Knutsford Vets’ Professional Dog Dental Care
Our dog dental care service is designed to treat and maintain the hygiene of your dog’s teeth as well as identifying any dental issues that they may have developed. Our expert team covers a wide range of dentistry problems ranging from tooth fractures to root absences, therefore, you can feel confident that your furry friends are in safe hands.
Benefits of Our Professional Dog Dental Service
Unlike humans, dogs don’t have the ability to maintain their own dental hygiene, which is why veterinary dog dental care is so important. We have a range of specialist equipment and the experience to diagnose and treat dental illnesses, meaning we can prevent them from developing into a more serious condition. Our dog dentists provide an array of benefits that support your dog’s dental health moving forward.
Why Is Dog Dental Care So Important?
Every time your dog consumes food or debris it mixes with saliva to form a layer of plaque on their teeth which is something that humans brush away twice a day. Due to dogs not having the ability to brush their own teeth, plaque can form a layer of hard tartar on their teeth.
The presence of tatar, alongside bacteria that gets trapped along the gum line can cause inflammation of the gum (gingivitis) and breath (halitosis).
With time this can cause loss of the supporting soft tissue support of teeth causing wobbly, infected and painful teeth. Infections can cause abscesses and can also have effects on other body systems such as the heart and kidneys. This is why professional dental cleaning that includes above and below the gum line under general anaesthetic is essential for the health and wellbeing of your pet.
What our vets say
Our pet’s dental health can play a big role in helping them maintain a good quality of life. That’s why it’s so important you adopt a good tooth brushing routine and book regular check-ups.
Preventative Dog Dental Care & Dog Teeth Cleaning
At Knutsford Vets, we are huge advocates of preventative dental care and dog teeth cleaning. Where over 90% of dogs will require some form of dentistry before they are 5 years old, isn’t it better we look to mirror the progress achieved inhuman dentistry?
That’s why at Knutsford Veterinary Surgery Gold Plan members receive a 20% discount on dog dental cleaning procedures (including scale and polish treatments) as standard. All this means that you can keep your dog’s teeth looking pearly white.
Do you need help to learn how to brush your dog’s teeth? Our nursing team is on hand to help teach you how. Dog teeth cleaning is still regarded as the Gold Standard in dental hygiene in which a mechanical and enzymatic dog dental cleaning approach can be achieved. It has the added advantage that it is also the cheapest option.
It’s not just young dogs that can be taught to accept brushing, but we can also help older dogs too. For a quick guide on how to brush a dog’s teeth, watch our video below.
State of the Dog Art Dental X-Rays
We invest in the best equipment available here at Knutsford Vets and have a state of the art dental x-ray system to detect dental problems both above and below the gum-line.
Our dog dental x-ray system is the same as those used by leading human dentists. The level of detail is much higher than a standard x-ray plate that may be utilised for taking an x-ray of a leg, for example. The small size and high resolution allow intra-oral x-rays to be taken to diagnose disease within the mouth and monitor any progression.
So what sort of issues are picked up on our dog dental x-rays?
These are often traumatic as a result of dogs chewing stones or other hard objects. Fractures leave the pulp exposed and risk a tooth root abscess forming. Caught early, these teeth can be treated to maintain a healthy tooth but the window for appropriate dog dental treatment is very small. Fast treatment using the best equipment is essential.
This follows periodontitis (inflammation of the supporting structures of the tooth) where toxins are released from bacteria and cause inflammation. Plaque causes the body to resorb the bone in the jaw surrounding a tooth, weakening the structure and causing it to become loose and painful. Affected teeth need to be taken out.
Most commonly caused by pulp exposure secondary to tooth fracture or worn teeth following chewing of tennis balls or stones. The tooth pulp becomes inflamed and infected causing an abscess at the root; a very painful condition requiring extraction. Please note that tooth root abscesses need dental x-ray to be diagnosed.
Oral cancers are one of the most common types of cancers diagnosed in dogs. Tumours can be malignant or benign, locally invasive or metastatic (prone to spreading elsewhere in the body).
Puppies have 28 baby (deciduous) teeth by around 6 months of age. These then get replaced in an adult dog by up to 42 permanent teeth. As adult teeth erupt (grow) the overlying deciduous tooth should fall out however this does not always happen. When these baby teeth do not fall out, they are said to be retained. Food and debris can then become impacted between adult and baby teeth threatening the health of both teeth. Retained teeth should be identified, x-rayed and then carefully removed.
Sometimes puppies or adults have the correct number of teeth however these teeth may be in slightly the wrong position or grow at an incorrect angle. These teeth can then cause a malocclusion by clashing with other teeth in the mouth or other soft tissues such as the gum or hard palate. This can be painful. There are different techniques we can employ to help.
Most often as a result of trauma but can result secondary to damage to the bone following a tooth root abscess, oral cancer or following extraction of a tooth. Identifying the location and extent of a fracture helps to identify the best way to fix it.
