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What To Expect When Your Pet Has Dentistry at
The FoxNest Veterinary Hospital
Dentistry, when needed, is an important part of your pet's over-all health. This is in addition to feeling good and having fresh breath.
Here's what to expect at The FoxNest Veterinary Hospital including approximate fees:
- we usually have you drop off your pet on an EMPTY stomach during the morning and have your pet ready to go home late in the afternoon.
1. A good pre-anesthesia and pre-dental exam of the gums, teeth, mouth, throat, and lymph nodes. But also a good general health exam since your pet will need general anesthesia for dentistry. There is no charge for this exam if your pet has been in recently for a wellness exam. Otherwise $20
2. Compared to anesthesia choices when I graduated from vet school in 1984, modern anesthetics are extremely safe. Even for old pets.
But that's assuming your pet's liver and kidney are functioning well. So, to help make sure, it's now standard medical practice to do some simple tests prior to anesthesia.
Pre-anesthetic blood work to screen for liver disease, kidney disease, diabetes, anemia, and a poor immune system is highly recommended unless similar blood work has already been done recently. It's only $26 for all these tests.
Or if you elect our $160 almost everything package; it's included.
3. Pre-anesthetic sedation, antibiotics, and pain management. We always pre-treat your pet with a mild sedative and pain medication. This reduces the amount of total anesthetic needed (increases safety margin) and, of course, minimizes possible pain and discomfort. Antibiotics are given if needed for infected gums or an infected extraction site, but otherwise avoided if possible. An injection of antibiotics is included in our almost everything $160 dentistry package if needed. Otherwise $17.
4. Anesthesia. For most patients we use a combination of injectable anesthetics and pain medications providing a smooth and safe induction followed by a smooth, painless recovery. These new anesthetics are reversible! and many dental patients go home acting perfectly normal or just slightly and pleasantly drowsy from the pain meds. For dentisty requiring complicated gum surgery, we also have isofluorane gas anesthesia available ($50 extra).
Usually, everything related to routine anesthesia is included in both our basic ($110) and almost everything ($160) dental packages.
The only other possible extra expense related to anesthesia is if we think your pet needs a morphine injection ($10-15) which we typically do after major extractions or jaw surgery.
5. The actual performance of whatever dental work is needed. In veterinary medicine we use the term dentistry pretty loosely to include everything from simple cleaning and polishing (prophylaxis) to extractions, fillings, bridges, and even orthodontics.
Just so you know, at The FoxNest Veterinary Hospital we do a lot of basic dental procedures such as cleaning, extractions, polishing, sealing, and simple gum surgeries. And we do a good job at a fraction of the cost at big city clinics. However, we are not experienced or qualified for advanced dental work such as fillings, bridges, crowns, caps, and orthodontics. All this is available, though, if desired, at veterinary universities and in very big cities such as Atlanta.
The cost of such procedures, of course, are usually well over $1000 and not typically covered by pet insurance.
What the vast majority of pets need, if we recommended dentistry, is the removal of tarter, the extraction of loose or badly damaged teeth, and the close inspection, cleaning, and polishing of each remaining tooth. This is tedious and meticulous work done mostly by a dental technician under the supervision of either Dr Dunagin or myself. It is almost identical to what happens when you get your teeth cleaned by a human dental technician followed by a close inspection by your dentist. The only big difference is that we need general anesthesia for pets.
The cost of dentistry at our practice is either $110 for our basic package which includes anesthesia, dental cleaning and polishing, and minor extractions. Other options can then be added as needed.
OR
We offer an "almost everything" package for $160 that also includes pre-anesthetic blood tests (otherwise $26), an antibiotic injection if needed (otherwise $26), dental sealants (otherwise $20), and fluoride treatment (otherwise $8)
6. Other stuff
Most pets don't need much more, but's heres a list of things that might be needed or that we might recommend:
IV Fluids if your pet is very old or weak or otherwise needs help with recovery. $30
Oxygen therapy for quicker recovery from long procedures. Usually only needed for fragile patients and the very old. $10
Dental Sealant take home kit: We can now seal your pet's teeth with polymer sealants ... just like human dentists do for kids. Sealing your pet's teeth is included in our almost everything package (otherwise $20) Read more about sealants by clicking here.
At any rate, we also have take home kits that allow you to reapply the sealant to your pet's teeth at home, making the sealing protect a lot longer. The kit is $20 and has about 8 applications in it which we recommend applying once a month.
Note: A heavy base coat needs to be applied first before using the take home kit. That's what we do for you after cleaning and polishing your pet's teeth.
Antibiotics: Some pets have badly infected gums or have tongue or cheek infections. They will need antibiotic therapy for 10 plus days. The cost will range from $10-50 depending on the drug(s) chosen, the size of your pet, and the duration of therapy.
The new gum disease vaccine ! Wow. There's now a vaccine that really helps to prevent deep gum infections. It costs $20 and needs to be boostered every 6-12 months. Click here to read about this new innovation. We recommend this new vaccine to pets with soft gums or chronic gum problems and certainly for older pets with gum disease.
Biotene: Biotene is an brushless enzyme ointment we recommend you apply to gums if badly damaged, infected, raw, or painful. $12 Click here for more information.
MaxiGuard OraGel: Like Biotene, Maxiguard is an enzyme based topical designed for applying to teeth and gums. But unlike Biotene, it's a thick liquid instead of an ointment, and it's more all purpose. MaxiGuard in applied without a brush and really helps prevent plague, tarter, bacteria, and bad breath. Click here for more information.
Dental Chews and special diets: Another option for maintaining good oral health is providing a choice of chews designed to clean teeth and gums. Click here.
That about covers everything I can think of that you might want to know about your pet's dentistry.
God Bless, Roger Ross DVM
This page is all about what to expect when you bring your pet to us for dentistry.
It's pretty straight forward and basically it's the same thing that happens to you when you go to your dentist for cleaning and other professional dental services.
The only big difference is that pets need to be anesthetized which requires some precautions and attention to detail.
I've written about quite a few options to include pre-anesthetic blood work, IV Fluids, oxygen therapy, antibiotics, sealants, the new
gum vaccination available, fluoride treatments, preventive gels, and chews.
Don't fret. Most pets need only the basics and we have package pricing.
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