Bell Ridge Animal Hospital & Boarding

Dentistry

Before & After

Pets Have Teeth Too!

Imagine how your teeth would look and feel if you didn’t brush them for years. The same applies to your pet’s teeth. At Bell Ridge Animal Hospital & Boarding, we are happy to evaluate every patient’s mouth in order to help you provide the best dental care for your pet. Early intervention and subsequent home care is the main way to treat and minimize further damage to your pet’s teeth. It has been proven in human and animal medicine that a healthy mouth is the gateway to a healthy body.

Veterinary dental specialists report that 85% of dogs and cats greater than 3 years old have active periodontal disease. In most cases, our owners are unaware that their pet is having oral/dental problems. Dental radiographs show evidence that 60% of dental disease occurs below the gumline. The pets feel pain, but usually do not communicate this to their owners. Not all animals stop chewing hard food/toys, drool excessively, or stop eating all together despite their painful mouths. These animal’s "suffer in silence" for years with similar conditions that we could not deal with for 1 day if it were our painful teeth.

Broken/chipped/abscessed teeth, oral tumors, gum inflammation/ulceration, and many other oral problems when detected to help minimize suffering and improve quality of life. Please allow us to help provide your pet the care they deserve.

Dental Treatment Plans

After evaluating your pet’s mouth, our staff will review a treatment plan with you. Because we cannot evaluate what is occurring below the gum-line without an exam and radiograph(s) under anesthesia, we cannot always anticipate the number of teeth that may need to be treated, extracted, or require periodontal treatments. Once we have your pet under anesthesia to discuss any needed treatment and the additional cost involved.

We are excited to offer a variety of dental packages that are sure to fit the dental needs of your pet and your budget. Call us today at (602) 938-1982 to schedule a free "flip the lip" exam.

Payment for Dental Services

Because we are a small business, we appreciate full payment the same day service is provided. We understand that the cost of quality dental care can be overwhelming and may lead to our patient not receiving the immediate care necessary. It is comforting to know that there are other methods of payment. We currently offer flexible financing options through our hospital to those that qualify, which can be discussed with our doctors or staff members for further information. We also accept Care Credit, a company designed to provide owners an immediate, flexible, low interest payment option for their pet’s needs. Please visit www.CareCredit.com for more information.

Safe Anesthesia

The idea of general anesthesia for their pet concerns many owners. Some clients hesitate to have a painful mouth addressed because they are afraid of anesthesia in their older pet. Age is not a disease, but dental disease is- along with the pain. While there is always some risk of complications when anesthesia is used, the safety of anesthesia depends primarily on the skill and training of the person responsible for the procedure. In veterinary medicine, this varies quite a bit from practice to practice. We acknowledge that our older patients have unique anesthetic concerns and that the drugs and doses are quite different. Proper drug selection, indentifying pre-existing medical conditions, and diligent patient monitoring are the keys to success with geriatric patients.

At Bell Ridge Animal Hospital & Boarding, we take extra precautions to ensure the safety of your pet while under anesthesia. We customize our anesthetic protocols for each individual patient. Other factors that make a big difference at our hospital are the use of pre-anesthetic bloodwork to identify preexisting medical conditions, the use of IV fluids pre, during, and post anesthetic procedures, anesthetic monitoring that includes blood pressure, EKG, CO2 and blood oxygenation parameters, general patient care during the procedure, keeping patients body temperature & IV fluids temp regulated with warm-water blankets surrounding the entire body, and extra attention given to individual patient needs specific to species and breed. We even provide heated recovery cages to maintain appropriate body temperature post procedure until the patient is fully recovered. When anesthesia is managed properly, the anesthetic risks are minimal.

Pain Management & Dental Procedures

Another concern for our clients is whether their pet will be in pain after a dental procedure. We are focused on keeping our patients as comfortable as possible after any dental treatment. We accomplish this goal by utilizing a variety of drugs and techniques in combination, a philosophy known as multi-model pain control. Preventing pain in the first place goes a long way in controlling pain after the patient goes home. Below is a list of how we achieve the above:

 

• Administration of pain medications before starting anesthesia and surgery. This prevents “wind up” and enhances pain management.
• Utilizing analgesics (such as morphine, hydromorphone, buprenorphine, and butorphanol) as part of the anesthetic protocol.
• Employing long-acting local and regional nerve blocks before starting any painful procedure such as tooth extraction. This helps keep the depth of anesthesia to a minimum thus enhancing anesthetic safety.
• Providing IV fluids to allow immediate access to a vein during anesthesia for on-the-spot administration of additional IV pain meds as needed.
• Continuing pain meds (morphine, etc) as needed after the procedure.
• Sending home appropriate ant-inflammatory and other pain relief meds.
• Closing all extraction sites via gum surgery enhances patient comfort.