental examinations include?

This thorough assessment and treatment process is done in two stages:

  • The first stage involves a full dental scale and polish (similar to the treatment you would have at your own dentist), as well as a thorough assessment of every tooth, including probing for pockets of infection.  X-rays are taken of any teeth that are abnormal from this external examination, to identify any further abnormalities below the gumline.  This assessment determines whether the tooth can be saved, or whether it needs to be removed.  The pet is then allowed to recover from this initial procedure.  A treatment plan with an estimation of cost is then drawn up and discussed, and a plan made to perform this at a later (but soon) date.

  • The second stage involves the treatments agreed upon previously.  This may involve dental surgery including tooth restorations such as capping, may involve local delivery of antibiotics to encourage reattachment of soft tissue to the tooth (in the case of a deep pocket of infection), or may involve dental surgery in the form of tooth extraction if our assessment shows the tooth cannot be saved.

  • The main advantage of having a two stage process to this is a shorter anaesthetic for your pet, which reduces the chance of any anaesthetic related complications, and improves anaesthetic recovery.  There will be no additional cost for the split procedure being performed compared to a single anaesthetic.

Examples of our dental x-rays

Here are some dental x-ray images of teeth taken at our clinic.

  • This image is from a dog who had a traumatic event which resulted in a fracture of the crown of tooth (last molar). The tooth was extracted, and confirmed with x-ray that the entire tooth root was removed in the process.

  • This is a cat’s mouth. You can see the ‘hole’ in the premolar in the lower jaw. This is a result of Feline Oral Resorptive Lesions, a common condition in older cats where the body’s immune system causes decay of teeth. This can happen above the gumline such as in this tooth, or can occur only in the roots of teeth. This is a painful condition which will eventually result in the resorption of the entire tooth. As such, the only treatment at this point for these teeth is extraction, to speed up the process and eliminate the pain for the pet.  These lesions below the gumline can only be detected using dental xrays.

  • This x-ray shows two teeth that have severe periodontal disease. Both teeth have resorption of the bone surrounding the tooth roots (arrows). The smaller tooth is only just hanging on with such a small amount of the tooth roots still embedded within the bone of the jaw. The larger tooth only has one affected tooth root, and the other is largely unaffected. Unfortunately these teeth have disease that is too advanced to repair, and the teeth need to be removed. The dog will be a lot happier almost instantly once we have removed the teeth and the constant source of pain and infection from this severe dental disease.

Dental Restorations

We are so pleased to be able to perform simple dental restorations here at DMVS.  

The dog pictured now has a filling over her tooth fracture which we sealed to reduce sensitivity and the chance of a tooth root infection, which would ultimately end in tooth removal.

A fractured carnassial tooth, likely caused by chewing on an angled or cut bone.

A simple dental restoration performed on the tooth.

Booking your consultation

Book in for a consultation to have your pet’s mouth assessed, and for a more thorough discussion about dental health in your pet, and possible treatment options.

If you have any questions regarding your pets dental health please phone us on 02 6884 9900.

  • All bones need to be raw.

  • If your dog or cat is inexperienced with bones, start by feeding a bone weekly. The bone should be a size that the dog can chew around but not chew it up into pieces and eat the pieces.

  • Take care with large and angular bone (eg shanks, those split by butchers to expose the marrow, etc), as these can cause fractures of the large teeth at the back of the mouth (premolars and molars).

  • Freeze chicken necks and wings in summer as a 'popsicle'.

  • Separate pets before feeding bones to minimise the chances of a fight. Also, some dogs will gorge themselves or try to swallow bones whole when there is competition around.

  • There are also many soft artificial bones and some quality dental diets to reduce tartar build-up.

Tips for feeding bones

Follow these tips to keep your pets teeth protected while eating treats.

For more information about our yearly health review, see our Annual Health Examination. 

If you have any questions or would like to book in for a consultation please do not hesitate to phone us 02 6884 9900