Dental Procedures

The team at The Pines Vet, Pacific Pines, perform a wide range of dental procedures each and every day! We undertake anything from a simple scale and polish to full mouth extractions.

Dental Disease in Pets

It is estimated that 70-80% of all cats and dogs that are two years and older suffer from dental diseases including gingivitis and periodontitis. More than half of the patients seen at The Pines Vet are victims of these preventable disorders. Periodontal disease is a progressive disorder affecting the teeth and gums, which is caused by a build-up of plaque and tartar on the tooth surface.

Without adequate care and attention, periodontal disease can result in discomfort, bad breath, irreversible damage to gums, premature loss of teeth, and infections that can affect other organs in the body such as the heart, liver and kidneys.

Why check your pet’s teeth and gums?

Do you notice any bad breath, red (painful) gums or plaque (pus) build up? Bad breath, painful gums and pus are all signs of gum disease and tooth decay. For our furry friends, the suffering and pain can be just as real as when we humans have a raw nerve or inflamed gums. But they hide their distress and cannot tell us when it hurts!

Dental problems and overall health

In fact, untreated dental problems can develop into serious, and even life threatening diseases in our pets that require expensive long term medication. Gum disease and rotten teeth can result in infections that spread to the blood stream and vital organs like the kidney, liver, and heart disease in aging pets.

We Recommend a Preventative Approach

Regular dental cleaning helps your pet to live a longer, healthier life. Just like in humans, we recommend an annual dental scale and polish for dogs and cats to prevent the decay and gum disease that results in us needing to remove teeth.

The Dental Check Process

During the dental check, we will review your pet’s teeth and gums, and discuss any treatment that may be required. Of course, if your pet’s teeth are healthy we will let you know what to look out for in the future and give you some tips for keeping their teeth nice and clean!

Dental Grading

Grade 0: Clinically normal, no gingival inflammation or periodontitis clinically evident.
Grade 1: inflammation of the gingival tissues; advances as the tissues become more inflamed and there may be bleeding with probing; gingivitis is limited to the gingival tissues, there is no attachment loss, no tooth mobility; gingivitis is reversible.
Grade 2: pocket formation and/or gingival recession are occurring; results in attachment loss of up to 25%.
Grade 3: 25-50% attachment loss around a tooth; slight tooth mobility may be present; pocketing, gingival recession and early furcation exposure may be present.
Grade 4: marked (over 50%) attachment loss; may appear as furcation exposure, deep pockets, mobility, and/or gingival recession.