Your pet is brought to the hospital on the morning of the dental, having been fasted from the night before. A vet examines them and reviews any existing medical conditions, any medications and any other tests or requests for the day such as bloodwork or a nail trim. Pre-anaesthetic bloodwork is highly recommended to look for signs of any internal organ disease or abnormality that might affect your pet’s anaesthetic and procedure.

Your pet has an intravenous catheter placed and bandaged into one of their legs and is placed on a drip, which helps maintain their blood pressure and encourages good metabolism of anaesthetic drugs before, during and after the anaesthetic.

Once they get the all clear to go ahead, an injection of pre-medication is administered for sedation and pre-emptive pain relief. The premedication takes effect within 10 – 30 minutes and then your pet is “induced” into general anaesthesia with another IV injection. These medications are selected and dosed based on each individual patient, and every anaesthetic is tailored to your individual pet’s needs. They will then have a breathing tube placed and are connected to a machine delivering oxygen and anaesthetic gas.

Monitoring equipment is then placed to ensure your pet has a smooth and safe anaesthetic, this includes breathing rate, oxygen and carbon dioxide level monitoring, blood pressure, heart rate and ECG monitoring, and temperature monitoring. Eyes are lubricated as they can’t blink for themselves; warming blankets and other warming equipment are used to keep their body temperature stable. These vital signs will be continually checked and recorded throughout your pet’s anaesthetic by the dedicated anaesthetic nurse.

Once anaesthetised, we perform our initial oral health assessment. We count the teeth, mark down any missing or extra teeth, and note down the level of gum inflammation and tartar build up on each tooth on a special dental chart. We also assess the back of the throat, tonsils, roof and floor of the mouth, the tongue and oral tissues. We will also take photos of your pets teeth as well as any abnormality that we may find so we can show you afterwards.

Now it’s time for the teeth cleaning!

An Ultrasonic scaler is used to clean the inside and outside surface of the teeth and under the gums removing all plaque and tartar build up. We also apply a special fluoride polish once each tooth has been thoroughly cleaned. The teeth are then inspected by the vet using a special dental probing instrument, where they will note down on the dental chart any gum pockets and any other potential abnormalities they can see such as; loose teeth, discoloured teeth, fractured teeth, worn teeth, gum recession (and the list goes on!).

The next step in the dental is to take full mouth radiographs (x-rays)! X-rays are taken of all the teeth, including the roots of the teeth and the jaw bones. The x-rays allow the vet to look beneath the gums and get a full picture of your pets’ oral health. Some things that may show up on x-ray but aren’t visible at all from looking in the mouth include abscesses, bone loss and resorption of roots, just to name a few!

Once the cleaning, examination and x-rays have been performed, the vet will then compile all of their findings and determine if any teeth require special treatment (e.g. extractions, root canal treatment, deep gum scaling etc.). If extractions or other advanced dental treatments (e.g. root canal therapy) are necessary we then perform dental nerve blocks using local anaesthetic, this ensures that your pet feels no pain and allows for a more stable anaesthetic, as well as a smoother more comfortable recovery.

Here’s just a few reasons why we might need to extract a tooth:

• it’s mobile (loose)
• it’s abscessed and has infected bone
• it has severe root exposure
• it’s broken and the pulp cavity is infected

Small teeth (e.g. incisors) are removed by simply elevating around the tooth and root with a special instrument, but large teeth (especially those with multiple roots) need surgical extraction techniques, including sectioning (cutting) the teeth with a dental drill and creating gum flaps using a scalpel and special instruments to access the roots. These types of extractions are then closed with tiny dissolvable stitches in the gums.

Once all necessary extractions and treatments have been carried out… This ends the procedure and your pet can be woken up from their anaesthetic…

…But our job doesn’t finish there. It is very important that patients are monitored closely during recovery. Once the dental is completed, the anaesthetic gas is turned off and your pet breathes in oxygen whilst they are regaining consciousness. Pets require special care and support as they can be disoriented initially and they need to be kept warm. It is common at Sunbury Animal Hospital to see one of our nurses cuddling or sitting beside a pet as they are waking up and we know they appreciate the comfort.

Additional pain relief is given in hospital while your pet is in recovery, and your pet will then be sent home with additional prescribed medications such as additional pain relief, and antibiotics if needed. Dental home care advice for owners is provided at the discharge appointment, as well as going over special post-op instructions and answering any questions you might have.

And that’s our typical dental procedures at Sunbury Animal Hospital! We hope you enjoyed reading.  

PLEASE NOTE:
*Advanced dentistry can be performed in our hospital via booking a mobile vet dentist, or we can arrange referral to a specialist vet dentist.

**In some cases, your pet may require a second procedure to complete all treatments, or we may need to consult a vet dentist prior to completing treatments. Dental treatments and oral surgery take considerable skill and time, and because our pets need to be under general anaesthesia for their dentistry diagnostics and treatment, we must consider how long treatment is going to take.

Our vets will take each individual pets’ circumstances into consideration when planning their dental treatments. Your vet will always advocate for your pet and talk you through your options on the day of your pet’s dental. It is imperative that you are available to be contacted by phone on the day so we can gain consent for the treatment plan and provide updates to you. If you ever have any questions about your pet’s dental health or our dental procedures – please feel free to ask us during your visit.