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Dog and Cat Dental Care in Hopewell Junction

At Hopewell Animal Hospital, dental work is one of the most common procedures we perform. Our team understands the importance of your pet’s oral health and offers a variety of services to help promote healthy gums and teeth for your pets. Whether your pet is doing their annual cleaning or is seemingly uncomfortable while eating or drinking, our team can help get your pet’s oral health back on track.

Dental work can involve anything from basic cleaning to advanced procedures such as root canals, vital pulpotomy, oral surgery, and orthodontics. We understand that dog and cat dental care in Hopewell Junction can be expensive. Our practice works to be transparent about our pricing structure and demonstrate our passion for promoting a healthy life for your pet, including their oral health. Call our practice and schedule your consultation today!

Our Dental Examination and Evaluation

It all starts in the examination room. Each pet will have photos taken before and after, so you can see the changes. These photos are placed in a chart that records any procedures done to each tooth, and a copy of this record comes along with your pet’s discharge instructions.

We have developed 3 tiers for our pricing structure:

Grade 1: Requires routine care and cleaning with no dental extractions, endodontics, or orthodontics expected.

Grade 2: Significant oral disease with endodontics or extractions expected.

Grade 3: Advanced disease that may require multiple extractions and advanced procedures such as vital pulpotomy or tooth shaping.

In most cases, we are accurate at assessing treatment after the initial exam. However, disease progression under the gums is often not identifiable without radiographs and an in-depth examination. A Grade 1 disease can quickly become a Grade 2 disease after an exam. Once we diagnose dental disease, we will try to evaluate how severe the condition is, but unfortunately, this assessment can’t always be possible without sedation.

Preparing Your Pet for Treatment

Typically, we require current laboratory work to evaluate liver, kidney, blood count, etc., before anesthesia. These labs allow us to make changes to our anesthetic protocol if needed, but in many cases, we have found other conditions that would preclude us from performing anesthesia. This laboratory work is done before the dental appointment (which is usually less expensive) or on the day of the procedure. Before any performed work, a thorough oral exam is done to look for cancers, changes to tonsils, and gum diseases.

The day before the procedure, because of the anesthesia, we will inform you that you should not offer food after midnight. Water is okay. When you come in, a receptionist will greet you and take you to an examination room. The technician will take your pet’s vital signs and ask about any medications that your pet is taking, including supplements, vitamins, herbs, etc.

Our staff will go over each item on the estimate with you. We typically try to email the dental work estimate the day before the procedure so that you can look it over before arrival. You must provide a good contact number on the day of the procedure. Often, we have to make adjustments during a vet dental cleaning, or complications arise. We cannot perform the necessary procedures without your consent to any care plan changes.

Promoting a Safe Procedure

Your pet will be taken into the hospital with an identification collar on them. They relax in a quiet padded cage to wait until the procedure time. When it’s time for the procedure, we give your pet a complete physical examination to evaluate your pet’s overall health. They are also given a pre-medication, which is typically composed of an opiate and a sedative. These medications are used to “take the edge off” and provide pain control during dental work.

After the pre-medication takes effect, we will place an intravenous catheter and start fluid therapy. We then give your pet a combination of medications that will allow us to place an endotracheal tube for gas anesthesia. Using a tube helps control your pet’s airway and prevent fluid from entering the lungs, making your pet’s procedure safer and more comfortable.

After intubation, your pet will wear multiple monitors. Our team will watch your pet with the plethysmograph variability index, which allows us to track their blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen saturation, temperature, and hydration levels.

We maintain your pet’s temperature with the help of heated water, air blankets, and intravenous fluid warmers. A licensed veterinary technician monitors only your pet. All vital signs are recorded in 5-10 minute increments. We maintain a full supply of medications to adjust your pet’s blood pressure if need be.

Our Dog and Cat Teeth Cleaning Process

When performing a thorough oral exam, the first step of dog or cat teeth cleaning involves dental radiographs. Each tooth is x-rayed to evaluate its structure, roots, and any bone loss.

While the doctor evaluates the radiographs, the technician cleans all the tooth surfaces. For this procedure, we use an ultrasonic scaler and hand scalers. We will then examine each tooth for dental pockets. These pockets can indicate bone loss or loss of attachment of the tooth to the surrounding gum. Deep pockets must be clean; in some cases, we will place a long-acting antibiotic into the space.

We may need to remove pet teeth if they are damaged or diseased beyond saving. In those cases, we use the gingival flap technique to remove the tooth and associated roots completely. These flaps require suturing with very fine material. To facilitate this technique, we use magnification glasses and powerful LED lights.

If there’s any work on a tooth, we will place a local anesthetic block to numb the nerves to the tooth in addition to the general anesthesia. This application allows us to use less gas anesthesia on your pet and relieves pain after the procedure.

After the doctor performs the dental work, a technician will polish their teeth with an abrasive toothpaste and a low-speed polishing handle. After this step, we will place either a long-acting fluoride foam or a fluoride varnish to help protect teeth from further decay. Your pet will be observed while they recover from the anesthesia and may receive additional pain medications as needed. Sometimes, a complicated dental case can be under anesthesia for 3 hours and must be closely monitored.

To provide our full attention to your pet, we will only perform two procedures on a surgery day. After the procedure, we provide written take-home instructions and a “goody bag” with dental chews and samples of toothpaste for at-home dog or cat dental care.

Dog and Cat Dental Care in Dutchess County

As you can imagine, dog and cat dental care is not a simple surgery. All of the attention to detail is crucial in completing a safe and effective treatment. Our extensive experience working with pet dentistry has allowed our team the ability to skillfully attend to your pet’s oral health. Our goal is to provide quality services equivocal to their cost value. We are happy to answer any questions about our pet dental services or veterinary practice philosophy. If you have any questions about our cat and dog dental care in Hopewell Junction, contact our office for your initial consultation.