Pet Dental Care Is Important for Good Pet Health

Pet Dental Care

Comprehensive routine care for teeth both above and below the gum line can dramatically extend your pet’s life. Mountain View Animal Clinic recommends preventive care as the key to maintaining your pet’s long-term health. At every exam, we thoroughly check your pet’s mouth for the following:

• Correct bite
• Jaw injury
• Abscesses
• Gingivitis
• Fractured teeth
• Damage to enamel
• Tartar and calculus build up

We will make recommendations to maintain or help improve your pet’s oral health. Your pet might need a professional cleaning, or prophylaxis, for his or her teeth.

Keeping Your Pet’s Teeth Clean

Regular dental prophylaxis that includes professional cleaning and polishing helps keep your pet’s teeth and gums healthy. We clean the teeth ultrasonically, removing tartar and calculus above and below the gum line. The final step is polishing that makes the tooth surface smooth so that bacteria have no place to hide.

Home care is very important. We are happy to show you how to brush your pet’s teeth and may make other recommendations, such as oral rinses, that can help keep the teeth, gums, and mouth healthier.

Anesthesia

During every dental procedure, whether your pet is having a cleaning or an extraction, we administer general anesthesia so that your pet will have no anxiety. Pain medication, as well as a local dental block, is given to ensure additional pain relief before, during, and after all procedures.

Just as we do before surgery, we also will perform pre-anesthetic blood tests before we administer any anesthesia. Your pet’s heart rate and temperature are carefully monitored throughout the treatment and a skilled veterinary technician will be with your pet during the procedure and recovery.