This is my dog Cindy, and its about her day at the dentist!!
I’ve had Cindy, my short legged Jack Russell, for nearly two years now. She was a rescued dog from the Humane Society and to put it kindly, she has some special needs problems. She is a food thief, so as you will notice she is a bit over weight. She has a hole in her palate which leaves her like a snooty nose two year old, every thing that makes her difficult is out weighted by her personality and bazaar habits. She has become much loved and now we have shorted out some of her other problems our attention turned to her teeth.
One of the signs that a dogs teeth are not in great shape is the smell!! Our little Cindy had noticeably bad breath!!
One of the things about my job as a dental hygienist is I get to meet a lot of great people and one of my patients is Dr Robert Visser, from JB Visser Vets in Morrinsville, Waikato, NZ. We got chatting about veterinary care and cleaning teeth for cats and dogs. Turns out, that the type of up-to-date equipment used now, isn’t that much different from the type of equipment I use. Robert had the latest in sonic cleaning equipment for animals and as the only training available was oversea’s, I could help him with the techniques for using this system; and Cindy was to be the lucky patient.
Dog’s get gum disease just like humans do, and just like humans they can loose their teeth because of it. I had no real idea how bad her gum disease was gong to be, just that it really smelt!! just the same as a lot of people with gum disease do. You will notice in the photos above that Cindy was put to sleep to have her teeth done, the anesthetics is the most dangerous part of the procedure. The actual cleaning is relatively straight forward, but you don’t want to scare your pet half to death, so sleep is the best option. I didn’t think to take some photos at the beginning to show you what Cindy’s mouth looked like so I have found some examples of other dogs which will give you a good idea of what things can look like.
The first photo isn’t Cindy but it is close to what she looked like at the start. The before and after photos are just a good example of the difference a good clean can make. These are the only photo’s that aren’t of my little fat girl.
The remainder of the clean went smoothly and although the close up one looks uncomfortable for Cindy,it isn’t, it is just a little spring loaded device that holds her mouth open while she sleeps. If you click on the photo’s they will enlarge, if you have a look at the close up one, you might be able to see the last two teeth to be cleaned? It was great to see that Cindy’s mouth was in pretty good shape. Although she started with a reasonable amount of tartar on her back teeth, there was little to no damage with the supporting structures that hold the teeth in.
I would recommend that you have your dogs teeth checked at there yearly Vet check up. If you haven’t, and their breath stinks, it could be a good time to get them checked out! Cindy slept most of the remaining day away and was in full form by the next morning. We all appreciate her fresh breath now and I know her teeth will be safe until they are checked again next year. Not to mention that teeth for a food thief is essential!!