The condition (and Dr. Johnson's suggestion to have a dental for your pet) raise some good questions.

"How Much Will this service cost?"
For most pets, fees for these services are about 75$ [all-inclusive]. One condition that might modify this would be in the case of a geriatric pet; that is, a pet over nine years old. These patients are not universally suited to tolerate anesthesia, and so a pre-screening panel of blood tests is sometimes suggested to determine the safety of the suggested procedure. For the additional 35$, we can gather the kind of information we need about your pet's health status to allow us to perform the suggested procedure with a higher degree of confidence that the patient will do well.

"What sort of time is involved?"
Dental prophys are done on patients submitted on an empty stomach either the night before the procedure, or the morning of the procedure. The procedure takes about 35 minutes. The patients are released to their owners the very same day.

"What if I don't DO this for my Pet?"
There are very, very few dental conditions which are immediately life threatening to your dog or cat, so you are certainly not making a life-or-death decision. However; infection from the gumline can spread to the heart valves (vegetative endocarditis) and other internal organs, causing severe problems in some patients. In other cases, pain from infected, encrusted teeth can cause the pet to stop eating. It is under these circumstances much less preferable, while the patient is debilitated, that we would be forced to clean the teeth to get the patient to return to the food bowl. Finally, severe tartar accumulation and infection, left unchecked, can result in tooth root abscesses, pain, and tooth loss.

"How is The Dental scheduled?"
Just call our office number. We can schedule this procedure to be performed on any of our surgical/anesthesia rotations. You would bring your dog or cat in on the morning of the procedure, without having given any food for the preceding 12 hour period. Some folks are better served to bring in the pet the night before, and we fast them. Make a plan that suits your schedule.

Closing comments:
We are proud to use the same caliber orthodontic equipment as your regular dentist. The teeth are ultrasonically scaled, and then polished with a fluoride paste.

In the event that the gums are significantly infected, antimicrobials may be prescribed to combat the infection.

The blood panel (as sometimes suggested for geriatric pets) should be drawn one or two days prior to the date on which you would like to submit your pet for the dental procedure.