Today started off like any other day, and the case I want to share with you is, unfortunately, not unusual. We had several animals who needed their teeth cleaned and two of those needed root canals. Fluffy was scheduled for a routine teeth cleaning. When I looked in her mouth during her pre-anesthetic physical exam, I saw so much tartar that her actual teeth were not visible! Once Fluffy was anesthetized and her teeth cleaned, we found lots of problems. Fluffy had lost one of her incisor teeth and several of the others were loose due to infection of the gum and bone around these teeth. There was not enough bone left to hold the teeth in place and so the teeth were extracted. She had also fractured two of her large premolar teeth. These had become infected and developed abscesses at the root tips. Each tooth has three roots, meaning she had six abscessed roots! These teeth were also extracted and the infection cleaned up. Fluffy is at home now on antibiotics and pain control medications.

The problems we found in Fluffy ™s mouth are very painful, but dogs and cats aren ™t able to tell us about this kind of pain. Please take good care of your pets ™ teeth by having them examined and cleaned regularly. This will help to extend your pets ™ quality lifetime. Our goal at Animal Care Clinic is to help you to create health for your pets. Come see us some time.

by Bonnie Markoff, DVM, ABVP