At Whiskers Vets we offer a two staged dental procedure which gives you peace of mind about your pet’s dental health and how to plan for it.

We recommend a staged approach to dental treatment for your pet. A staged dental means that your pet will first come to us for a full dental assessment under anaesthetic. Following this assessment, if teeth need to be extracted, we will arrange a second stage procedure for removal of the affected teeth. This separation of the assessment and the treatment means that we can provide you with a more accurate estimate to help with planning for the costs of the treatment and it will allow for a more structured approach, ultimately reducing the total anaesthetic length for your pet.

Stage one

Your pet will have an admission appointment during which we will perform a pre-anaesthetic clinical examination and discuss the details of the procedure and the costs of the day.

For any procedure involving anaesthetic, a screening bloods test is recommended to check organ function before the anaesthetic as well as intravenous fluid therapy (going on a drip) to support organ health, circulation and blood pressure throughout the procedure.

Once under anesthetic, your pet with have their teeth descaled meticulously with an ultrasonic cleaner. Having this procedure performed under anaesthetic is paramount as it means that we can pay particular attention to the sulcus (where the gum meets the tooth). This area is the most important part of the tooth to clean but is too sensitive to clean when an animal is awake. Without cleaning the sulcus, a descale is only a cosmetic procedure.

Once the teeth are cleaned, a full oral assessment will be carried out. This involves a visual assessment of the structures in the oral cavity and careful dental probing and assessment of the teeth and their connection to the gingiva (gum) and periodontal bone.

The final part of the assessment is full mouth dental x-rays. We take x-rays of all of the teeth as well as areas where teeth are missing to assess the tooth health under the gumline as well as whether there are any signs of tumours in the jaw. Research has shown that 42% of cats and 28% of dogs have lesions which are only detectable on x-ray. This means that if we only assessed the teeth visually, we would miss many potentially painful conditions.

With this information, we can generate a dental chart for your pet which documents the health of each tooth. From this point we can assess whether any teeth need to be removed and the best way to approach this.

Any teeth that are mobile during the assessment can be removed on that visit. If teeth with solidly attached roots require extraction, we will then arrange for a second stage dental within 4 weeks.

A vet will discuss the dental assessment’s findings with you, the recommended further treatment, and the aftercare this may entail. If needed, pain relief and medications will be prescribed.

Stage two

We will repeat the pre-anaesthetic clinical examination to ensure nothing has changed.

Once asleep, we can efficiently start extracting the teeth identified as diseased in the first stage dental.

Once the teeth are extracted, we will repeat the x-rays for this area of the jaw to ensure a successful removal of all the tooth roots. Following this, the gingiva (gum) will be repaired.

At the discharge appointment, a clinical team member will discuss the procedure and make sure that you are comfortable with any aftercare and medications. Pain relief will be dispensed. We will see you back for post operative checks on day two and ten after the second stage procedure. At the ten day check we will discuss techniques for ongoing dental care at home, as well as booking the next dental check with the nurse.

If you are worried about your pet’s teeth or would like to arrange a dental check with one of our clinicians, contact the practice on 01626 835 002 or at hello@whiskersvets.co.uk