If your pet shows any of the signs of poor oral health such as: bad breath, excessive drooling, mouth pain, bleeding gums, plaque, tartar, and/or tooth loss, the first step is to visit your veterinarian for a complete oral examination.

If your pet does indeed have periodontal disease, your veterinarian will probably recommend that a dental cleaning be performed. Dental cleaning, commonly called a dental prophylaxis, involves more than just removing the visible tartar and plaque off of the teeth. The dental prophy is a multi-step procedure and each step is discussed more thoroughly below.

Regardless of where you have your pet's dental work done, make sure his/her needs are being met by asking about the following points. These questions address some of the issues that are necessary to provide accurate, high quality care:

• Are accurate and complete records kept to monitor missing and extracted teeth, and gum/bone loss?
• Is a thorough pre-anesthetic physical evaluation, including blood work, performed?
• Are pre-surgical work-up and anesthetic protocols determined case by case, taking into consider the pet's age and overall health?
• Are both ultrasonic and hand instruments used to scale tartar off the teeth?
• Are the teeth cleaned both above and below the gum lines?
• Is the scaling followed by polishing and a fluoride treatment?
• Is the office equipped with a dental radiograph unit?
• Are post-operative antibiotics and/or pain medications administered when needed?

Now for the steps of a dental prophy:

Step One
A complete physical exam is performed and pre-anesthetic blood work completed. Also at this time, if warranted by your pet's age or overall condition, other pre-surgical testing or procedures may be done. These could include: ECG evaluation, chest radiographs, and/or more in-depth blood work.

Step Two
After general anesthesia is administered, the oral cavity is inspected for any abnormalities.

Step Three
Plaque and tartar are scaled off of the visible tooth surfaces using hand instruments and ultrasonic equipment. Any tartar that is below the gum line is also removed using hand instruments.

The reason for removing tartar both above and below the gum line is to remove all of the surface factors that contribute to the inflammation of the gum tissue.

Step Four
A complete polishing of tooth surfaces is done to help slow down future tartar and plaque accumulation. This is a time consuming step but VERY necessary to retard future problems.

Step Five
Oral radiographs (x-rays) are taken of any suspicious areas to evaluate the underlying structures of those teeth for potential problems.

X-rays can show us hidden disease below the gum line, such as broken pieces of a tooth left in the gum tissue, and many other painful conditions that there may be no visual evidence of from just looking in the mouth.

Step Six
Any "problem" teeth, as indicated by radiographs, are extracted or restorations are performed.

Step Seven
The teeth are "charted" to keep track of any areas that could be concerns in the future. Charting also lets the veterinarian monitor the progress of the periodontal disease and whether or not the condition improves between dental prophys.

This monitoring will help your veterinarian decide the best home care for your pet's condition. Application of fluoride to teeth is done to help increase resistance to cavities, decrease mouth sensitivity from gum recession, and help reduce the rate of plaque formation.

Step Eight
A technician or doctor will monitor the pet while it wakes up from anesthesia. When an owner picks up the pet, a doctor or technician should go over the findings and treatments performed during the dental prophy.

At this time, the best home care and any medications for the pet will be explained.

It is possible to have a "quicker and cheaper" dental prophy performed, however, often many of the above steps will have been left out, giving only short term benefits to your pet's oral health.

Keeping up with your pet's dental health does not end with the prophy, proper home care is essential to maintaining good oral health.