After all, it is no fun having teeth shudder when there is pain in your mouth.
No one likes the thought of extracting teeth, in ourselves or in our pets.
How will they eat?
Is it really necessary?
Why did it happen?
These are the questions that are commonly asked by loving pet owners. The answers are easy, though. Easy on paper. Harder when they apply to a loving living creature.
They will eat just fine - trying to eat with a painful tooth means that they were eating around the pain. They will now eat with the pain lifted from their shoulders. Removing pain is never a bad thing to do.
Yes, it is really necessary. If there was another way of salvaging the teeth, we would do it. In some cases, there are ways of salvaging the teeth, but this would mean travel to a vet dental specialist (there are not many of those around in Australia).
And your pet has dental disease because despite your best attempts (or because you didn't attempt anything), due to a complex series of pathological events, disease was able to destroy the bone around the tissue that holds the tooth in. The tooth is a living structure, and if the tissue around it dies, it has nothing in which to support it.
The art of saving teeth does not mean that we are able to save all of the teeth in a pet's head. The art comes in saving the teeth that absolutely need to be saved, if the teeth around them are diseased.
An example would be of extracting incisors (the little teeth at the front of the mouth) to protect the canines (the fang teeth).
One often thinks that saving every single tooth in a pet is the ultimate goal. It's not. It is not even like that with us. How many of us have had our wisdom teeth removed, or, some other teeth to prevent crowding.
Sometimes, we need to remove teeth to save teeth.
Sometimes, we need to remove teeth that are a cause of pain, and that there are no other ways of removing that.
Do not be afraid of your pet needing teeth to be extracted, rather, look at what the intended goal of the extraction.
In virtually all cases, it will be to remove a source of oral pain in your pet.
Why, as a pet owner, would you not want that for your pet?
Why, as a pet owner, would you not want that for your pet?
The only thing that I would demand, as a pet owner, are dental radiographs before and after the extraction. "I want a copy please" would be what I would be saying. (we give a copy of these at discharge EVERY time).
I would demand a dental chart, and a logical scientific reason why these teeth needed to be extracted.
Every vet should be able to explain and prove why teeth should be removed, and prove that they were, in fact, removed.
Every vet should be able to explain and prove why teeth should be removed, and prove that they were, in fact, removed.
I am Dr Liz, the mad vet of Bellambi.
My dental credentials: I am an active long term member of the Australian Veterinary Dental Society (for over 10 years), have published many articles on dental care (from a general practitioners perspective), an active member of the American Foundation in Veterinary Dentistry, and read the Journal of Veterinary Dentistry like many people read Womens Day. I am also a member of the Veterinary Dental Education Centre, and have attended many wetlabs as well as lectures on basic and advanced dentistry.
