Pet Smiles General Veterinary Dentistry Does NOT Recommend Non-Anesthetic Dental Care For Pets
Why we use
Anesthesia
At Pet Smiles, we perform professional dental procedures with the use of general anesthesia, a key component that allows us to obtain an accurate oral diagnosis and provide comprehensive treatment. The use of general anesthesia for dental procedures in pets is considered the standard of care.
Tartar and bacteria accumulate under the gum line, which results in gum disease, bone loss, tooth loss and other issues. An anesthesia-free cleaning addresses the visible parts of the teeth, but is unable to assess or address the dental disease occurring below the gum line, where the damage is progressing.
A veterinary dental procedure has two primary goals: diagnosis of oral/dental disease and the treatment of any found disease. A thorough, anesthetized oral examination is arguably one of the most important components of a veterinary dental procedure because it allows your veterinarian to look and probe for evidence of oral disease and determine the most appropriate course of treatment. Additionally, only with anesthesia are we able to perform full-mouth dental radiographs (x-rays). It is the pathology that we cannot see with our eyes that causes the majority of pain and disease in small animals. Since your pet is under anesthesia, we can then also provide immediate treatment of this disease and relief from pain.
Anesthesia-free dentistry is often a less-safe option
At face value, anesthesia-free dentistry might sound appealing because it avoids putting a pet under general anesthesia, but unfortunately, anesthesia-free dentistry is often a less-safe, more painful, higher-stress option:
Physical Restraint of the Pet. Dental tartar and calculus is firmly adhered to the surface of the teeth. Scaling to remove tartar and calculus is accomplished using ultrasonic power scalers, plus hand instruments that must have a sharp working edge to be used effectively. Even slight head movement by the pet could result in injury to the oral tissues of the pet. Access to the subgingival area of every tooth is impossible in an unanesthetized pet. Removal of dental tartar on the visible surfaces of the teeth has little effect on a pet’s health and provides a false sense that the patient’s oral health has been improved. The effect is purely cosmetic.
Your pet may have a cracked tooth or underlying dental problem, like a mobile tooth, and scraping or manipulating the tooth without anesthesia could cause significant and unnecessary pain.
The most critical part of a dental scaling procedure is scaling the tooth surfaces under the gum line that are within the gingival pocket (the subgingival space between the gum and the root), where periodontal disease is active.
During general anesthesia, we maintain your pet on inhalant anesthesia with a cuffed endotracheal tube in place to protect your pet’s airway and lungs. This allows us to effectively prevent your pet from inhaling pieces of tartar removed from the teeth, or water from the ultrasonic scaler.
Utilizing general anesthesia during dental procedures allows your pet to cooperate with a procedure he or she does not understand (unlike humans at the dentist who do understand the procedure and can follow instructions), keeping your pet safe from injury while receiving treatment.
Anesthesia-free dentistry is far more limited than veterinary dentistry.
Few pets will permit a thorough oral evaluation without anesthesia, which means that only the outside surfaces of the teeth can be examined. Significant diseases can be missed, including periodontal disease, oral tumors, and dental abscesses. Additionally, while anesthesia-free dentistry may help to remove some visible tartar from easily accessible surfaces of the teeth, there is no way to remove tartar below the gumline or between the teeth without anesthesia.
Given these drawbacks of non-anesthetic dentistry, most major veterinary organizations, including the American Veterinary Dental College, the American Veterinary Medical Association, and the American Animal Hospital Association, agree that dental cleanings should be performed only under anesthesia. While anesthesia-free dentistry may offer a slight cosmetic benefit, it offers little true medical benefit for patients.
We understand many people are concerned or anxious about anesthesia. If you have questions or concerns about anesthesia, please let us know – we take anesthesia safety seriously! If you have concerns about anesthesia and your pet, you have the option to have a Board-Certified Veterinary Anesthesiologist consult with us and provide care for your pet while at Pet Smiles General Veterinary Dentistry.
For more information about non-anesthetic dentistry, please visit our position page or visit the information provided by the American Veterinary Dental College.
https://afd.avdc.org/reasons-not-to-choose-anethesia-free-pet-dentals/
For general information on performance of dental procedures on veterinary patients, please read the AVDC Position Statement on Veterinary Dental Healthcare Providers, which is available on the AVDC web site (www.AVDC.org). For information on effective oral hygiene products for dogs and cats, visit the Veterinary Oral Health Council website (www.VOHC.org).