Dentistry

Our dental cleaning packages are comprehensive and based upon age of your pet and length of the dental cleaning procedure.

If you are interested in having your pet’s teeth cleaned, and would like an estimate of cost for the cleaning, please come in for a quick, complimentary dental check by one of our skilled dental technicians. No appointment needed!

By having one of our technicians look at your pet’s teeth, we can determine approximately how long your pet’s dental cleaning might take, and if extractions may be necessary. The length of your pet’s dental cleaning directly impacts the cost, as our dental packages are charged by the hour.

Possibly, but only if it is medically necessary.

Our skilled dental technicians perform a comprehensive oral examination, including taking digital x-rays of your pet’s teeth. The x-ray images will give us information about the health of your pet’s teeth beneath the gum line. If your pet has tooth roots that are fractured, or otherwise damaged or diseased, we will remove them in order to protect the health of your pet.

If we do remove any damaged or diseased teeth, we will administer pain medications via injection, and send home oral pain medication to keep your pet comfortable as they heal.

We recommend a soft diet for 10-14 days following extractions to allow for proper healing.

• Complete physical exam by one of our veterinarians prior to anesthesia
• Monitored Anesthesia- because we can’t make your pet say “Ahh” while we examine, x-ray and clean and polish their teeth.
• Comprehensive Oral Exam, including digital dental radiographs (x-rays). We take x-rays of your pet’s mouth to look for evidence of dental disease that can occur beneath the gum line, such as bone recession, fractured roots, pockets of infection and resorptive lesions.
• Ultrasonic Scaling and Polishing of your pet’s teeth- We use the same type of ultrasonic scaler that your dentist uses to remove plaque and tartar build up from your pet’s teeth.
• Extractions- if the dental x-rays reveal any damaged or diseased teeth, we will remove them using manual or surgical extraction techniques, in order to protect your pet’s health, and prevent disease from spreading.

While any procedure under anesthesia comes with inherent risk, we do everything in our power to make anesthesia as safe as possible, especially for our geriatric patients (ages 6 and over).

The first safety measure we take is running pre-anesthetic blood chemistry panels to evaluate the health of your pet’s liver and kidneys, as these organs will filter the anesthesia drugs from the bloodstream. If the bloodwork indicates any potential problems, our medical team will call you to explain our findings. If the bloodwork is within normal range, we will proceed with the dental cleaning.

The second safety measure we take is running IV fluids during your pet’s dental procedure to help maintain blood pressure, replace fluid loss, speed recovery, and, in case of emergency, provide an essential line for life-saving drugs. 

Another safety measure we are proud to offer is a sophisticated monitoring system (blood pressure, pulse oximetry, and EKG) to be used during anesthesia. This helps our medical team keep a close eye on how your pet is handling the anesthesia in real time.

Finally, once the dental procedure is finished, our patients are recovered under the watchful eye of our medical team in our treatment area, on a warm, comfy bed.