Basically, we’re just looking for anything abnormal. To say that there’s one thing I’m searching for is not true. It’s just once you know what a normal mouth and healthy gums look like, you’re looking for anything that varies from that—tartar, gingivitis, any of those things. So we start there, and then we kind of dig a little deeper if necessary.

Very similar to people, actually. The most common and commonly seen and most common disease process is simple gingivitis. This is an inflammation of the gums, but that often progresses into various stages of periodontal disease, where you have now some soreness of the gums, maybe a little bleeding, and the tooth might be loose. We see masses or growths in the mouth. You can have oral-nasal fistulas. You can have broken teeth. There are tooth root abscesses. So, we see all of these things.

X-rays are usually done during the course of routine dental cleaning, and that is to help us see under the gum line. I used to not have an X-ray, and I missed so many teeth that I didn’t even know were affected or diseased under the gums. Sometimes you will have issues along the root where you have bone loss along the root of the teeth. There’s no way to see that by looking at the crown. So X-rays allow us to look under the surface so we can get a better idea of the health of that tooth.

Most of the time a follow-up appointment would be required. It depends on what the issue is. If it’s simple gingivitis, maybe a brief round of anti-inflammatories or antibiotics can be given on that visit and that takes care of the issue. But if there’s enough disease there or tartar there that requires treatment or dental cleaning, then, of course, they would have to return at a later date for the process to be done.

Broken teeth. Not any broken tooth, but if the break has extended into the pulp of the tooth, that may need to be extracted to alleviate pain or prevent the future formation of an abscess. Severe periodontal disease is arguably the most common thing we see. If you have a tooth that’s diseased to that point, it’s often much more effective and healthy for the dog to just take that tooth out and not allow it to continue to be a source of chronic infection.

If you have any questions, reach out to us. You can contact us directly here at the office by calling (337) 223-9581. Please reach out if you have any questions and we’ll try to do our best to take care of you.