Dental Prophylaxis and Therapy

At Hudson Animal Hospital, we offer comprehensive dental therapy. This consists of general anesthesia and ultrasonic scaling with polishing, dental X-rays, and dental sealant or fluoride treatment. For more serious dental disease, tooth extractions may be indicated, and all extractions are performed by our experienced veterinarians. To avoid more serious future problems, bring your pets in for a dental exam and teeth cleaning today.

Sometimes, keeping your pet’s teeth healthy can feel like big job. Luckily, our practice provides advanced veterinary dentistry services in addition to basic dental care.

This includes routine care such as cleaning, along with treating more complicated conditions. Because our pets don’t brush their teeth every night before bed like we do, tartar can firmly adhere to the teeth.

In order to remove this tartar, we perform dental scaling, our most basic dental procedure. During the scaling process our practice uses sonic and ultrasonic power scalers as well as hand-held instruments to remove this tartar from the surface of the teeth both above and below the gum line.

Tooth extraction is another very common procedure. It is the goal of our practice for your pet to retain as many teeth as possible. However, sometimes extraction is the only option to relieve pain or ensure that periodontal disease does not advance. If not extracted, many times a diseased tooth can compromise the surrounding tissue and neighboring teeth. If caught early, there are more treatment options available for periodontal disease.

Our practice requires anesthesia for dental procedures. Because of this, we first perform a full physical exam and run blood tests. Inside the mouth, we utilize local anesthetic injections to reduce pain. We closely monitor your pet the entire time they receive anesthesia. Our practice monitors oxygen saturation and carbon dioxide levels in your pet's blood along with their blood pressure, heart rate, heart rhythm (EKG), and temperature.

In order to help maintain the health of your pet’s mouth and teeth, you should bring your pet in for a dental check-up once a year. During these routine exams, our practice includes a general dental exam as well as teeth and gum cleaning if needed.

Catching dental problems in the early stages can greatly help your pet in the long run. Contact our practice right away if your pet experiences any of the following:

  • Chronic bad breath
  • Your pet shies away when you try to touch their mouth area
  • Excessive drool
  • Dropping food when eating
  • Bleeding in your pet’s mouth
  • Loss of appetite or weight loss
  • Yellowish brown crust of tartar around the gum line
  • Missing, loose or broken teeth