Common Questions and Discussions

*In Progress* – Over the next coming month Dr. Haver will be adding great information to this page.

If you have further questions please let any of our staff know.


*In Progress

FAQ’s and hot topics in dental care.

Frequent points of discussion;

1- My pet is too old for anesthesia…. While older pets do certainly have special anesthetic concerns, age itself is not a deciding factor on if a pet should or can have an anesthetic procedure performed. For example, there are some very healthy 10+year old dogs and cats, meanwhile there are some 6 year or younger pets that have major health issues. We evaluate each pet individually via several methods to help us decide on a particular pet being a good candidate for an anesthetic procedure. So if your aging pet has bad dental disease, don’t simply rule out a dental procedure because of their age. Let us know your concerns and one of our doctors would be happy to evaluate your pet during an exam.

2 – My last pet never needed a dental cleaning – That may be (there are a select few lucky pets that go through life without dental disease), however, more likely, your pet could have benefited from at least one professional cleaning, but for some reason a dental cleaning was never performed.

3 – My pet just had a dental cleaning recently, why do they need another one? – Every pet’s (and person’s) health needs are unique. There may be pets that should have their teeth cleaned much more often than another, just depending on many different genetic and environmental factors.

4- I’ve seen some places offer “Anesthesia Free Dentistry”, why do you recommend my pet go under anesthesia for a cleaning? Anesthesia Free Dentistry (AFD) is not a recommended way to assess and treat oral disease in pets. The American Veterinary Dental College explains this in great detail. See this file for further explanation – Download & Print Form

5-I don’t want my pet to loose any teeth…..  If a full oral exam reveals diseased teeth, it is as simple as this; your pet will feel better with diseased teeth removed than they do with those teeth still present. If there are “bad” teeth present, these are causing pain and infection, and once they are removed your pet should be free of the pain and infection those teeth were causing. Your pet will do just fine, probably even better, eating with fewer, but healthier teeth, than they did with some of their teeth being diseased.

6-My pet gets their teeth brushed at the groomer – Great! We are glad your pet is getting their teeth brushed, however, this is not frequent enough. Consider only brushing your teeth when you get your hair cut…. suddenly that makes sense that brushing once every few months is not often enough for proper prevention.

7-What things should I avoid giving my pet to chew on? As a good rule of thumb, you should be able to squeeze and slightly compress the object you are giving your pet in order to assure that it is not too hard for their teeth. There are many items that are very common that are too hard – for example; the hard nylabones, cow hooves, hard rawhides, ice cubes, deer antlers and other hard natural bones…. These objects have a high potential of causing fractured teeth that will then need treatment. Safer options, even for tough chewers are rubber type toys, dense fabric toys that are advertised as “indestructible”, and natural treats such as pig ears and various tendons.

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